The school leader who implemented what's been described as the Cincinnati region's first bell-to-bell smartphone ban is coming to Indian Hill to talk with parents about technology in schools.
Rob Zimmerman, head of school at Cincinnati Country Day School, will speak at a free community forum at Indian Hill Church on Sunday, Oct. 18 from 4 to 6 p.m. The event, titled "Kindling a Fire LIVE" after Zimmerman's regular column in Indian Hill Living magazine, is open to parents and community members with students in any grade or school system, according to the magazine.
Families must RSVP by Sunday, Oct. 11, by emailing [email protected]. Free childcare is available for those who reserve it in advance.
What Zimmerman has done at Country Day
Under the ban at Cincinnati Country Day, students hand their phones to advisers at the start of each school day and don't get them back until classes end. The Indian Hill campus school, which serves students from 18 months through 12th grade, adopted the policy around the start of the 2023-24 school year.
In an April 2024 interview with WCPO, Zimmerman said the school worked closely with law enforcement when designing the ban, keeping safety as a top priority. Teachers keep their own phones and the school communicates via phone, Teams and text in emergencies.
"We realized that the sooner we started living with this policy, the sooner we could learn from it, adapt it where it needed and frankly just getting used to it," Zimmerman told WCPO in April 2024, advising other schools considering similar rules.
Why it matters now for east-side families
Ohio law now requires every public school district to adopt a policy prohibiting student cell phone use during the instructional day. The mandate, which took effect Jan. 1, 2026, defines "instructional day" broadly to include transitions between classes, recess, meals and field trips, according to the Ohio Department of Education.
Cincinnati Country Day is a private school and not subject to the state mandate. But the forum gives public school families in Indian Hill, Madeira, Mariemont and Sycamore a chance to hear from someone who has lived with a phone-free campus for three years.
Zimmerman, a 1998 Cincinnati Country Day alumnus and former litigator at the law firm Dinsmore, is in his sixth year leading the school.
How to attend
The forum is part of Indian Hill Church's Good Neighbor Series. Light refreshments will be served. More information is available at indianhillchurch.org. RSVP by Oct. 11 to [email protected].
