A chaotic week that raised questions about the fate of a widely popular bell-to-bell school phone ban ended with the proposed law added to the latest version of the legislature’s state budget, increasing the likelihood that one of Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s signature policy priorities goes into effect ahead of the upcoming school year.

Until last week, the ban – which would make New Hampshire one of the most restrictive states in the country for phones in schools – appeared poised to sail through the legislative process. But when the House added a bell-to-bell provision to the bill earlier this month – taking the power away from local school districts to implement the specifics of a phone ban – some Republican senators balked.

The lawmakers were particularly worried about what would happen in the event of an emergency, according to Sen. Regina Birdsell, a Hampstead Republican.

“My concern was that if there’s an incident in school, the kids – at least if the phones were in the classroom – they could grab their phones,” she said in an interview Thursday.

On Tuesday, negotiators from the Senate and House quickly halted a planned meeting to discuss disagreements between the two chambers after Sen. Ruth Ward indicated that “a couple of issues had come up” that she needed to address before the two sides could negotiate.

That same day, Gov. Ayotte ratcheted up the pressure on lawmakers, disseminating a statement from nationally-known psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt expressing support for the bell-to-bell ban.

What was shaping up to be an intraparty showdown between Ayotte and the Senate came to a resolution late Wednesday when Senate Majority Leader Sharon Carson offered an amendment to the legislature’s budget containing the bell-to-bell provision.

“Chairman, I think just to be on the safe side, we should put this in the budget,” Sen. Carson said.

Sen. Birdsell said the addition was part of the negotiation process between the House, Senate, and governor.

“While we’re not crazy about it, … obviously when you’re working on the budget, there are some gives and takes, and this is one of the gives we gave,” she said. “The cell phone ban – that’s what the governor wanted, and we acquiesced to that.”

The ban could still face a final wrinkle, however. Ayotte said Thursday that she intends to veto the budget as it is currently written, criticizing the retirement plan for first responders and a change to a school funding formula that would reduce state aid for  Manchester schools.

Jeremy Margolis can be contacted at jmargolis@cmonitor.com.