Parents in the Smithtown School District spoke against a plan to use high-tech pouches to keep middle school students from using their cellphones.

The phones are turned off and placed inside the pouch at the start of the school day. The students then close and secure the pouch, keeping it with them. When students leave school, they touch their pouch to a base to get their phone back.

The cost to implement the program in the district’s middle schools is $66,770 for the 2024-2025 school year.

Some parents say the cost is too high, and they want to be able to contact their children in case of an emergency.

Members of the school board and district administrators did not comment on parents’ concerns at a school board meeting Tuesday night.

An information sheet provided by the school district says, “Students have demonstrated time and time again that they will not comply with simply putting their phones away.”

The pouches are only being used in middle schools for now. An expansion of the program would depend on its success at the middle school level.

In the case of an emergency, communication with parents would happen through the school district’s mass notification tools.