Can Kansas schools store students' phones in accessible lockers, and do nationally accredited private schools get the same rights as state-accredited schools?

Plain-English summary

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach answered two questions about HB 2299. First, the bill requires students' personal electronic communication devices to be turned off and stored away from their persons in an inaccessible location throughout the school day. A locker students may open, including between classes, does not satisfy that rule. A backpack students carry or can access also fails it. A backpack could qualify only if the backpack itself remains away from students and inaccessible for the entire school day.

Second, HB 2299 amended K.S.A. 72-5170 to give nonpublic schools accredited by a regional or national agency recognized by the State Board of Education the same rights as nonpublic schools accredited by the State Board. The opinion concluded that the text is not limited to the device ban. It expressly did not identify what specific rights the amendment provides because the requester excluded that question.

What this means for you

School boards and administrators

The opinion treats storage in an accessible locker or a carried backpack as insufficient. It identifies both distance from the student's person and inaccessibility for the entire school day as minimum requirements under HB 2299. A locker students cannot open during the school day could satisfy the storage requirement.

Nonpublic school leaders

A nonpublic school accredited by a recognized regional or national agency receives the same rights as a State Board-accredited nonpublic school under the amendment the opinion examined. The Attorney General did not list or define those rights.

Parents and students

The opinion says access during lunch or passing periods still counts as access during the school day. A device stored in a locker that students can open during those periods is not in an inaccessible location under the bill's wording.

Common questions

Can Kansas students keep phones in their backpacks during the school day?

Not if students carry or can access the backpacks. The opinion says a backpack could satisfy the bill only if it is stored away from students and inaccessible throughout the day.

Can a school use students' lockers for phone storage?

Only if students cannot open the lockers during the school day. Lockers accessible during passing periods do not meet the inaccessibility requirement.

Does the equal-rights provision for recognized nonpublic schools apply only to phone rules?

No. The Attorney General read the amendment to K.S.A. 72-5170 as extending beyond the device ban because its text contains no such limit.

What specific rights does recognized regional or national accreditation confer?

The opinion did not decide that question. A footnote says the requester treated it as beyond the scope of the request.

Background and statutory framework

Senator Kenny Titus asked about secure storage under section 2 of HB 2299 and the scope of the nonpublic-school accreditation amendment in section 7. The opinion applied the bill's definition of the school day, which includes recess, lunch, and passing periods. For accreditation, it relied on the text giving qualifying nonpublic schools the same rights as schools accredited by the State Board and declined to read a device-ban limit into it.

Citations and references

• HB 2299, § 2(d)(3); HB 2299, § 7(a)(5)
• K.S.A. 72-5170
• Johnson v. U.S. Food Serv., 312 Kan. 597, 478 P.3d 776 (2021)
• Bruce v. Kelly, 316 Kan. 218, 514 P.3d 1007 (2022)
• Zaragoza v. Bd. of Cnty. Comm’rs, 320 Kan. 691, 571 P.3d 545 (2025)

Source

• Landing page: https://www.ag.ks.gov/reports-resources/ag-opinions
• Original PDF: https://www.ag.ks.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/26327

Original opinion text

October 16, 2026

ATTORNEY GENERAL OPINION NO. 2026-11

Honorable Kenny Titus
State Senator, 18th District
Capitol Building, Room 124 East
Topeka, Kansas 66612

Re: Schools—School District State Aid—School District Accreditation System; Rights of Nonpublic Schools

Schools—Prohibition on the Use of Personal Electronic Communication Devices During the School Day; Secure Storage

Synopsis: Backpacks and lockers that are accessible to students during the school day do not satisfy HB 2299’s minimum requirements for the secure storage of personal electronic devices.

HB 2299 amends K.S.A. 72-5170 to provide that “[e]ach nonpublic school accredited by a regional or national accrediting agency recognized by the state board of education shall be entitled to the same rights as nonpublic schools accredited by the state board of education.” This provision is not limited to matters related to the personal electronic device ban found in other provisions of the bill.

Cited herein: 2026 Senate Substitute for House Bill 2299; K.S.A. 72- 5170.

                       *             *            *

Sen. Titus
Page 2

Dear Senator Titus:

As State Senator for the 18th District, you ask two questions about 2026 Senate Substitute for House Bill 2299 (HB 2299). First, you ask about the minimum requirements under HB 2299 for the secure storage of students’ personal electronic devices during the school day, specifically whether HB 2299 allows for the storage of those devices in students’ lockers or backpacks. Second, you ask whether section 7, paragraph 5, of HB 2299 applies broadly to all matters regarding the accreditation of nonpublic schools by regional or national accrediting agencies or whether it applies to such schools only in matters related to the personal electronic device ban found in other sections of the bill.

Secure Storage of Personal Electronic Devices

Section 2(a)(2) of HB 2299 requires each board of education of a school district and governing authority of an accredited nonpublic elementary or secondary school to adopt policies and procedures that, among other things, “require that all personal electronic communication devices be turned off and securely stored away from the student’s person in an inaccessible location during the school day.” This statute provides two minimum requirements for the secure storage of personal electronic devices during the school day: (1) the devices must be stored “away from the student’s person,” and (2) the devices must be stored in an “inaccessible location.”

In interpreting this provision, we “begin with the plain language of the statute, giving common words their ordinary meaning.” 1 If the statute is plain and unambiguous, we “should not speculate about the legislative intent behind that clear language” or read “something into the statute that is not readily found in its words.” 2

You ask whether the storage of personal electronic devices in students’ backpacks and lockers would satisfy HB 2299. Assuming students carry their backpacks at some point during the school day, storage in backpacks is not “away from the student’s person.” In addition, students’ backpacks are generally accessible to students during the school day, so personal electronic devices would not be stored in an “inaccessible location.” Storage of personal electronic devices in students’ backpacks therefore would not meet the minimum requirements of HB 2299 unless the backpacks themselves were stored away from the students’ persons in an inaccessible location during the entire school day.

Lockers that students are allowed to open during the school day also do not satisfy HB 2299’s minimum storage requirements. HB 2299 defines “[s]chool day” to mean

1 Johnson v. U.S. Food Serv., 312 Kan. 597, 600-01, 478 P.3d 776 (2021). 2 Id.

Sen. Titus
Page 3

“the time from the start of school until dismissal at the end of the day on the school premises, including, but not limited to, the time in any classroom, structured or unstructured learning setting, recess, lunch or passing period.” 3 Thus, if students are allowed to retrieve items from their lockers during the school day, including during passing periods, personal electronic devices stored in those lockers would be accessible to students, not stored in an “inaccessible location.” Storage in student lockers would satisfy HB 2299 only if the students are not allowed to open their lockers during the school day.

Rights of Nonpublic Schools

HB 2299 also amended K.S.A. 72-5170 to add the following paragraph:

Any nonpublic school operating in Kansas may voluntarily seek accreditation by the state board of education. Any nonpublic school accredited by the state board of education may also be accredited by a regional or national accrediting agency. Each nonpublic school accredited by a regional or national accrediting agency recognized by the state board of education shall be entitled to the same rights as nonpublic schools accredited by the state board of education.
Accrediting agencies recognized by the state board of education on or before March 1, 2026, shall not lose such recognition unless approved by the legislature. 4

Your question relates specifically to the sentence providing that “[e]ach nonpublic school accredited by a regional or national accrediting agency recognized by the state board of education shall be entitled to the same rights as nonpublic schools accredited by the state board of education.” You ask whether this provision is limited to matters relating to the device ban found in other sections of the bill or whether it applies more broadly.

As noted above, “[w]hen a statute is plain and unambiguous, [courts do] not speculate about the legislative intent behind that clear language” and “refrain from reading something into the statute that is not readily found in its words.” 5 The statutory provision in question here applies to “[e]ach nonpublic school accredited by a regional or national accrediting agency recognized by the state board of education.” 6 It is not limited to schools that ceased being accredited by the State Board of Education due to the device ban in HB 2299. The amendment also provides that those schools shall have “the same rights” as nonpublic schools accredited by

3 HB 2299, § 2(d)(3).
4 HB 2299, § 7(a)(5).
5 Bruce v. Kelly, 316 Kan. 218, 224, 514 P.3d 1007 (2022) (citing Johnson v. U.S. Food Service, 312

Kan. 597, 600-01, 478 P.3d 776 (2021)).
6 Emphasis added.

Sen. Titus
Page 4

the State Board of Education. Nothing in the plain text of this provision limits the scope of these “rights” to matters related to the device ban, and it would be inappropriate to read such a limitation into the text of the statute when it does not appear there. Rather, HB 2299 provides nonpublic schools accredited by recognized accrediting agencies with all the “rights,” whatever they may be, 7 that nonpublic schools accredited by the State Board possess.

You note that others have cited statements from the Senate floor debate in support of interpreting section 7 of HB 2299 as limited to matters relating to the device ban. We do not believe the legislative history yields a clear indication of legislative intent. But more importantly, courts consider legislative history to interpret a statute only when the statute is ambiguous, and even then, only to resolve any textual ambiguity, not to read words into the statute that are not found there. 8

In short, section 7 of HB 2299 provides nonpublic schools accredited by a regional or national accrediting agency recognized by the State Board of Education with the same rights as nonpublic schools accredited by the State Board.

Sincerely,

/s/ Kris W. Kobach

Kris W. Kobach
Attorney General

/s/ Dwight R. Carswell

Dwight R. Carswell
Deputy Solicitor General

7 You state that the question of what specific rights this section provides is beyond the scope of your

request, so we do not address that question.
8 Zaragoza v. Bd. of Cnty. Comm’rs, 320 Kan. 691, 699, 571 P.3d 545 (2025).