In his 30 years as teacher and administrator, Jason Purcell felt the weight of responsibility that often fell on his shoulders in enforcing the prohibition of cell phones in the classroom.

When Purcell was convinced to come out of retirement this past fall to teach at Mackinaw City High School, he saw a remarkable difference teaching students in a district that had long banned cell phone use during the school day.

“It makes a world of difference when there is a school wide policy that is enforced by all the teachers consistently and supported by the administration,” said Purcell, who has taught math, been an academic counselor and served as an assistant principal throughout his career. “Students have and always will find ways to be distracted from the learning, but not having cell phones may take away the biggest distraction that students face.”

Mackinaw City Public Schools’ cell phone ban was instituted around 2010, coinciding with the rise of teen cell phone ownership, longtime Superintendent Jeffrey Curth said.

Teachers have all taken on the responsibility of enforcing that students’ cell phones are left in their locker with the ringer off from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m, Curth said, removing a major source of distractions and potential source of cyber bullying.

“Because we’ve just had it in place so long, it’s just what’s expected,” Curth said. “I think when you see the amount of cyber bullying and things that it’s raised to the level that it has in society today, I think it’s just further strengthened our stance that we feel that we’ve done the right thing.”

As the state considers a school cell phone ban that received , an increasing number of Michigan school districts have followed Mackinaw City’s lead by enacting bans and passing cell phone policies limiting use in the classroom in recent years.

Nationwide, 26 states have passed full bans on cell phone use, while six others have required districts to establish their own policies or limited cell phone use in class, . A 2024 American Association of Educators survey of 1,517 teachers from across the country, on the other hand, found that 70% want cellphones to be banned during the school day.

From passive presence to active participation

Anchor Bay High School student success teacher Jamie Pietron said she was initially apprehensive about how students would adjust to the districtwide ban that started this fall, wondering how the policy would be enforced by administration.

There have been consequences for students who violate the district’s “away for the day” cell phone policy, Pietron said, helping contribute to a more connected learning atmosphere.

“In the past, when kids were done with their work, they went on their phones,” Pietron said. “Teachers are making lessons and activities more engaging to cover any ‘down time’ and students are focused on what they need to do.

“… It is amazing to walk through the cafeteria and see kids actually talking, playing cards and having conversations with each other instead of staring at their screens.”

Northville Middle School teacher Richard Tabor said he also has seen a shift from “passive presence” to active participation in his classroom since the district enacted its cell phone ban in 2024-25 for students in grades K-8 during class time, requiring them to be collected by teachers at the start of the day.

Prior to the ban being in place, Tabor said it was teachers’ responsibility to enforce their own policies on student cell phone use, leading to inconsistency in where students were allowed to use cell phones and where they weren’t.

Without the option to scroll during downtime, students are able to engage with the classroom environment,” Tabor said. “Students are more likely to ask questions, take physical notes and participate in discussions because they have no alternative ‘escape’ during moments of boredom or difficulty.”

Mackinaw City special education teacher Elizabeth McNeil said her transition from teaching in a district without a cell phone policy to one where a ban has long been in place has been a “breath of fresh air” in removing “distraction and drama.”

“At my previous district, there were daily arguments about giving up phones and discipline problems, even when just asking a student to put their phone away,” she said.

“In a society where adults are addicted to their phones, it is encouraging to see that we are encouraging students here at MCPS to realize that their phones are not part of their lifeline,” McNeil said”

Parental approval

Beyond support from teachers, bans have largely been met with approval from parents, who acknowledge that devices that continually cause them distractions throughout the day shouldn’t be in the hands of their children during school.

Heather Gatny’s opinion has evolved on the issue, from trying to hold off on getting her son a cell phone until he is in high school to recently getting him one as an eighth grader for Christmas.

She likes the idea of him having one in his possession, even if it is kept off while he is in class at Plymouth-Canton Community Schools, but stressed that in the classroom it can only cause distractions.

“If the kids were allowed to have their phones in the classrooms, they’d be looking at them the whole time,” she said. “I think that’s for the best for them to not have access to it, because they’re just on apps. They’re goofing around. They’re not paying attention to what the teacher is saying. They’re paying attention to what their friends are texting them.”

With two young children in second and fourth grades at Plymouth-Canton Community Schools, Sarah Krzyzanski said she is for cell phones being stored in a central location in the classroom for those who are concerned about students being able to respond to an emergency.

In the classroom, however, she said schools should be aiming to keep the focus on learning and not conditioning students to be dependent on having a cell phone by their side.

“These kids are at the point where they’re kind of addicted to that ‘ding,’ and they get to where they crave it, and it becomes an impulse,” she said. “I don’t believe that a child with a phone on their person has the ability to pay attention to the teacher and actually follow lessons and do it with enough of their brain engaged to be taking that educational content out the way that they should be.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jon King for questions: info@michiganadvance.com.

The measure classifies devices as any piece of technology that can access the internet, data or media, including cell phones, tablets, headphones, smartwatches, and even e-readers. These devices can still be brought to school, but they must be put away in lockers, a classroom caddy, or a phone-locking pouch.

As a rising high school senior, I recognize this is an important step. But I firmly believe this new law will add to each teacher’s workload rather than directly alleviating the technology crisis.

To understand the extent of the problem, I recently spoke with my English teacher’s fourth grade son. He told me that a handful of his classmates are actively on their phones during class, specifically “playing Minecraft or watching YouTube.” Although this may seem insignificant, his account is staggeringly different from my own fourth-grade experience just seven years ago. Neither my peers nor I ever brought a personal device to school.

What caused this increase in device usage? It may have something to do with the overall increase in children’s tech ownership.

Common Sense Media’s 2025 Census Report reveals that 51% of children under age 9 owned a personal mobile device in 2024, a more than fourfold increase from the 12% ownership rate in 2013.

The effects are obvious at my high school. I’m accustomed to seeing my peers sneak a look at their phones to search for answers, swipe-text on their Apple Watches, and watch movies on their personal computers, leading to minimal learning. Why pay attention in U.S. history when ChatGPT can tell you what détente is? Why learn the equation of a circle if Gauth can solve a geometry problem within seconds? And, with this level of exploitation in high schools, what’s preventing our elementary and middle school students from doing the same?

However, it’s not clear that a legislative ban will fix the problem. The bill leaves punishment up to local districts, suggesting a verbal warning or device confiscation. These proposed penalties leave one party responsible: teachers.

By passing the buck onto educators, a technology ban may be rendered useless. I saw this in my own high school this past school year. Our administration provided each classroom with a numbered phone caddy, requiring all students to put away their cell phones in their designated spot. Teachers followed the rule stringently in August then became increasingly lenient. By October, the policy was rarely obeyed; for the remaining school year, phones were only found in the caddy if an administrator was observing the classroom.

If phone bans aren’t going to be followed, how can we fix class disengagement?

One thought is creating engaging lectures. For example, my psychology class used a random popsicle-stick method. A cup has popsicle sticks, each with every student’s name. When our teacher asked a question, she pulled a stick and called on that student. This prompted us to pay attention, as we never knew who would be called.

A teacher could complement this with a weekly participation grade, compelling students to focus and give every question their best shot. During our conditioning unit, my psychology teacher gave us a star stamp if we answered a question correctly. With 16 stars, we could go into the treasure box, which included erasers, candy, and +10-point passes. Despite its simplicity, this method worked. Students were more attentive and eager to answer questions. By increasing student engagement, educators could see more motivated classes.

Aside from teaching methods, teachers could implement simple fixes for tests to prevent cheating. During test days, my Spanish teacher required all bookbags to be placed at the front of the classroom. On TikTok, I’ve heard some schools follow an “empty your pockets” policy, negating the need to worry about hidden notes or phones. Taking away cheating methods could motivate students to care more and actually learn class content.

The new Georgia law also urges districts to promote distraction-free learning and less personal device use to families, suggesting town halls and workshops. This is where I see the most benefit.

If our government used its bully pulpit to inform parents about device-free activities and methods to lessen tech use in the home, both families and the education system could see staggering benefits. As parents become more informed, their kids could become less reliant on devices, alleviating the need for a full ban in the first place. It is through educating the public that we could see improvements in technology use.

Of the nine states that have enacted technology restriction legislation in their public schools, only Virginia has incorporated a clause that advises districts to promote healthy device use. With Georgia becoming the second state to enact a law with such a provision, this could set a precedent and spark a movement in our nation to educate families about the dangers of technology reliance.

Educators and parents need to recognize the destruction personal technology has had on our educational system. Our privilege to learn is diminished when technology is easily accessible in the back of our pockets. Yet, creating legislation to ban devices only hinders our teachers from teaching. Instead, through some classroom changes and district initiatives that promote healthy technology use, we can make a dent in this crisis and get back to what really matters: learning.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Gov. Kevin Stitt has signed into law a yearlong ban on student cellphone use in all Oklahoma public schools.

Oklahoma will join that have implemented similar statewide restrictions. Some school districts in the state .

Stitt signed on Monday to implement the “bell to bell” ban for the 2025-26 school year. The restriction becomes optional for districts in the 2026-27 school year and thereafter.

While the yearlong ban is in place, each district’s school board must adopt a policy restricting students from using cellphones, laptops, tablets, smart watches, smart headphones and smart glasses from the first bell ringing in the instructional day until final dismissal. The policy must outline disciplinary procedures for enforcing the rule.

School-issued or school-approved devices used for classroom instruction are still allowed under the law. Districts could permit cellphone use for emergencies and for students who need it to monitor a health issue.

Stitt previously urged public schools to find cost-neutral ways to make classrooms cellphone free to reverse a “worrying trend” of distraction, bullying and learning difficulties.

“We’re seeing classrooms across the country struggle with the influx of cellphone use by students,” Stitt said in a statement Tuesday. “That’s why I issued my cellphone free school challenge in the fall. We want kids to be focused and present while they’re with their teachers, and this legislation helps promote an environment conducive to learning.”

Before the 2025 legislative session began, state lawmakers who warned about the negative effect and addictive impact of digital media on youth. They also spoke with Oklahoma educators who said their schools saw better student behavior after banning cellphones.

Meanwhile, , where students and educators spoke favorably about their school rules.

Among the nation’s largest teachers union, 90% of members said they support cellphone restrictions during class time, and 83% favored prohibiting cellphone and personal device usage for the entire school day, according to a .

U.S. adults reported broad support for classroom cellphone restrictions in middle and high schools, but only a third of American adults said they support extending these bans for the whole school day, the .

Support for SB 139 wasn’t overwhelming among Oklahoma lawmakers, either. The state Senate passed the bill with a 30-15 vote, and the House approved it 51-39.

The House also passed a similar school cellphone ban, , that would allow districts to opt out of the policy. SB 139 allows no such option until after a year.

“This will allow teachers to focus entirely on educating our kids while students can concentrate on learning as much as possible,” an author of both bills, Sen. Ally Seifried, R-Claremore, said. “After two years of hard work on this issue, I’m thrilled to see this legislation become law, and I’m confident students, parents and teachers will see immediate benefits once the new school year begins.”

HB 1276 is unlikely to advance in the Senate now that SB 139 has the governor’s signature, Seifried said.

The bill’s House author, Rep. Chad Caldwell, R-Enid, called the measure a “try it before you buy it type of policy.”

“I appreciate Gov. Stitt signing SB 139 to remove the distractions of cellphones from our schools and give our kids their childhood back,” Caldwell said Tuesday.

The governor on Monday also signed into law a restriction on virtual school days. Senate Bill 758 will limit districts to using a maximum of two online instruction days per school year.

“Kids learn best in the classroom,” said Sen. Kristen Thompson, R-Edmond, who wrote the bill. “Virtual days have their place in emergencies, but we’ve seen them become a go-to solution in some districts — and that’s not fair to students or families. This bill strikes the right balance by preserving flexibility without compromising the quality of education.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com.

School administrators provided mostly positive feedback to lawmakers curious about implementation of a 2023 law prohibiting students from using their phones.

School officials provided the House Student Academic Success subcommittee feedback last week on , a 2023 law that prohibits phone use during instructional time, prohibits access to certain websites on school networks, and requires instruction to students to responsibly use social media.

“It’s gone very very well in many of our classrooms, especially I would say it goes really well in our classrooms with struggling learners. The teachers have seen the benefit of that increased interaction with each other, the increased focus,” said Toni Zetzsche, principal of River Ridge High School in Pasco County.

The law, introduced by Rep. Brad Yeager, a Republican representing part of Pasco County,  support before serving as a sort of model legislation across the nation.

“The first step of this process: remove phones from the classroom, focus on learning, take the distraction out. Number two was, social media, without just yanking it from them, try to educate them on the dangers. Try to help to learn and understand how social media works for them and against them,” Yeager said during the subcommittee meeting.

An analysis shows Florida was the first state to ban or restrict phones when the law passed, with several other states following suit in 2024.

Florida schools have discretion as to how they enforce the law, with some prohibiting cellphones from the beginning until the end of the day, while others allow students to use their phones during down times like lunch and between classes.

Some teachers have taken it upon themselves to purchase hanging shoe organizers for students to bank their phones in during class, Yeager said.

Since the law took effect in the middle of 2023, Zetzsche said, students in higher level college preparatory classes have partially struggled because of the self-regulating nature of the courses and the expectation that teachers give them more freedom.

But for younger and lower-performing students, the law has been effective, according to Zetzsche and Yeager used to gain support for the bill.

“In some of our ninth and tenth grade classrooms, where the kids need a little more support, those teachers are definitely seeing the benefit,” Zetzsche said.

Orange County Schools Superintendent Maria Vazquez said schools have combatted student complaints about not having their phones by filling down time, like lunch periods, with games or club activities.

Zetzsche said she has seen herself and others use the phoneless time as an opportunity to get to know more students.

“I know I’ve spoken with teachers, elementary teachers, middle school teachers, and high school teachers that have said, ‘I’ve had to teach students to reconnect and get involved or talk to people.’ They are doing a better job of focusing on that replacement behavior now, I think. I think we all are,” Zetzsche said.

“I think, as a high school principal now, when I see a student sitting in the cafeteria and they’re on their cellphone watching a movie, I immediately want to strike up a conversation and say, ‘Hey, are you on the weightlifting team? Do you play a sport?’” Zetzsche said.

Bell to bell

Orange County schools decided not to allow phones all day, while Pasco County chose to keep phones away from students during instructional time, the extent the law requires.

“It was surprisingly, and shockingly, pretty easy to implement,” Marc Wasko, principal at Timber Creek High School in Orange County, told the subcommittee.

Rep. Fiona McFarland, a Republican representing part of Sarasota County and the chair of the subcommittee, encouraged further planning to better enforce the law.

“I will tell you, because not everything we do up here is perfect, there are some schools that I’ve heard of where, even if the teacher has a bag, kids are bringing a dummy phone, like mom’s old iPhone, and flipping that into the pouch where they’ve got their device in their pocket or if you’ve got long hair, maybe you can hide earbuds,” McFarland said.

“I mean, this is the reality of being policymakers, folks,” McFarland continued. “We make a law, we can make the greatest law in the world, which is meaningless if it’s not executed and enforced properly. We could pass a law tomorrow to end world hunger and global peace, but it means nothing if it’s not operationalized well and planned for well.”

Yeager told the committee he does not plan to seek to ban phones outside of instructional time, although other lawmakers could push for further phone prohibitions.

Department of Education obligation

The law requires the Department of Education to make instructional material available on the effects of social media, required for students to learn under the law.

“Finding the time to be able to embed that into the curriculum is really difficult. We are struggling with instructional minutes as it is, when we have things like hurricanes impact learnings,” Zetzsche said.

“We are struggling to get through the content, so it would be nice to have something from the Department of Education that is premade that we can share with students, but maybe through elective courses or some guidance on how they would expect high schools, how they would feed that information to students.”

Administrators said parental pushback has been limited, and Zetzsche added that parents have sought advice from schools about how to detach their kids from their phones.

“When we struggle with the student who’s attached to their cellphone, the parents want to put things in place.
They just don’t know what to do,” Zetzsche said, calling for the department to provide additional information to parents.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.

It’s official: After months of voicing concerns about the effects of cellphones on student mental health and learning, Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed a $13.5 million plan to help districts implement a ban.

Hochul said her plan would help create a “distraction-free” learning environment during the school day. The money aims to help cover associated costs that districts might incur, such as paying for digital pouches that lock devices or additional staff to collect phones each day. Covering the potential costs was one of the issues that forced New York City to put the brakes on its own ban, and it remains to be seen how far the governor’s proposed allocation will go.

On Tuesday, Hochul included the proposal in her $252 billion state 2026 budget, which would send $37.4 billion to schools across the state — , or 4.7%, from the prior year’s budget. It builds on focused on affordability outlined by Hochul during her State of the State address last week.

The governor’s budget proposal marks the start of negotiations with lawmakers over how the state should allocate its funding for the next fiscal year, which begins in April.

Under Hochul’s cellphone proposal, students would be required to disconnect from devices from “bell to bell,” including during class time, lunch, and in the hallways. The policy would go into effect at the start of the next school year, with districts able to decide the specifics of how they would store phones and ensure compliance, according to Hochul’s office.

“Our kids will finally be free from the endless disruptions of social media and all the mental health pressures that come from it,” she said during her speech at the State Capitol.

Students with disabilities, as well as others who rely on digital devices for medical reasons or translation purposes, would be allowed exemptions from the policy.

In New York City, the Education Department appeared poised to implement on student cellphone use in schools last summer but later after intervention by Mayor Eric Adams.

Jenna Lyle, a spokesperson for the Education Department, said Tuesday that the department was “looking forward to partnering with the Governor” on the issue.

“The feedback we have heard from our school communities has been clear: access to cell phones in the classroom distracts from learning, divides attention, and significantly impacts our students’ mental health,” she said in a statement. “Following our engagement with parent leadership groups last spring, in partnership with the Health Department, we’ve been working on an evaluation to better understand both how schools are implementing policies to restrict cell phones, and lessons learned from those implementations.”

Currently, the city’s schools can over whether and how to restrict student cellphone use. At the end of last school year, about 350 schools already had bans in place, with an additional 500 planning to implement them this year, city officials previously said. Some schools provide students with locking Yondr pouches, while others collect phones or employ alternative strategies.

Those pouches, though, can cost schools $30 per student in the first year, according to the company. Yondr CEO Graham Dugoni noted the company offered “volume discounts” in a statement and praised Hochul’s proposed cellphone ban.

“We look forward to supporting more school communities across New York in creating successful phone-free learning environments,” he said.

Adams, who has expressed some concerns about adopting a citywide policy on the issue, previously told reporters that the city would comply with any state mandate.

NYC could lose out under school funding formula proposal

Hochul’s proposed budget also called for updates to the state’s school funding formula, an issue expected to take center stage in education budget discussions this year. Known as Foundation Aid, the formula was originally created in 2007, and in some cases relies on decades-old data to determine how much funding is sent to school districts.

For years, advocates, lawmakers, and other education officials have to the formula, with some arguing it requires . But the governor’s proposed updates — which were among the suggestions put forward by the state’s Board of Regents and issued by the Rockefeller Institute — could potentially result in New York City receiving a smaller funding increase, advocates warned Tuesday.

For one change, Hochul called for replacing the 2000 Census poverty rate with the most recent Census Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates, or SAIPE, data. The formula should also stop using federal free- and reduced-price lunch eligibility as a basis for measuring student need, the governor said, instead switching to broader “economically disadvantaged” student counts.

“This will ensure that state dollars go to students who need them the most,” Hochul said.

But according to the more than 300-page report issued by the Rockefeller Institute last month, switching from the 2000 Census Bureau poverty count to three-year average SAIPE data would decrease New York City’s Foundation Aid funding by a projected $392 million. (The city’s schools would still see an overall increase to Foundation Aid funding.)

Kim Sweet, executive director of the nonprofit group Advocates for Children of New York, said even when combined with the swap to using economically disadvantaged student counts, the proposed changes would result in less overall funding for New York City schools.

“The current federal poverty threshold for a family of four is just $32,150,” she said in a statement. “Trying to make ends meet on $30,000 means something very different for a family in New York City than elsewhere in the State.”

Hochul’s proposal did not include several changes to the formula sought by city advocates and officials, such as additional funding for , or extra dollars to implement the state’s for New York City schools.

The city’s Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how the proposed changes were expected to impact local schools.

The governor’s budget proposal would also modify the formula to send additional aid to low-wealth school districts, as well as ensure that every district receives an annual increase of at least 2%, state officials said. The proposed modifications would result in an increase to Foundation Aid of roughly $1.5 billion, or 5.9%, according to officials.

Early college funding, free school meals, and other proposals

Hochul’s other proposals included establishing a $64.6 million “College in High School Opportunity Fund,” allocating $340 million for universal free school meals, increases in funding for child care programs, and more.

The proposed “College in High School Opportunity Fund” would seek to build institutional support for the model, which provides high school students with a chance to take college courses and receive additional mentorship opportunities while earning their diplomas. Across the country and the state, the model has seen success at improving college matriculation rates and other measures of academic achievement among high school students.

As she unveiled her budget proposal, Hochul also addressed concerns about the “cloud of uncertainty” posed by President Donald Trump’s administration, as the president vowed to slash federal funding during his campaign.

“Changes at the federal level will create new challenges for our state,” Hochul said, warning Republicans could cut “critical funding streams for Medicaid, education, child care, utility assistance,” and more.

“Those who are hurt need to raise their voices, and direct that anger at Washington, and push their members of Congress to fight for them,” she said. “Because New York and other states will simply not be able to shoulder these costs on our own.”

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Education Department called on every state, school and district on Tuesday to adopt policies on cellphone use in schools.

The department asks schools to have well-thought-out policies on the matter, but does not dictate exactly what those policies should be. An accompanying resource for schools notes the risk social media can pose to students’ mental health.

“In this digital age, every elementary, middle, and high school should have a clear, consistent, and research-informed policy to guide the use of phones and personal devices in school,” U.S Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a written statement.

“The evidence makes clear: there is no one-size-fits-all policy,” Cardona added, noting that “different school communities have different needs, and the nuances of this issue demand that local voices — parents, educators, and students — inform local decisions around the use of personal devices in school.”

The department acknowledged the role cellphones can play in keeping parents connected to their kids, especially in emergency situations, while also highlighting the increasing evidence on the harms social media can have on youth mental health, such as sleep deprivation and depression.

Increasing state policies

An increasing number of states and school districts have enacted policies either prohibiting or restricting students from using their cellphones in the classrooms.

Across the country, schools and districts continue to grapple with how to deal with kids’ cellphone use, and  have sought to ban or restrict cellphone use in classrooms.

As of early November, at least eight states have passed statewide policies that either limit or prohibit cellphone use in the classrooms, according to .

That includes California, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio, South Carolina and Virginia. A Minnesota law forces schools to  by March 2025.

A handful of other states’  have issued  or pilot programs, while lawmakers in several more have introduced statewide legislation regarding cellphone use.

The guidance from the U.S. Education Department coincides with the release of a  for education officials and local communities on adopting cellphone use policies.

In the playbook, Cardona points to U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy’s  in 2023 on  on youth mental health.

Murthy warns: “More research is needed to fully understand the impact of social media; however, the current body of evidence indicates that while social media may have benefits for some children and adolescents, there are ample indicators that social media can also have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.” 

Within weeks of implementing new restrictions on cellphone use at two Jersey City schools, Superintendent Norma Fernandez noticed the atmosphere within the schools had shifted.

Students weren’t just paying more attention in class — they started spending more time together and acting more like kids, according to Fernandez.

“School’s not just for academic learning. It’s about developing social skills,” she said. “It’s the impact of disconnecting, and it really helps. They have to play. They have to be silly together. They have to talk to each other.”

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The district is piloting two methods of keeping phones away from students during the school day. At President Barack Obama Community School, a pre-K-through-eighth-grade school, students put their phones away in lockable magnetic bags called Yondr pouches. And at Academy 1 Middle School, students exchange their phones for laptops, then swap them back at the end of the day.

The programs are going so well, Fernandez said, she wants to expand them districtwide. And she hopes the state is paying attention to this issue, saying it’s a “health and wellness concern for young people.”

Two bills introduced last month by Assemblyman Herb Conaway Jr. (D-Burlington) would address some of her concerns. One  would require the state education commissioner to establish a policy for kindergarten through 12th grade on the use of cellphones and social media during school hours, on a school bus, or during school-sanctioned events.

That bill lays out that students must be allowed to use their phones in case of emergency, or if the phone is necessary for the health or well-being of the student. Under the bill, each board of education would also adopt a policy for the time when students aren’t in class but are under the direct supervision of school members.

Virtually every district has some form of policy not to use cellphones during the day, said Steve Baker, spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association, the statewide teachers union. But at least dozens of districts have begun enforcing their own stricter no-phone rules. , the state Department of Education advised schools to weigh the drawbacks and benefits of limiting phone use while engaging parents and school community members to explain the process and assuage concerns.

The guidance cites research from Rutgers University showing the negative impact excessive cellphone use leads to, like increased anxiety and depression and worse performance on exams.

Baker said the union hasn’t taken a stance on Conaway’s bills but generally would prefer guidance over a blanket policy from the state. It’s a complex issue that schools with different grade levels must navigate while considering the best interest of their students, he said.

“I think there’s a place at the local level to have good and thoughtful policies,” he said. “The driving question for everyone has to be, what’s in the best interest of our students, of their learning, of their health and safety? If we keep those questions center, we’re going to be in a better position to serve our students.”

The push to restrict students’ use of cellphones in class is gaining steam nationwide. Last month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom that requires every school district in the state to adopt a policy limiting or banning the use of phones by July 2026. Policymakers in states like and have made similar moves, and New York City is

Parents and school officials who spoke with the New Jersey Monitor said they are supportive of bans on cellphones in class, though Fernandez said there was some pushback when the district started its cellphone ban. School shootings are the chief concern, she said, with parents wanting to get in touch with their children in case of danger.

But quickly after the policy was put in place, Fernandez said, parents saw the benefits of keeping phones out of kids’ hands during the school day.

Maria Christian, mom to a 15-year-old Elizabeth High School student, said she’d want to see a stricter  than keeping phones away and turned off. She suggested students turning their phones in to teachers at the start of a period and keeping them close so they’re accessible in case of emergency.

“They’re texting somebody else when they’re supposed to be paying attention in school. It’s keeping them distracted,” she said. “If there is an emergency, the teacher will give it to them.”

Woodbridge mom Heather Kooy feels differently. In her son’s middle school, students are told to keep their phones in their lockers for the school day. There have been a few times she’s wanted to contact her son for something as simple as checking whether he’s taking the bus or needs to be picked up, she said.

On those days, she could call the school and have him tracked down, but sometimes it’s easier to send a quick text, she added.

She noted there was one instance of a parent posting a picture to a local Facebook group of police near her son’s school, instilling fear in parents until they heard from school officials.

“It’s one of those days where nobody knows what’s going on and it had to be 20 minutes or a half hour before we got a message from the school. I felt like if I could’ve just texted him to see what was actually going on that day and that everything was OK, I would’ve felt a little bit better,” she said.

Conaway’s other new  would create a one-year pilot program in six districts to implement a policy requiring students in grades six through 12 to put their phones in lockable pouches during the school day. The bill would appropriate $500,000 to the Department of Education to enact the policy.

Fernandez said $500,000 is a “drop in the bucket” for large school districts. Yondr pouches can cost between $15 and $30 for schools, according to a , which can run schools thousands of dollars. At $25 for 2,000 students in Jersey City’s largest high school, that’s $50,000 for one school, Fernandez noted.

“You can have them leave it in their lockers, and that’s more reasonable, but you spend all day policing,” she said.

Christina Cunha-Moreira, a mom who launched a local nonprofit for Elizabeth parents, said she loves the Yondr pouches provided at her son’s private school. When her son previously attended Elizabeth public schools, there was little enforcement over the district’s no-phones rule, allowing him to be distracted during class.

She understands reservations about wanting contact with your children in the case of a dangerous situation unfolding at school. But the benefits outweigh the negatives, she said, and parents can always call the school like they did before the advent of cellphones.

“Cellphones are good for one thing, but they’ve proven they’re bad for kids in general — their mental health, their ability to concentrate,” she said.

Both of Conaway’s bills have yet to face a hearing in the Assembly Education Committee.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence T. McDonald for questions: info@newjerseymonitor.com. Follow New Jersey Monitor on and .

Superintendent Alberto Carvalho will roll out a district-wide smartphone ban after the LAUSD school board passed calling for the prohibition.  

School board members expressed concerns over the devices’ disruptive impact on student learning and socialization, referencing a survey saying students view their own phone use as an that can have a . 

Board member Nick Melvoin, who wrote the resolution, told LA School Report concerns about students’ mental health and academic success motivated the push.  

“I spend time in schools every week, and have been struck by how often kids are on their phones,” Melvoin said. “We now have over a decade of research that shows the deleterious effects of this on all of us.”   

Melvoin’s resolution said the new policy should consider the use of storage lockers, locking pouches and technology to block social media from students’ phones. Melvoin said he hoped Carvalho’s policy would present a menu of options for schools to choose from.   

The resolution came just a few months before California lawmakers passed the statewide ‘Phone Free Schools Act,’ requiring districts across California to implement policies that limit or ban student use of cell phones during the school day. 

Here’s what you need to know: 

1. LAUSD already has a cell phone policy. 

Introduced in 2011, permits students to have phones on campus but requires the devices to remain off and stored away during class. 

Melvoin said decisions regarding the enforcement of the policy have mostly been up to individual schools and teachers, and not always strictly enforced. 

With the new policy, Melvoin wants to continue to allow schools to make decisions and include parent and student voices, while also implementing specific guidelines that they must follow. 

He said he hoped the district would present a menu of options so schools would be able to choose the use of storage lockers, pouches, or an outright ban.

“We’re working with communities to actually ask them what they want,” Melvoin says. 

2. Some LAUSD schools already have policies to ban phones

A number of LAUSD schools, including Culver City High School and Lincoln High School, have already adopted approaches similar to those called for by the school board’s resolution.

According to Culver City’s parent handbook, classrooms have mandated designated areas in each classroom for students to place their phones before the course begins. A policy that is new as of the 2024-2025 school year. 

As of 2023, all teachers at LHS are provided with a 48-slot locking case that all students must place their phones in, similar to Melvoin’s proposed “menu.”

Other schools such as Gardena High School and Panorama High School and Magnets have more relaxed policies. Students at these schools are allowed to bring phones in the classroom but they must be turned off and put away, and may be confiscated if caught by a teacher. 

Tanya Ortiz-Franklin, an LAUSD board member and co-sponsor of the resolution, noticed an improvement in math scores from a school in her district that has already banned phones. 

“Students were even saying themselves, it’s nice to not feel distracted,” Ortiz-Franklin says.

With the impending ban, all high schools will be expected to update their policies in the upcoming school year.

3. The District is just months ahead of a California state ban of cell phones in the classroom, what is the rationale?

Both the state of California and LAUSD referenced studies proving that cell phones are harmful to education in their resolutions. 

‘The Phone Free Schools Act,’ referenced a paper published in , finding that students improved in schools with cell phone bans and that lower-performing students improved exponentially. 

The state also referenced Dr. Jean Twenge’s book “iGen” which showed evidence of increased depression and mental health issues in young adults who used social media. 

In a New York Times op-ed, released the day after LAUSD passed the new resolution, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, the U.S attorney general writes that social media should require a label, warning users that the platform is, “.”

Conversations around the harms of social media are heightened now more than ever, and schools are learning to deal with increasing concerns. 

4. California is not the only state banning phones

The 2024-2025 school year marks the beginning of many new cell phone bans across the country and may mark a turning point for education in the United States.  

LAUSD is joined by Santa Barbara Unified and San Francisco Unified in cell phone bans for the 2024-2025 school year, but California is not the only state banning phones. 

Florida was the first state in May of 2023 to bar the use of cell phones, requiring districts to create policies that ban students from using phones during classes. 

Louisiana and Indiana have new policies that went into effect this year, and South Carolina, Virginia, Minnesota, and Ohio all have new rules coming online in 2025. 

Discussions around a New York City Department of Education cell phone ban have been circulating all summer, but Mayor Eric Adams, says the school is .

The new policy, set to roll out in January, is being created in response to .   

Studies show the unregulated use of phones on campus can harm students’ academic progress and cause harm to kids’ mental health. 

LA families and local educators are buzzing about , but no one is sure how it will work. 

“The first thing I thought was, how are they going to enforce that?” said Cara Becerril, a mother of a junior at . “They’re going to get a lot of backlash from students and parents…I’m for it.” 

LAUSD officials said they hope the cellphone ban will reduce attention problems, cyberbullying and anxiety caused by cellphone use. Parents think that’s a good idea. 

“I’m old school, and I grew up without a phone,” Becerril said. “Humans right now can’t get off their phone, so I mean, we’ve got to start somewhere.”

Teachers told LA School Report conflicts over cellphone use can strain their relationships with students. They said they do not want sole responsibility for enforcing a ban, and they’re not sure how the devices should be managed on campus. 

“I really don’t want to be the cellphone police,” said Susan Norton, an English teacher at . “It’s just not a good position for teachers to be in when we’re dealing with people’s property.” 

Teachers also said students seem “addicted” to their phones. 

Rebecca Holt, a sixth grade teacher in Bel Air, has noticed students hiding their cellphones behind their books or taking bathroom breaks just to use their phone. Once LAUSD implements the cellphone ban in 2025, she hopes teachers won’t have to be the cellphone police anymore. 

Three Los Angeles school teachers shared their students’ encounters with cyberbullying. According to Holt, two students threatened to get another student killed, saying they “deserved to die.” 

While technology and social media have some negative effects on youth mental health, adolescents have reported many positive aspects. In Holt’s math classroom, students enjoy seeing where their peers go on vacation through social media.

“It helps them see other cultures and learn about the world because they’ll see their friend who went to visit Iceland, and they’ll get to see what Iceland is like,” Holt said. 

Holt also said her students sometimes watch funny videos after a long day of school as a way to decompress. But she also said that social media could have an isolating effect on kids. 

One of Holt’s middle school students, she said, decided to stop using social media entirely, and said that they felt more present in class, had stronger relationships, and enjoyed the little things in life more after quitting social media. 

Although teachers and parents voiced concerns about teens’ mental health, teens expressed confidence in how they are handling challenges that come with using devices and social media. 

Some said they feel more connected than ever through their cell phones, while other teens, like Holt’s student who quit social media, have opted out of online communities. 

Their parents were less sanguine. 

“Children are totally addicted to their phones,” said Annise Fuller, mother of a senior at Westchester Enriched Sciences Magnets. “I think that the phones have taken away a lot of the children’s attention in the classroom.” 

But not all students are convinced. Although some kids told LA School Report phones can cause problems on campus, others, such as Dallas Robinson, Fuller’s daughter, said the devices are too important to bar from school.

“Don’t ban them,” said Robinson. “But make students put them in their backpacks.”

Jamée Maiden, a 13-year-old eighth grader at William W. Hall Academy in Prince George’s County, said she was allowed to use her cell phone at certain times during the school day last school year.

Not this school year.

“I feel like they help in class for certain things like research. If some people don’t have computers, it is easier to access,” she said.

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Prince George’s and Maryland’s 23 other school districts have various cell phone policies, but phones must be turned off during instructional time.

While some states have started moving toward statewide policies on cell phones, Maryland is not there. Some districts this year allow middle and high school students to use them at lunch or during “instructional” time at the discretion of an administrator or teacher. Other districts allow high schoolers to use them in transition between various classes.

Montgomery County officials are working on an “away all day” volunteer pilot program that would require students in participating schools to not use their cell phones during the school day.

Liliana López, a public information officer in the county, wrote in an email Friday that the deadline for schools to sign up was on Labor Day. The list is still being finalized, she wrote.

State Superintendent Carey Wright used one word several times during a recent interview on cell phone policies: balance.

Wright said officials in her department are gathering information on cell phone policies in other states and may present it to the state Board of Education soon.

“There are a lot of districts looking at how do we structure a cell phone policy that gives time away from the cell phones to focus on instruction,” she said. “It’s a balance that you have to find between what’s good for children, what’s good for instruction and what’s good for families. It’s not an easy thing to do.”

Wright said an example of a good balance of cell phone usage could be allowing a certain time to students to access them during noninstructional time, and then put them in pouches.

“Some of the school systems are developing schedules to do that,” she said. “They’re in school to learn. If this is interfering with the learning process, that’s where schools are wanting a stricter use of it during the school day.”

At least two school districts implemented pilot programs for cell phone pouches.

Middle school students in Caroline County must turn their phones off and place them in . However, they are allowed to remain with students throughout the school day.

In Baltimore County this school year, 16 middle and high schools are part of a pilot program for students to tuck their cell phones away in pouches. Last school year, some middle schools required students to place their cell phones in boxes when they entered a classroom.

Kimberly Sloane, who’s in her seventh year as president of the Allegany County Education Association, would like for her jurisdiction to possibly approve a similar pouch policy.

Right now, Sloane said student cell phone use in class is mainly decided by teachers.

She recalled teaching a high school social studies class seven years ago when a mother called her daughter during class.

“From the things I hear it has worsened. It is just not the appropriate time and space for them to have,” Sloane said Thursday. “Students have technology available with iPads and other computers during the school day. There is technology in the school for students to use.”

‘Social media is a distraction’

According to a survey released in June, one-third of kindergarten through 12th grade teachers say cell phone distraction is a major problem. The percentage increases to 72% of high school teachers who claim it’s a problem in their classrooms.

The Florida legislature was the first in the nation to last year to ban cell phone usage by students during class. It can only be done when a teacher allows it for educational purposes.

Just this summer, state lawmakers in Louisiana and South Carolina approved similar statewide restrictions.

In neighboring Virgina, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) signed an executive order in July for the state Department of Education to issue guidelines for schools to establish cell-phone-free education. School districts there must adopt policies by January.

State legislators in Ohio, Indian and Minnesota approved policies that recommend school districts to create similar cell phone policies.

All those states provide exceptions for special needs students with an Individualized Education Program, or a 504 plan, which requires reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities.

Annette Anderson, assistant professor and deputy director of Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Safe and Healthy Schools, said policies should be more “nuanced” to ensure parents, the community and educators are part of ongoing conversations to maintain and improve student achievement.

For instance, she said some students may need cell phones to connect with parents to look after younger siblings or assist their parents who may not be able to work.

“I think that this brings up a need for more conversation in PTAs, and back-to-school nights and other venues where family engagement is a conversation that families and school staff can really talk about the pros and the cons of this,” said Anderson, a parent with two children who attend Baltimore City public schools.

Anderson, a former school administrator, said she supports school districts that allow students to bring their cell phones in school, but that disabling social media sites such as TikTok or Instagram during the school day would benefit educators and students.

Several Maryland filed a lawsuit last year against Google, Meta, ByteDance and Snap Inc. for targeting and manipulating youth.

“I would probably come down on the side of advanced technology that allows students to use their phones, but disable social media,” Anderson said. “We have to have a way that those programs can be disabled during the school hours. Social media is a distraction.”

Jamée Maiden’s mother, Phyllis Wright, said students don’t need to use their cell phones during the school day. But the recent in Georgia and in Harford County are why Wright wants her daughter to still have a cell phone in school.

“We never know what might happen,” Wright said. “I would rather my child to have a phone than not have one.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org. Follow Maryland Matters on and .

Warner Public Schools has scored among the top schools in the state ever since, consistently earning A’s and B’s on annual state report cards.

Superintendent David Vinson said the cellphone ban has been integral to Warner’s academic success. He said the zero-tolerance policy removed distractions from the classroom, cut down on bullying and discipline issues, and encouraged students to build camaraderie face-to-face.

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“I think if you ask our teaching staff — and I’m confident in saying this because they say it all the time to me — they feel like our cellphone policy is a huge and vital part of what makes us successful,” Vinson said.

More districts across the state, including some of Oklahoma’s largest, are following suit this school year with tighter restrictions or outright bans on student cellphone use.

The trend extends nationwide. About 76% of all U.S. public schools, including 43% of high schools, prohibit non-academic use of cellphones, according to .

Tulsa Public Schools, which has the highest enrollment in Oklahoma, doubled down on its existing policy this year, forbidding elementary and middle school students from using cellphones, smart watches or headphones for the entire school day. Tulsa high school students must turn off and put away these devices during class time.

“We needed to ensure that our students and families know that we’re going to remove every distraction that we can remove so that they can be fully focused on academics,” Tulsa Superintendent Ebony Johnson said.

Bixby Public Schools, with 7,900 students south of Tulsa, announced a similar policy this year, citing a “significant rise in cyberbullying, sharing of inappropriate content, unauthorized recordings, loss of academic focus, safety concerns and diminished social interaction.”

Union Public Schools, the ninth largest district in the state, added its ninth-grade center to the list of schools with an “off and away all day” requirement for cellphone devices. Middle schools in the southeast Tulsa district already enforced the rule.

School cellphone bans discussed at state Capitol

State lawmakers have considered ways to incentivize more school cellphone bans.

Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, filed to offer grants of $100,000 to $1 million to schools that implement a phone-free campus policy. The bill never made it out of the Senate, but Pugh, who leads the chamber’s Education Committee, said he intends to file similar legislation again.

Pugh said he’s heard from some teachers and district officials who would support a statewide ban on cellphones in public schools. Doing so could take pressure off of local school officials who might face fierce pushback from their community if they were to implement the policy on their own, he said.

“I love the fact that schools are taking this upon themselves to figure out because I really think it’s that important,” Pugh said. “This is a hard thing to do.”

The reason the Warner district has been able to maintain its zero-tolerance policy is by having top-to-bottom support, said Vinson, the district superintendent. Teachers, principals, district administrators and the school board have all backed the no-cellphone rule and ensure it’s enforced consistently.

“You have to have board support,” Vinson said. “If your policy dies at board support, you’re done.”

Discipline for violations vary

The punishment for breaking the rule varies by district.

In Warner, students caught with a phone have the device confiscated for a calendar week, or they can opt for a three-day out-of-school suspension. A second offense comes with a two-week confiscation or a five-day out-of-school suspension. Vinson said no student in Warner has ever broken the rule a third time.

Tulsa’s policy doesn’t involve confiscating phones, said Johnson, the district’s superintendent. Teachers will give warnings to put phones away, and if a student doesn’t comply, the school will call home to notify the child’s family.

Enforcing a cellphone ban might be harder in large schools, Vinson said, because of the sheer number of students to keep track of. He said it was easier to implement the rule a decade ago, when far fewer students had cellphones, especially among younger grades.

But, Vinson said it’s still worth trying — each school in its own unique way.

“I think to be successful educationally you have to find a way to remove the cellphones from your educational environment,” he said.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com. Follow Oklahoma Voice on and .

COLUMBIA — South Carolina school districts must ban students from using their cellphones during the entire school day, but exactly how they go about it is up to district officials, according to the state Board of Education passed Tuesday.

At the very least, districts must require students to keep their phones and connected devices, such as smartwatches, turned off and in their backpacks or lockers from the time the first bell rings in the morning until the dismissal bell in the afternoon, according to the state policy.

But the state board said districts can decide whether to enact sterner rules, as well as the consequences for violating them.

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Districts that do not put a policy in place that is at least as strict as the one the state board passed Tuesday could lose their state funding.

“We’re saying, ‘This is what state law says, and so you’ve got to implement it,’ but we are leaving a lot of discretion, a lot of latitude, to districts on how exactly they do it,” board member Christian Hanley said.

The decision follows a clause the Legislature included in the state spending plan requiring the state board to create a policy prohibiting cellphones for K-12 students in the state’s public schools. The specifics, legislators left up to the board, which in turn left many of the details to local school boards.

Although state board members supported the idea of banning cellphones in schools, they said they worried about unintended consequences of the new policy, such as putting another task on overworked teachers, increasing the number of out-of-school suspensions or cutting students off from their parents during emergencies.

“Implementation of such a policy over a school day scares me,” said board chair David O’Shields. “Why? Because once we create this policy, it is the requirement of every district to follow suit, and there is the law of unintended consequences, and it frightens me.”

School boards will to put in place a policy at least as strict as the one the state board enacted, according to a memo the department sent to superintendents in June. District must submit those policies to the department to ensure compliance.

The state board, which passed the policy 15-1, added a stipulation that districts must report back about how implementation went in case the board finds a need to adjust its policy ahead of next school year.

“All of these things look good, but just because it looks good doesn’t mean it is good.” O’Shields said.

The policy

In the state policy, the board did decide lunch and other breaks should be considered part of the school day, meaning students must leave their cell phones stowed away during those times.

Districts may choose to take it further telling students not to bring their devices to school at all. Or they can buy lockable pouches to store them. Some may also decide to include bus rides, field trips or athletic events as times when students can not access their phones, according to the policy.

The policy also leaves room for exceptions.

If students have an assignment they cannot complete on school-provided devices, districts can allow students to keep their phones with them to use as part of their classwork.

Students with disabilities who need access to phones or tablets to learn would still be allowed to use the devices. And students with certain outside jobs, such as volunteer firefighters, can seek a written exception from their superintendent to use their phone during the day, according to the policy.

Enforcement also will largely be up to school districts. The policy requires “disciplinary enforcement procedures,” with increasing consequences for repeat offenders, but it doesn’t specify what that means.

State board members did discourage using out-of-school suspension as punishment for violating the policy. Taking a student out of school because they are breaking a rule meant to keep them focused on their classwork feels counterintuitive, said state Superintendent Ellen Weaver.

“The whole idea behind this policy is that we want students in classrooms getting instruction,” Weaver told reporters. “Taking students out of that instructional space really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense as far as I’m concerned.”

Still, different situations may warrant different punishments, so board members wanted to leave that decision up to the districts, said board member David Mathis.

Timing

Some board members felt they did not have enough time to create the policy.

Board member Beverly Frierson was the sole “no” vote, not because she disagreed with it but because she thought the board was too rushed to give the policy the consideration it needed, she said.

O’Shields, the board chair, worried teachers may have to spend too much time policing cellphones. Still, he agreed some kind of action was necessary.

“I know we need control, and there is an addiction, no doubt,” O’Shields said.

The policy has support from legislators, teachers’ advocates and Gov. Henry McMaster. Since 2020, McMaster has included this clause in his state budget recommendations. This was the first time legislators agreed to put it in the final plan.

“The research is clear,” McMaster wrote in a letter to the board Tuesday. “Removing access to personal electronic devices during the school day improves student academic performance and removes distractions that exacerbate anxiety among our adolescents.”

“Our responsibility is to create an environment where teachers can teach, and students can learn,” the letter continued.

In a statewide survey the education department conducted, 55% of teachers and administrators who responded said they supported a total ban on cellphones during the school day. Another 37% said they wanted students to have limited access during class time, with the chance to check their phones between classes or at lunch.

Along with being distracting while students are trying to learn, phones can erode their social skills and encourage bullying, Weaver said.

“I think the dividend that we will see this pay for schools and for our students’ future will be worth it in the end,” Weaver said.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. SC Daily Gazette maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seanna Adcox for questions: info@scdailygazette.com. Follow SC Daily Gazette on and .

Mayor Eric Adams poured cold water Tuesday on an imminent citywide school cellphone ban, citing a number of remaining obstacles and saying the city is “not there yet.“

“There will be some action in the upcoming school year, but the extent of a full ban, we’re not there yet. We want to make sure we have parents on board,” Adams said at a press briefing Tuesday in response to a question from Chalkbeat.

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“The previous administration attempted to do this, and they had to roll back,” Adams added, referencing a previous cellphone ban instituted by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, then overturned by his successor, former Mayor Bill de Blasio. “I don’t want to go backwards after we make a determination.”

Adams’ comments significantly dial back the message that schools Chancellor David Banks offered just months ago about the likelihood of a citywide school cellphone ban.

“You’re going to hear, within the next two weeks, the big announcement, but I will tell you we are very much leaning towards banning cellphones,” on June 26.

But with just over a week before the start of the new school year, city officials haven’t shared any updates, leaving many parents and school staffers craving details. Adams said the city is still ironing out a number of the .

“Once you use … the terminology that it is a full ban coming from the chancellor, there’s a lot of things that will kick into play, including [United Federation of Teachers],” Adams said Tuesday. “Who pays for the pouches? What mechanism is being used? So we’ve been doing a lot of reviews.”

Some educators and advocates have also about if and how the Education Department will offer schools guidance on discipline for students who don’t comply.

Several principals familiar with Education Department plans that education officials were floating a plan to have a ban take effect in February, though it’s unclear whether that timeline is still under consideration.

States and districts across the country have moved towards mandating cellphone bans amid rising concerns about their role in distracting students during class and harming kids’ mental health. New York governor Kathy Hochul is also and is currently soliciting input.

Los Angeles, the nation’s second largest school system, with a district-wide school cellphone ban.

Hundreds of New York City schools already have their own cellphone bans. Many use Yondr, a company that produces magnetized cloth pouches that can be locked and unlocked by schools for students to store cellphones during the school day. But such systems can be expensive, and one of the big open questions about a citywide cellphone ban is whether the city would provide extra funding to schools to help collect phones.

Many other city schools that historically have not fully banned phones are moving towards adopting their own cell phone-free policies, but enforcing those policies comes with significant logistical challenges and staffing needs.

Passing a systemwide school cell phone ban would also require changing the chancellor’s regulations, which would need approval from the Panel for Educational Policy, according to a source familiar with the deliberations.

Adams said the city is trying to learn from the approaches of city schools that have their own cellphone bans and are enforcing them effectively.

“We’re learning from those who are already doing it,” Adams said. “We do have schools in the city that are doing it on their own, and so we want to make sure we get it right.”

Julian Shen-Berro contributed.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

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The state Board of Education unanimously approved  Wednesday for how local districts should handle personal technology in schools.

The recommendations suggest heavy restrictions on the use of cellphones at the elementary and middle school levels, with more flexibility for high school students.

“Technology, when used purposefully, can enhance learning and connection, but we must also protect our students from the potential negative impacts of excessive and unrestricted use,” said Erin Benham, acting chair of the state Board of Education. “This policy can help schools strike that balance, supporting students in a way that prepares them for success in learning and in life.”

Elementary schools should “focus on removing cell phones from the classroom to maximize academic, social and emotional development,” with the possibility of “specific procedures for collecting and isolating cell phones upon arrival at school,” according to the guidance.

Similarly, the guidance says the policy for middle schools should also focus on removing cellphones throughout the school day because the age group is “particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of excessive personal technology use and has a difficult time controlling their impulses,” but does not explicitly recommend the collection of cellphones.

“Possession of cell phones in this age group is likely to be viewed as a rite of passage into adulthood, so communication and application of policies that restrict use must be developed in consideration of the specific challenges of middle school students,” the guidance said.

At the high school level, the guidance also recommends restrictive cellphone use, but says students should be able to keep their technology and that it instead should just be turned off and kept out of sight.

“By removing the distraction caused by smartphone use during the school day and fostering a healthy balance with the positive use of technology, we create schools and classrooms that maximize peer-to-peer and student-to-educator interaction, develop social skills in interpersonal communication, and positively impact academic growth and success, all while supporting student mental health,” said state Education Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker.

The state recommendations come on the heels of months of debate around the country about how to tackle technology in the classroom,  unrestricted phone usage can lead to mental health issues in youth and have a negative impact on brain development.

It’s a distraction issue in the classroom as well, as 33% of K-12  in a Pew Research Center study in fall 2023 said cellphones were a major problem in the classroom.

“Teachers are increasingly competing with cellphones for attention from their students and are seeing more students experiencing mental health crises triggered by their interaction with social media,” said Kate Dias, president of the Connecticut Education Association, the state’s largest teacher union. 

Some states like Florida and Indiana have , as others like Washington, Utah, Kansas, Maine and even Connecticut have considered legislation to limit or ban the use of personal technology in classrooms.

Toward the end of his annual State of the State address in February, Gov. Ned Lamont  that kids lock away their smartphones during the school day. The sentiment later prompted the passage of , which required the state Department of Education to develop a model policy on the use of cellphones in schools.

“All too often, our young people find themselves too distracted by their smartphones and disconnected from the reality of what is happening around them, including while in their classrooms, and it’s having negative impacts on their learning and mental well-being. It is crucial that we adopt stronger policies to address this issue head-on,” Lamont said in a news release Wednesday morning. “The state’s guidance provides a clear framework, but it is up to each school district to shape their own policies that meet the needs of their students and communities.”

Districts across the state have already gotten a head start on their policies, with some adopting more conservative measures than others. 

In Torrington, all students are allowed to bring technology into their schools, but at the middle and high school levels it will be locked in district-issued cellphone pouches throughout the entire school day. Elementary school students can keep their phones, but it must “remain completely out of view.”

In Lisbon, meanwhile, cellphones will not be allowed on school grounds for pre-K through fourth grade students. For students in fifth through eighth grades, they’ll be able to store their cellphones and smartwatches in their lockers.

The Connecticut Association of Boards of Education has also expanded an ongoing  document for districts to use and tweak as they develop technology policies that fit their needs.

State board members said at the meeting Wednesday that they expect some pushback from parents and students, but they’re hopeful that the guidance is a framework for ongoing conversations with all stakeholders.

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Virginia is moving closer to restricting cell phone use in schools after the Virginia Department of Education published a draft of its “cell phone-free” on Thursday after a series of public input events.

The draft defines “cell phone-free” education as “bell-to-bell,” meaning phones should be turned off and stored away from the first school bell until dismissal. This includes lunchtime and breaks between class periods.

On July 9, Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued Executive Order 33, directing his administration to create guidelines to limit students’ time in front of “addictive” cell phones and eliminate “clear distractions” in the classroom.

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The education department said over 600 community members, parents, teachers and school officials attended public events to provide input on the guidelines as well as other community events to understand concerns about cell phones and personal electronic devices.

“The extensive input we received from Virginians was clear and direct,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa Coons. “They asked for cell phones and personal electronic communication devices to be removed from our children’s public schools during the school day at every level — elementary, middle and high school. By refocusing our students’ attention back into learning and away from their phones and social media, all our children will have a better opportunity to learn and succeed academically.”

Studies have shown that students use cell phones to browse the internet and social media apps, and message people during instructional time. Students have also used the devices to record events at schools and post them on various platforms.

The draft guidance includes age-appropriate cell phone restrictions in Virginia’s elementary and secondary public schools.

According to the draft, if a parent determines an elementary student needs to bring a cell phone or personal electronic communication device to school, it must be stored, off, and away from the student during the school day. Students should not use cell phones in the school building or on the school grounds before or after school.

In middle and high school, students should not have a readily available cell phone or personal electronic communication device during the bell-to-bell school day.

Middle schools should establish local policies that determine cell phone and personal electronic communication device use within the school building or on school grounds outside of bell-to-bell, including before and after school.

Cell phones and personal electronic communication devices may be used on a high school campus before or after school.

Exemptions will be permitted for students with disabilities and EL students with a documented language barrier.

on the draft guidelines closes Sept. 15. School boards must adopt the final guidance by Jan. 1.

Some of Virginia’s school boards have already banned or restricted cell phone use in schools.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Samantha Willis for questions: info@virginiamercury.com. Follow Virginia Mercury on and .

Public school districts across Arkansas are expected to be able to lock up students’ cell phones during school hours, with the state Department of Education distributing $7 million to pay for pouches or lockers.

The Arkansas Legislative Council will take up the restricted reserve fund request Friday after the Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review subcommittee approved it Monday on a voice vote with some dissent.

“This initiative seeks to foster a phone-free environment, enabling an evaluation of its impact on student learning, engagement, and overall student health,” Department of Education Chief Fiscal Officer Greg Rogers wrote to Department of Finance and Administration Secretary Jim Hudson requesting the funds.

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The phone restriction initiative is part of Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Education Secretary Jacob Oliva announced in July. The program will also provide grant funding for telehealth mental health services and support for locating mental health providers and navigating insurance matters, .

Cell phone policies at Arkansas schools vary among districts and individual classrooms. While some teachers collect phones at the start of instructional time, others allow students to access their devices after completing assignments.

The $7 million allocation is an estimate of the cost of the locking devices based on the number of students in the roughly 180 school districts that have applied to participate in the pilot program, said Courtney Salas-Ford, the education department’s chief of staff.

School districts rather than the state would be responsible for replacing the devices, but metal lockers and magnetically-sealed cloth pouches “have a very long life expectancy,” Salas-Ford said.

The pouches from , a California-based company with the goal of creating “phone-free spaces,” can be locked and unlocked by separate unlocking devices kept under the supervision of adults while students keep the pouches with them at all times. , the De Queen School District approved the use of the pouches for middle school and junior high students as part of its participation in the pilot program.

Sanders has repeatedly advocated for reducing social media use among teenagers, citing concerns about depression and suicide rates.

“Our country has been experimenting with unregulated smartphone use for more than a decade, and unfortunately the results have been absolutely devastating for our young people,” Sanders said at at Bentonville’s Ardis Ann Middle School.

Bentonville West High School piloted a program last year that required cell phones to be silenced and stored during class. Bentonville School District Director of Communications Leslee Wright said in July that the initiative was a “remarkable success,” with 86% of staff reporting a positive impact. Administrators also recorded a 57% reduction in verbal or physical aggression offenses and a 51% reduction in drug-related offenses, she said.

YONDR CEO Graham Dugoni attended the press conference, which marked the start of the pilot program a month after it was announced.

“One of the things he said that really stuck with me [is] this isn’t about taking anything away,” Sanders said. “This is about giving students the freedom to enjoy a phone-free education.”

As part of the pilot program, the University of Arkansas’ Office for Education Policy will examine how students’ mental health may be impacted by reduced access to cell phones and social media. A smaller group of districts from the pilot program will participate in the UA study.

In May, Sanders sent a copy of Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Anxious Generation, to all state and territorial governors in America, as well as Arkansas legislators. According to the July press release, she expressed support for four main goals: no smartphones before high school, no social media before age 16, phone-free schools, and more outdoor play and childhood independence.

Proposals to reduce smartphone use have been gaining traction across the country, including in , , .

that Sanders championed would have been the first in the nation to require minors to receive parental permission before signing up for a social media account. A federal judge last August, hours before it was set to take effect.

Arkansas lawmakers might introduce legislation in January requiring all districts to lock up students’ phones during the school day, House Speaker Pro Tempore Jon Eubanks, R-Paris, said during Monday’s PEER meeting.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sonny Albarado for questions: info@arkansasadvocate.com. Follow Arkansas Advocate on and .

Getting students hooked on classic games is one way Principal Sham Bevel has tried to soothe their separation anxiety after the banned cellphones two years ago. At Bayside, students must keep the devices in their lockers during school hours.

But convincing kids there’s something better than posting TikTok videos or browsing friends’ Instagram posts is an ongoing struggle.

“Cellphones are to children what the blanket was to Linus,” Bevel quipped.

Cellphone bans during school hours have gained momentum in recent months, with states like Virginia, and  taking action and the Los Angeles and New York districts moving in that direction.

But schools may find that deciding to remove phones is the easy part. The real test is finding a way to secure and store them that both staff and families find acceptable. Complete bans leave some parents nervous, but partial restrictions often put teachers in the uncomfortable position of policing the rules during valuable class time. 

“All of these have pluses and minuses,” said Todd Reid, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education. The agency is gathering public comments on how best to implement Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s July 9 to have phone restrictions in place by Jan 1. Officials will release guidance in mid-September. “All of them really come down to how the policies are implemented.”

One approach to banning phones, storing them in students’ lockers, can be hard to enforce, said Kim Whitman, a co-founder of the

“Teachers say that students ask to go to the bathroom and then go get their phones,” she said. “It still allows negative activities to happen between classes — cyberbullying, planning fights and others videoing them.” 

Sheila Kelly, a board member for , a Virginia advocacy group, raised another practical issue: Not all schools have lockers. What’s most important to her is that schools restrict phone use not just in class, but during breaks.

“It’s during those in-between times … that students can experience the mental health advantages of phone-free interactions, allowing them to grow socially and emotionally,” she said.

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A growing number of schools say Yondr pouches, which cost about $25 per student, accomplish that goal. 

The neoprene sleeves, often used at live music and comedy events, lock with a magnetic closure and can be reopened with a device usually mounted near a school exit. Districts among the company’s top customers include and , according to GovSpend, a data company. 

In June, Delaware Gov. John Carney signed a budget that includes $250,000 for a Yondr in middle and high schools this fall. Last year, the company earned $3 million in government contracts — doubling its business from 2022, GovSpend shows.

In New York City, where Chancellor David Banks is currently hammering out the details of a ban expected next year, some teachers prefer Yondr because it takes them out of the enforcement business: Students lock up their phones in a pouch when they come to school in the morning and can’t remove them until they leave in the afternoon.

Vinny Corletta, a Bronx English teacher, used to work in a school where teachers employed incentives to discourage phone use. Kids could rack up points for prizes — from pencils to  sneakers. But frequent reminders still took time away from instruction.

“I’m a teacher; I don’t want to hold 30 cellphones for students all day,.” he said. 

Now he teaches at Middle School 137, where students put their phones in a Yondr pouch when they arrive and then store them in their backpacks. He thinks that even if they can’t access their phones, students prefer having them close by rather than in a locker or classroom storage container.

But no method is foolproof. Students have been known to disable Yondr locks or even surrender a dead older phone while stowing their current model in a backpack. 

“Kids are so smart — sometimes more than adults — and always find loopholes,” said Elmer Roldan, executive director of Communities in Schools of Los Angeles, a nonprofit that provides support services to students in low-income schools. 

He’s worried about students being “policied, patrolled and punished” for violations, recalling the Los Angeles district’s failed iPad rollout in 2013. Students easily broke through the and used the iPads to play online games like Subway Surfers and Temple Run. The district stopped allowing students to take them home.

“I thought the district should’ve hired those kids … to teach district staff about technology security,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if schools exhaust their energy trying to implement this ban.”

Los Angeles officials have until October to specify how they’ll enforce a ban the board approved in June. 

But some L.A. students think adults have blown the issue out of proportion. Alejandro Casillas, who will enter 11th grade at Hamilton High School in Los Angeles this fall, said teachers already confiscate phones if they see them more than once during class or offer extra credit to limit use. He gave up his phone once to get the additional points. 

“I think this image of phones being a distraction is over-exaggerated,” he said. “If the district were to take away cellphones, I think some students would still be distracted.”

Students might think they’re good at multitasking, but experts say that allowing them access to phones in class prevents them from on their lessons. Research also points to following phone bans.

Israel Beltran, a rising sophomore at Mendez High School, said he doesn’t use his phone in class except when teachers allow it during breaks. At that point, he often turns to funny videos on YouTube. But the idea of a total ban makes him feel like he’s back in elementary school. 

“When we had a toy or something we shouldn’t bring to school, they usually would take it away from us and give it back at the end of the day,” he said. 

‘A lifeline’

Parents have been among the most divided over districts’ efforts to ban students’ phones. The Phone-Free Schools Movement has a team of across the country, mostly parents who track district policies and promote cellphone bans for students in their communities. 

But a recent national survey from the showed that while parents support “reasonable limits” on use, a majority — 56% — think students should occasionally have access during school hours.

That’s especially true for parents whose or health issues.

In Los Angeles, Ariel Harman-Holmes doesn’t want an across-the-board ban. She was afraid her son, who will enter sixth grade at the Science Academy STEM Magnet this fall, would lose a phone. So she gave him an Apple Watch, with its own number and data plan. With ADHD and a condition called face blindness, he sometimes can’t recognize people or even familiar places — a limitation that was especially stressful when people wore masks during the pandemic. 

“He couldn’t even tell who was an adult and who was a child. He didn’t know who to trust,” she said. One day he used his watch to call his parents, who helped him get reoriented. Now she plans to have use of the watch written into his special education plan as an accommodation. “I feel like kids with certain disorders or disabilities, like autism, anxiety, possibly depression, need a lifeline to their parents.”

Regardless of which method districts adopt, parents have found that enforcement can be inconsistent. 

Victoria Gordon, whose son Malik attends Republic High School, a Nashville charter, supports leaders’ efforts to minimize use during class. The school’s official policy prohibits students from accessing social media during school hours. But visiting one day last year, she saw her son using his phone in class.  Sometimes, she glimpses photos he posts during school hours.

“Why is my child on Instagram at 10 o’clock in the morning?” she asked. “They’re not implementing what they’re saying.”

The 74 wants to hear from educators, parents and students on how cellphone bans in your states, districts and schools are going. .

The 2021-22 academic year was the hardest for George Read Middle School Principal Nicholas Wolfe, an educator for 17 years. It was the school’s first full year back since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Wolfe recognized that his students were struggling and started researching the effects of cellphones and social media on adolescents’ mental health. 

“It was one of those things where it’s like, I can’t unknow now what I know, and I need to take action,” he said. “From there, it’s like, ‘All right, what are the ways that I can get to a phone-free environment here at George Read Middle School?’ ”

Wolfe has utilized an “expectation and enforcement of the expectation” structure to create a phone-free environment at his school since , but does not have a phone ban. The expectation in George Read Middle School is that phones will not be used because they’re out of sight, with YONDR phone pouches being the tool to enforce that expectation.

One line item in this year’s  aims to eliminate distractions from phones and social media in classrooms throughout Delaware. 

Lawmakers approved $250,000 to test an expansion of such cell-hiding pouches, like those made by tech company YONDR, in other state middle and high schools, along with other measures.

The Delaware Department of Education will be responsible for gathering experts, creating the system for the pilot program and later evaluating it. The department will also create the regulations for the applications districts will use when applying for funding.

State Sen. Eric Buckson (R-Dover), a former educator, voiced strong support for the pilot program and said the inspiration for its creation came from teacher feedback during Teacher Appreciation Days. 

“I asked [teachers], ‘Hey, if you were king or queen for a day and could write the rules, what’s one of the first things that you would do to get better control of the hallways and the classrooms?’” Buckson said. “Either No. 1 or No. 2 on that list is to take the phones.”

The Delaware State Education Association, the union that represents state public school teachers, feels encouraged that the General Assembly is listening to educators and trying to find solutions and resources to address issues like behavioral issues in schools, said Taylor Hawk, the director of legislation and political organizing at DSEA. 

“That is absolutely encouraging, and we definitely see the cellphone pilot as another example of legislators being responsive to issues that they’re hearing from educators in their districts and we look forward to seeing the results,” Hawk said.

Multiple school districts  like the Los Angeles Unified School District or the entirety of Florida, have implemented their own phone pouch policies in schools.

Critics of phone bans in schools — whether through using pouches or by having a strict “no phones” policy — have raised concerns over how students would be able to contact their families during emergencies, especially in an era of school shootings.

Wolfe has found a middle ground between having students contact their families when needed, and enforcing his phone-free environment. 

While every classroom at George Read Middle is equipped with a phone, students can also go to the office and ask an administrator if they can use their phone to call home, Wolfe said. Students must make sure their phone is out of sight before returning to class. 

Parents, lawmakers and educators in Delaware are also concerned with the state’s test scores in recent years. Only 24% of eighth grade students were  in math during the 2022-23 school year, and 41% were proficient in English/language arts.

Experts and advocates hope to see better behavior and test scores after the pilot’s implementation. Studies have found a  between media multitasking and attention problems and evidence for potential detrimental long-term effects among early adolescents. 

Kenneth Shores, assistant professor at the University of Delaware who specializes in education policy, has also seen adult learners be distracted by their phones during college classes.

“It’s just like a thing that your mind goes to if you’re slightly bored or challenged by material,” Shores said. “Removing those kinds of easy distractors, I think, is great, because it keeps students engaged on the material.” 

Not everyone is convinced that phone bans are an easy solution to rectifying behavior and improving test scores. 

Removing phones from classrooms will not single-handedly fix the issues within Delaware’s education system, said Britney Mumford, the executive director of DelawareCAN, an advocacy group that works on public education improvement and equity.

“It’s going to lead to more engagement, and paired with other things, will hopefully improve test scores,” Mumford said. “We don’t need to treat it as, ‘Oh, we’ve cracked the code, we’ve figured out what the problem is and this is going to solve it.”

While Hawk has heard phone policies posed as a possible solution in conversations about behavioral issues in the classroom, it has come up in addition to other solutions like more resources for mental health professionals, she said.

Buckson expects that the DOE will run out of funds before schools’ needs for phone pouches are satisfied, and has already had “a couple” of schools reach out to him directly. 

 is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Spotlight Delaware maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor-in-Chief Jacob Owens for questions: jowens@spotlightdelaware.org. Follow Spotlight Delaware on  and .

Virginia will soon establish guidance to restrict or eliminate student cell phone use during instructional time at school.

On Tuesday, Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued Executive Order 33, which directs his administration to “heed the call” of parents, public health professionals, educators and others by establishing cell phone-free policies and procedures for school divisions, in light of growing concerns over children’s health and declines in academic performance.

The Virginia Department of Education, in collaboration with the Departments of Health and Health and Human Services, must clearly define what “cell phone-free education” means, and publish model plans and draft guidance on implementing in Virginia’s K-12 schools on its website by Aug. 15, according to the governor’s directive.

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The directive will establish “the clear goal to protect the health and safety of our students by limiting the amount of time they are exposed to “addictive” cell phones and social media and eliminating “clear distractions” in the classroom, Youngkin said in a statement.

The governor added that $500,000 in existing funds allocated to the Departments of Education and Behavioral Health and Development Services will be made available to implement the initiative.

According to the governor’s office, the funds will support state and local efforts to facilitate family nights and community engagement events to combat youth mental health challenges, and provide microgrants for school divisions to help implement cell phone best practices in their communities.

As part of the policies’ development, the departments will be required to hold listening sessions seeking public input on “age-appropriate cell phone-free education policies and procedures, gather feedback on best practices currently underway in Virginia public schools, and receive input for the draft guidance,” the governor’s executive order reads.

The departments are slated to release the final guidance by Sept. 16 of this year. The order directs school boards to adopt the policies by Jan. 1, 2025, or before.

Youngkin’s order cites American Psychological Association that suggests adolescents who spend over three hours on social media daily have double the risk of poor mental health. The order also references studies showing that children spend about 4.8 hours a day on social media, and that students who use their phones during class learn less and earn lower grades.

“Therefore, creating a cell phone-free education environment in public schools is not only a prudent measure but an essential one to promote a healthier and more focused educational environment where every child is free to learn,” Youngkin directive states.

Some of Virginia’s school boards have already begun banning or restricting cell phone use in schools. empowering local boards to institute such prohibitions on cellphones and other “handheld communication devices” during regular school hours died last session.

James Fedderman, president of the Virginia Education Association, said in a statement that the organization recognizes the mounting worries over how cell phones impact students in classrooms and thinks it’s “essential” to approach the issue with “a nuanced perspective that considers the real-world needs of our students and teachers.”

Fedderman, whose organization is the largest educator advocacy group in the state, went on to urge the Virginia Department of Education to engage with educators to develop balanced guidelines “that support effective teaching and learning while also addressing legitimate concerns about distractions.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Samantha Willis for questions: info@virginiamercury.com. Follow Virginia Mercury on and .

New York City, the nation’s largest school system, is considering a plan to ban cellphones in its roughly 1,600 schools starting in February, according to several principals briefed on the possible policy.

Schools would have to come up with their own policies, principals told Chalkbeat, whether they collect devices at the start of the day or have students carry their phones in Yondr pouches, cloth cases for phones that are locked with a magnet from morning to dismissal.

Even though such systems can be pricey, school leaders don’t expect to receive extra money in their budgets, principals said, according to the plans shared with them. The principals spoke on the condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to speak to the media.

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When asked to confirm the preliminary plans, Department of Education spokesperson Nathaniel Styer wrote, “No decisions have been made yet!”

For collecting phones, schools might need to buy cubbies or other storage equipment, plus they need staffing. (Some school leaders have wanted to steer clear of collecting phones, worried about liability issues for lost devices.) Yondr pouches cost about $25 to $30 per student, with pricing varying depending on school size, a company spokesperson previously told Chalkbeat.

has been talking with principals across the five boroughs about cellphones, and said that they overwhelmingly want a citywide policy. is also planning to announce a statewide school cellphone policy this year.

School leaders have been able to set their own cellphone policies since 2015, when former Mayor Bill de Blasio largely due to equity issues: Students in schools with metal detectors, which largely serve low-income families, were forced to pay local businesses $1 a day or more to store their phones before they entered school.

Nearly 10 years ago, however, cellphones were not as ubiquitous, especially for younger kids, and teens weren’t glued to social media apps like Instagram and TikTok. They didn’t have easy-to-hide AirPods. And their parents weren’t calling their kids as often.

As a result, the city’s that many teachers say are difficult to enforce. Educators at schools where phones are already collected or put in pouches say those systems are not foolproof, but they at least appreciate the clear message to students. At schools with a cellphone ban on paper, teachers say the onus is on them to enforce, and enforcement can vary classroom to classroom, leading to confusion among students.

A growing chorus of educators, experts, and politicians have been raising the alarm more recently about the negative impacts of cellphones on youth mental health and how they take away from learning time. A growing number of school districts are banning cellphones, including Los Angeles, the nation’s second largest district, which .

One principal voiced concern about New York City’s possible February timeline, worried that starting a major new policy midyear could prove challenging to implement. But this principal also said there wasn’t enough time to implement a ban by September.

“The amount of money it takes to successfully collect, secure, and distribute around 700 phones every day is staggering,” a school administrator said in response to .

Before this school collected phones, the administrator said, teachers were consumed with battles over keeping phones from disrupting class time. Administrators were spending an inordinate amount of time responding to cellphone issues. Student conflicts that the school previously could have mediated were instead being inflamed by social media.

But the administrator warned that students’ addictive connections to their devices could create conflict when they are forced to surrender or get back their phones each day. The system requires a coordinated approach and an empathetic staff who can de-escalate charged emotions.

Deborah Alexander, a parent leader who sits on the Citywide Council for High Schools, said her parent board recently met with Education Department officials, and she shared her views against a cellphone ban.

She understands why parents are in favor of a ban in theory, but she fears that enacting a ban will prove problematic. Many schools already ban phones, she said, and the remedy on the books — to confiscate a student’s device — would be the same with a citywide ban. (Several educators told Chalkbeat they are told not to touch students’ devices.)

Alexander wondered whether schools would have the staffing to collect and hand out, or pouch and unlock, phones as kids come and go throughout the day. She asked who will pay for lost or broken phones. She fears that equity issues might arise at schools with affluent PTAs that can make up for budget gaps created by cellphone policy costs.

She asked about exceptions: phones used to monitor health conditions or as translation devices, for instance. Parents might be surprised, she said, when their children have to arrive at school half an hour earlier and leave half an hour later because of cellphone storage or pouches.

“Kids will be that much more glued to phones the second they walk out of school,” Alexander wrote in an email. “And when they walk in, according to tons of teens I’ve spoken to, they’ll be reminded that they can’t be trusted; that they’re guilty before they’ve done anything wrong, much like when they enter schools through metal detectors.”

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at . Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

TOPEKA — The Kansas State Board of Education plans to finalize in August parameters of a 30-member task force that would be formed to develop policy recommendations on non-academic use of cellular telephones by prekindergarten through 12th-grade students while at school.

In public and private districts across the United States, officials are limiting or banning smartphones in classrooms to minimize distractions from academic obligations and to lower stress and anxiety among students. Some schools forbid students from accessing phones throughout the day, while others deprive students of devices during class time.

“It’s going to take a concerted effort to address the amount of time our children spend on their own devices during instructional time,” said state Board of Education chair Melanie Haas of Overland Park. “We as parents and elected officials need to help our children use technology and social media in safer, more beneficial ways.”

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Randy Watson, the state commissioner of education, was given the task of forming a task force that included least two state school board members, students, classroom teachers, administrators and other education representatives. He suggested the co-chairs could be a student and a principal.

He anticipated the state Board of Education would ask the task force to provide a framework for state policy or guidance for school districts to address the issue. State board members plan to determine at their August meeting boundaries for the task force. The report would be due in late 2024.

“Then I would like the task force to present their recommendations to the board by November, no later than December,” Watson said. “In addition to addressing how our children are using their digital devices for non-academic purposes while they’re in the classroom, we also need to take a hard look at the impact social media is having on children’s mental health.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on and .

Gov. Kathy Hochul had earlier announced she’d introduce a bill during the January 2025 legislative session to . The bill would permit phones capable of sending and receiving texts, but not those with internet access.

Objections to allowing K-12 students to use their phones in school stress their addictive nature. Hochul has already signed the , ordering social media companies to ban addictive feeds for those under 18. 

, Florida and Indiana ban cellphones in the classroom, while Ohio directs districts to draft their own policies for “cutting down” on cellphone use and Alabama “strongly encourages limits.” Virginia Gov. GlennYoungkin issued an , instructing his Department of Education to come up with “guidance for public school divisions to adopt local policies and procedures establishing cellphone-free education.” Spokane, Washington, July 10, and the state Board of Education is considering one as well.

Would this be the right move for America’s largest school district? We asked NYC parents to weigh in, and the responses were nearly unanimous.

Brooklyn Mom Lena raved, “I am so unequivocally for the cellphone ban, I can barely contain my enthusiasm. It is insane to me that there are schools in which children are allowed to carry the world’s most addicting distraction in their pocket all day. As full-grown adults, we are suffering from our inability to stop looking at our devices and constantly consuming media in a format we are barely evolved enough to handle — and we want to give that same problem to children without fully formed brains, who already lack the ability to exhibit impulse control?”

“With access to nonstop videos and internet, they have forgotten how to keep themselves occupied,” lamented fellow parent Jessica F. “My son claims there’s nothing to do if he can’t play Minecraft. It has become an obsession.”

With demonstrating a connection between heavy social media use and depression, anxiety, loneliness and suicidal ideation, the majority of parents we heard from were thrilled to know there might soon be a limit on in-school smartphone use. 

“Having their phones at lunch keeps kids, especially socially awkward ones, from interacting with new people,” contributed parent A.F. “They use phones as a crutch and withdraw from socializing. I look forward to my high school-aged daughter being forced to socialize.”

“Although face to face doesn’t make for easier girl drama,” an anonymous mom admitted, “access to quick responses leads to more drama. A lot is said behind a screen that might not have been said face to face.”

Research has also demonstrated that children learn better and with deeper comprehension when .

Dad M.V. said, “I would go a step farther and ask that teachers revert to giving homework assignments on paper, not on computers. Yes, computers are more convenient for teachers and students. But they pose similar addiction and distraction problems.”

Carrie C. recognized the extra burden policing devices would place on educators. 

“I don’t think it’s a good use of teachers’ time or intellect for them to be the ones who have to enforce putting your smartphone away,” she wrote. “But I wouldn’t use that as a reason to shrug your shoulders and conclude that it’s not worth trying to make improvements when possible.”

For mother of three Sophia McShane, however, a ban on phones is unacceptable. 

“I’ve had it with the [city Department of Education] and their constant changes that don’t benefit the children,” she raged. “My eldest goes to school on his own and picks up his siblings from school. A phone is a necessity. The DOE should stick to teaching these kids how to read and write. They’re failing at that but want to focus on phones. It’s ridiculous.”

Travel and safety are the most prevalent arguments for why a school cellphone ban is than the troubles caused by phones.

But Kate L. doesn’t buy it. She argued that, “If (parents) need to contact their child for non-emergency reasons, do so before or after school or during lunch.”

Brooklyn’s Lena went further, saying, “The idea that children need to be immediately accessible to parents all day long is absurd. My middle schooler commutes roughly 40 min on the subway. He has a ‘stupid’ phone in order for me to be in touch with him or him with me to and from school or in case of emergency. If, God forbid, there was an emergency, I have no doubt I could get in contact with him during the day by calling the school. If the argument is, well what if there is a school shooting (again, God forbid), then I think we are trying to solve that problem with the wrong device.”

National polls have run the gamut from opposing cellphones in the classroom to against a ban.

If the largest school district in America goes through with Banks’ cellphone moratorium, would that finally accumulate enough research and evidence to guide definitive policy for the entire country?

The views expressed here are those of the author.

The governor and education secretary sent a letter to Arkansas school superintendents Tuesday urging them to join a new pilot program focused on increasing access to mental health care for students and restricting in-school cellphone use.

Building off recommendations from superintendents who met with Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Education Secretary Jacob Oliva last month, the program will provide funding for telehealth mental health services, as well as provide support for locating mental health providers and navigating insurance matters, according to a .

The pilot program will also give funding to all secondary schools that apply to provide pouches for students to store their phones during the school day, reducing screen time and social media use. More exposure to social media increases kids’ risk of mental health problems, Sanders and Oliva write in .

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“The Natural State is not unique; youth depression, anxiety, and isolation have risen across the country,” they wrote. “But we do have a unique opportunity to address this crisis in a collaborative way. We have made this a priority in our Administration, and we are committing state resources to help with this crisis.”

Sanders backed a that would have been the first in the nation to require minors to receive parental permission before signing up for a social media account. A federal judge in August, hours before it was set to take effect.

In May, Sanders also sent a copy of Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Anxious Generation, to all state and territorial governors in America, as well as Arkansas legislators. According to the press release, she expressed support for four main goals: no smartphones before high school, no social media before age 16, phone-free schools, and more outdoor play and childhood independence.

Proposals to reduce smartphone use have been gaining traction across the country, including in California where Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom last month during the school day. His comments came a day after the U.S. surgeon general called on Congress on social media platforms, and the same day that the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second largest district, that’s set to take effect in January.

Florida became the first state at school last year. Idaho and Ohio have also passed laws cracking down on phone usage, and as many as eight other state legislatures are considering taking similar action, .

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sonny Albarado for questions: info@arkansasadvocate.com. Follow Arkansas Advocate on and .

COLUMBIA — Public school students across South Carolina will be barred from using their cellphones during the school day under a clause legislators agreed to add to the state spending plan Thursday.

Education officials and teachers backed the proposal. For years, teachers have been asking the state for help controlling student cellphone use, said Sherry East, president of the South Carolina Education Association.

“Cellphones are a mega distraction,” said East, who also teaches high school science. “It’s hard to teach with kids on their cellphones.”

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The clause was one of a number of funding stipulations that a committee of three House members and three senators approved during days of negotiations on the state’s more than $13.8 billion budget.

To continue receiving state funds, public school districts must adopt the statewide policy, which the state Board of Education will write.

How the state board plans to enforce the policy, ensuring schools and districts are actually keeping phones out of students’ hands, remains to be seen. There are also questions over whether to allow certain exceptions for safety situations.

“We think cellphones are a huge distraction in the classroom,” East said. “We are happy to see something being done about it, but it’s all going to be down to implementation.”

For example, some parents have questioned whether they would be able to reach their children in case of an emergency, state Superintendent Ellen Weaver said during a board meeting last month. That concern will need to factor that into the final policy, she said.

“While we certainly don’t want to ever deny a parent access to their child, at the same time, I think we have to balance these very real safety and instructional concerns that cellphones create,” Weaver said.

Varying policies

The goal is to improve students’ mental health and reduce bullying both in-person and online, Weaver said. While social media has some benefits, it can also hurt young people’s mental health, .

In some cases, students use their cellphones for legitimate learning purposes. Peter Lauzon’s biomedical sciences class in Lexington-Richland School District Five often takes photos of nature as part of their assignments, which they submit online.

The problem is when students use their phones as a distraction, Lauzon told the SC Daily Gazette.

“If you’re competing with their favorite show on Netflix, that’s not always an easy thing to do,” Lauzon said. “But there is use for phones.”

Nationwide, about 77% of schools banned students from using their phones during school hours except for instructional purposes during the 2019-2020 school year, according to from the National Center for Education Statistics.

Across South Carolina, policies vary. Greenwood School District 50 trustees voted this week to ban phones during the school day. Charleston County School District only allows students to use their phones during certain parts of the day, such as at lunch. Richland School District One bans phones during class time. Other districts have no policy at all.

House Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister initially questioned whether the state needed an overarching rule, considering many districts already have their own rules about cellphones.

“Shouldn’t independently elected school boards weigh in on that?” Bannister said during budget debates Wednesday.

But going statewide will allow education officials to standardize policies across districts, Weaver said. That will likely involve working with superintendents who already have policies in place, “making sure that there is a benchmark for uniformity across the state,” Weaver said.

While the idea is popular among teachers, who have been calling for a solution for years, it may not be so popular among students.

“I’m willing for us to be the bad guys at the state level, if necessary, because I think this is just the No. 1 most common-sense thing we can do to start to get ahold of some of the discipline and mental health issues that our students are facing in school,” Weaver said.

The House and Senate both already had passed proposals limiting student’s cell phone use. But the two chambers differed on times those limits should be in place — all day or just during class time. On Thursday they agreed to a full-day ban, as the Senate proposed.

Other measures

Also on the list of special budget rules agreed to Thursday were two controversial measures from the Senate. One will require libraries to before allowing children and teenagers to check out books with sexual content or risk losing state funding. The other will require students to use bathrooms and locker rooms .

While the Republican senators who proposed the measures said they will protect children from inappropriate content or boys pretending to be girls to go in the wrong locker room, some Democrats pushed back.

Sen. Tameika Isaac Devine, D-Columbia, argued restricting library books will penalize small libraries. She also argued requiring students use certain bathrooms will open up the state to lawsuits, as well as hurt transgender students who want to use the bathroom aligned with their gender.

Both proposals passed the Senate along party lines. The six-legislator committee agreed to add them to the final spending proposal.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. SC Daily Gazette maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seanna Adcox for questions: info@scdailygazette.com. Follow SC Daily Gazette on and .

Smartphones gripping people’s attention isn’t anything new. But following the pandemic, Kris Hagel recalls seeing a troubling rise in public school students distracted by their phones during class.

“I would walk through classrooms last year and kids have absolutely no attention to the teacher that’s presenting a lesson in front of them because they’re so engrossed in what’s going on with their cellphones,” said Hagel, executive director of learning and innovation at Peninsula School District, which has 17 schools and serves about 9,000 students in the Gig Harbor area.

“We struggled for a long time on what to do,” Hagel said. Then, late last school year, one high school in the district decided to try a cellphone ban. It went “surprisingly well,” according to Hagel. “We started hearing from more and more parents who said, ‘Hey, we want this everywhere, we want the district to do the exact same thing.’”

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So it did. “We are not a district that says you can’t have the device anywhere in school,” Hagel explained Thursday to discuss smartphone use in schools. “We’re just saying it needs to be put away,” he added. “It should not be in classrooms.”

Peninsula School District is hardly alone. Schools around the state and country are searching for a balance with their cellphone policies for students. Phones can not only cause distractions, they can also contribute to bullying and pose mental health risks, especially for kids.

“Just having that cellphone there, having that distraction there, that temptation there, is definitely not productive,” said Maria De Luna, a student at Bethel Virtual Academy and a member of the Association of Washington Student Leaders. “There are a lot of very creative ways that students have found to use their phones, regardless of the rules.”

De Luna said not using a phone or eschewing social media apps when other students are using them can also be difficult. “There’s always that like, ‘Oh, what if I’m missing out? What if they’re talking about me?’ There’s that anxiety and that culture that’s been created.”

Meanwhile, Kelsey Parke, principal at Kopachuck Middle School in the Peninsula School District, said since the phone ban, cyberbullying at her school has dropped to “almost zero.”

But students, educators, and researchers point out that phones can have benefits, helping people to build social connections and to access information. Plus, parents want to be able to reach their kids by phone in case of an emergency.

So there are questions over whether outright phone bans in schools are the best path.

“I think that with support, with scaffolding, with training, with regulation and with age-appropriate design, we can really maximize the benefits and minimize the negatives,” said Lucía Magis-Weinberg, a psychology professor at the University of Washington.

Just over three-quarters of K-12 public schools nationwide prohibited non-academic cellphone use during the 2021-22 school year, according to a from January. How strictly the policies are enforced can vary.

Last year, Florida became the first state to to keep students from using phones during class. Governors and lawmakers in at least a half-dozen other states have pushed schools to go down similar paths, .

It wasn’t immediately clear how many of Washington’s public schools have cellphone restrictions.

“We know of a few who have policies limiting or banning cellphone use: Peninsula, Pasco, Kennewick, Reardon-Edwall, and Monroe,” Katy Payne, a spokesperson for the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction said in an email.

“We are hearing about more and more districts exploring policies,” she added.

Hagel said by email that he’d received a lot of calls from districts across the state looking to implement restrictions in line with Peninsula’s. He also said his district received a survey from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction in late April asking about cellphone policies.

would’ve directed school districts to adopt restrictions on student cellphone use by the start of the 2027-28 school year. The measure passed out of the House Education Committee with bipartisan support, then stalled.

“Mobile device use in our public schools has become a chronic issue and our kids are suffering because of it,” Stephanie McClintock, R-Vancouver, the lead sponsor on the bill said during the session. “We want to eliminate the distraction these devices are creating during class time.”

Hagel was skeptical of the bill and of taking a statewide approach. “I think it’s really important that school districts make that decision on what will work best, on the timeline that works best for them,” he said. He added that it’s not even certain his district will keep its ban permanently.

But for now, Hagel said, “We needed to take a hard reset.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Washington State Standard maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Bill Lucia for questions: info@washingtonstatestandard.com. Follow Washington State Standard on and .