It’s not surprising that if electronic devices make it much easier to do a huge number of things (which, after all, is why they are so popular), one of the things they make it easier to do is cheat in school.

That’s why the Portland School Department has drafted a policy on academic honesty that describes in detail what’s acceptable in using such devices in classroom settings.

The School Committee, which received the draft at its meeting Wednesday, will vote on it in a few weeks. Approval would seem worthwhile, if only to clarify that cheating is still cheating, even if it’s accomplished via high-tech means.

The need for such a policy change should be apparent to anyone familiar with how common the devices are and how easily their communications capabilities can be employed to ask others inside or outside the classroom for help, or to scan the Internet for answers to questions.

The new policy establishes what ethical conduct involving such devices is and creates a system of penalties that can range from telling a student’s parents about their actions to dropping a student from such groups as the National Honor Society or honor roll, which can affect college applications.

The policy, based on a template supplied by a law firm that represents many Maine schools, including Portland’s, was modified by local officials to allow teachers to use “plagarism-detecting software” on student-written papers and exams.

The programs search databases for similar passages from other sources to see if copying occurred.

Many teachers already require that cell phones and other devices be put away before exams and have been known to confiscate them or reduce scores if the rule is broken.

Putting such policies down on paper keeps ethical standards clear.