The communication gap is stark. found that 26% of teenagers ages 13 to 17 used ChatGPT for their schoolwork in 2024, up from 13% in 2023, yet most lacked formal instruction on responsible use. According to the , nearly three-quarters of parents report that their children’s schools haven’t shared their AI policies. 

This lack of guidance creates two dangerous extremes: students who fear AI because it’s been branded as cheating, and those who misuse it as a shortcut because they’ve never been taught otherwise. In both cases, young people miss the opportunity to practice the critical thinking, problem-solving and ethical judgment skills regarding AI that education is meant to foster — in other words, to develop AI literacy. 

As a researcher, educator and parent, I have worked to in colleges and medical schools. But I do not see the same efforts in most K-12 schools. Advocacy is key, and parents can help make this happen.

My son discovered ChatGPT in seventh grade. Three years later, his South Carolina school district still offered no clear guidelines for AI use, so I began a methodical advocacy campaign. I attended a superintendent’s coffee chat, shared AI education books with district leaders and followed up with emails and a virtual meeting. For months, it seemed as if my efforts had fallen on deaf ears. Then, I was invited to join the district’s AI planning team, a diverse group including students, teachers, parents, administrators, and AI education consultants. Our daylong session covered generative AI applications, ethics in education and guideline development. 

Following the meeting, we participated in a survey and observed a school board presentation on AI policy development. And in January, the district Board of Trustees governing the use of artificial intelligence in classrooms.

This experience taught me that parent voices matter. But effective advocacy requires patience, persistence and a constructive approach. Fortunately, families wanting to get involved have proven models to follow.

In , the state’s official AI Framework for Education emphasizes ethical use, transparency and family engagement, with guidance for schools to communicate clearly with parents about AI tools. In , the school board voted in 2025 to begin developing districtwide guidelines for classroom AI use, including the creation of family-facing resources to promote responsible use at home. 

Resources like offer a strong foundation for AI literacy advocacy. The handbook encourages parents to stay informed about new technologies, ask questions when schools lack clear guidelines, build relationships with staff and participate in school meetings to influence policy. These efforts can open doors to influencing policy and curriculum decisions.

Parents also can advocate for their school district to join initiatives like the which aims to train 400,000 teachers nationwide in AI fluency by 2030. They can push for partnerships with nonprofits like and , which provide free, grade-appropriate AI curricula, teacher training and ethical use frameworks. If the school district is open to collaboration, they can also request a pilot or demo for tools like , a platform that provides access to multiple AI models in one place with a focus on education. Boodlebox offers to help cover the cost of subscription. 

Local AI councils  — groups of experts from fields such as law, technology, and education who advise local governments on using AI responsibly — provide another avenue for parent involvement. In Montgomery County, Pennsylvania,  the brings together experts from the private sector, academia, public service and beyond. In Montgomery County, Maryland, officials formed an to ”ensure the successful evaluation, coordination, implementation and adoption of AI solutions,” in the county. Parents can encourage their districts to establish similar advisory committees or collaborate with such county-level groups if they already exist in their area. 

Through this process, I’ve compiled a comprehensive list of that parents can use as conversation starters with their districts — from state frameworks to nonprofit curricula — categorized by audience: administration, teachers and students. I also keep an eye out for grant opportunities for my district. For example, the recently opened applications for the 2026 program, which helps high school educators gain AI knowledge and skills that they can take back to their computer science, science, mathematics and health classrooms.The stakes couldn’t be higher. Without AI literacy, students will struggle to navigate a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence. They’ll lack the ethical framework to use these tools responsibly and will enter college and the workforce at a significant disadvantage compared with peers who received proper guidance. Momentum is building, but districts won’t act without parent demand and involvement. If parents don’t push for AI literacy now, they risk raising a generation fluent in fear or shortcuts rather than the skills that matter and the resilience needed to thrive.

A University of Southern California published Monday surveyed roughly 1,700 parents and 364 students ages 13 to 17 last fall. Researchers used the annual to analyze students’ cellphone use and their , along with parents’ perceptions of the restrictions. At least have some form of ban or limitation on cellphones during instructional time.

About 98% of students attend schools with cell phone restrictions, according to the study. Some 76% of teens and 93% of parents said they support some type of ban. 

But the researchers found that students still use their cellphones in school. About two-thirds of teens at schools with complete phone bans said they use their device during the day, including in class, and more than half of students whose school restricts cellphones during instructional time don’t follow the rules.

“The results are pointing towards both parents and teens wanting to have at least some form of restrictions on cell phone use in classrooms — neither are reporting major downsides,” said Anna Saavedra, one of the study’s researchers. “(Students and parents) are really supportive of the restrictions and they even support making rules stronger. Part of the challenge has been that even though schools have these rules, teens are telling us that they’re breaking them.”

Most students reported two categories of cellphone bans: either prohibiting use for the entire day or only during instructional time. Nearly 75% of teens said that no matter the policy, their school still lets them keep their phones with them. Some 5% said their school doesn’t permit cellphones on school property. 

The study also found that teens use their phone in school for an average of 1.5 hours a day regardless of the type of ban. That matches other that found students ages 13 to 18 spend an average of 70 minutes on their smartphones during the school day, typically using social media or gaming apps. 

Restricting cellphone use only during class instruction is a rule that 68% of students and 53% of parents support. About 24% of teens and 7% of parents said they would prefer no restrictions.

Overall, 42% of teens and 76% of parents said their schools’ rules are “just right.” About 48% of students and 8% of parents thought they were too strict. Half of students said their school’s rules were different and stricter than the previous year’s. 

Most teachers enforce phone policies, according to the study. Nearly two-thirds of students said their teacher gives a verbal warning if someone breaks the rules. Other common consequences include taking the device away for the rest of class or for the entire day; notifying parents; giving detention; or requiring a parent to pick up the phone.

Though the rise of smartphones has been linked to negative student outcomes like poor academic achievement, the teens and adults surveyed by USC said they don’t believe cellphone policies have much of an effect. The majority said the rules had no impact in areas such as sense of community, relationships with teachers and bullying or fighting. The majority of students also said there was no effect on academic performance, making friends or their likelihood of attending school.

About 28% of the teens said the rules made the classroom learning environment better, while 26% said they made it worse. One-third of students said the policies improve academic integrity or reduce cheating, while 19% said the opposite.

A recent University of Pennsylvania of 20,000 educators found that stricter cell phone policies are associated with more positive outcomes reported by teachers. Nearly half of schools in the study have a “no show” rule — where students can have their phones if they keep them out of sight — but this policy isn’t as effective as more restrictive rules. 

“The stricter the policy, the happier the teacher and the less likely students are to be using their phones when they aren’t supposed to,” said University of Pennsylvania Professor Angela Duckworth about the data. “We’re also finding that focus on academics is higher in schools that do not permit students to keep their phones nearby, including in their backpacks or back pockets.”

Disclosure: The Overdeck Family Foundation provides financial support to The 74.

Stricter cellphone bans, more focus on STEM and increased school “efficiency” are shaping up as some of the highest-priority education debates Indiana lawmakers will tackle during a fast 2026 legislative session that starts back up next week.

The session will be shorter than usual — ending by late February — after legislators already convened for two weeks in December on redistricting. Senate bills must be filed by Jan. 9, and House bills by Jan. 14.

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Multiple education bills have already moved, and one — a cellphone crackdown proposal — was heard in the Senate education committee in early December. Caucus leaders in the Republican-dominated General Assembly won’t formally roll out their priority agendas until next week, however.

At an annual legislative conference hosted last month in Indianapolis, lawmakers and Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner previewed a crowded policy landscape shaped by academic recovery concerns, declining enrollment, student disengagement and growing unease about children’s use of technology.

Cellphones in classrooms — and beyond

One of the most visible education debates of the coming session is already underway: whether Indiana should expand restrictions on student cellphone use to cover the entire school day.

Under current law — approved by lawmakers in 2024 — schools must prohibit cellphone use during instructional time unless a teacher permits it for academic purposes.  would go further, requiring public schools to ban cellphone use “from bell to bell,” including during lunch and passing periods, with limited exceptions.

The bill and was authored by committee chairman Sen. Jeff Raatz, R-Richmond. Raatz said the committee is likely to vote on the measure early this month.

Supporters argue the change would reduce distractions and improve student focus and mental health. Opponents — including some parents and students — have raised concerns about safety, emergencies and local control.

Jenner signaled broader alarm about technology’s impact on children, calling for a statewide conversation that extends beyond classrooms.

“I cannot tell you how much it is impacting our children,” Jenner said. “We are seeing seven- and eight-year-old[s] with social media accounts. We are seeing nine-year-old[s] on anxiety medicine because they’re obsessed with the number of likes and the comments.”

House Education Committee Chair Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, said lawmakers are also exploring ways to regulate social media platforms themselves, particularly the algorithms that keep children engaged.

“We’re also … looking at some language that could potentially avoid litigation, but goes after the algorithms,” Behning said. “That’s what’s getting the endorphins … that impact their cognitive ability.”

More work on literacy

Lawmakers and education officials continue to tout Indiana’s recent gains in early literacy, driven by state investments in reading instruction and intervention. But Jenner said the work is far from finished — and may prompt additional statutory changes on top of major policies passed in the last two sessions.

“We’ve seen some great success in reading, but we have a lot more work to do,” Jenner said, noting that the state . Current law requires schools with fewer than 70% of students reading proficiently to participate in a state literacy cadre program, which provides targeted, evidence-based instructional support for teachers.

“What we wanted to see is … should we adjust that percentage a bit, or should we do a rolling average of some sort,” Jenner said. She emphasized that any changes should avoid creating an unfunded mandate.

One persistent challenge, she added, is middle school literacy.

“The only needle that we have not moved in Indiana is middle school reading,” Jenner said, pointing to seventh- and eighth-grade outcomes as key concerns heading into 2026.

Doubling down on STEM

Beyond literacy, lawmakers and state officials signaled a renewed push to strengthen math and STEM instruction — an area they acknowledged is lagging behind recent reading gains. STEM is shorthand for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

Behning said Indiana’s success with literacy initiatives could serve as a model for , particularly early numeracy.

“We know that if we’re going to be successful in STEM, we have to be successful in math,” Behning said. He pointed to the state’s literacy cadre as an approach lawmakers could look to replicate in math classrooms.

Behning added that many educators were never trained in “foundational, explicit skills in math,” leaving schools struggling to improve outcomes without additional state support.

Funding equity and school operations

Education funding is also expected to remain a flashpoint, particularly for districts with . Rep. Ed DeLaney, an Indianapolis Democrat who sits on the House Education Committee, warned that public schools’ share of the state budget has declined over the past decade and urged greater state investment to support high-need districts.

“If we move money to them from the state,” he said, “that may free up some local property taxes.”

But legislators are also watching closely as Indianapolis leaders advance recommendations from the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance, which calls for a new authority to manage school facilities and transportation across traditional public, charter and innovation schools.

Supporters say the plan could reduce costs and allow school boards to focus more on classroom outcomes. Critics worry about local control and whether similar models could spread statewide.

“I think we’ll be able to learn some things and probably apply them more broadly in Indiana,” Jenner said, while stressing that conversations around consolidation and shared services look very different outside Indianapolis.

Rural lawmakers and education leaders, she added, are closely watching how urban proposals could influence policy elsewhere, particularly in counties facing population decline, long bus routes and limited resources.

Jenner cautioned legislators against using enrollment alone to drive decisions, however, instead urging them to weigh student outcomes and fiscal health when considering changes.

“I would challenge the General Assembly that those are the two elements, at the very least, that we need to understand statewide,” Jenner said.

Other priorities rolling in

Education advocacy groups are also beginning to roll out their own legislative priorities, calling on lawmakers to address school funding, staffing and student supports.

The Indiana Coalition for Public Education has greater state investment in K-12 schools, more equitable funding for districts with limited property-tax bases, and caution against additional mandates without funding.

Meanwhile, the Indiana School Boards Association is to focus on local flexibility, shared services, school safety and workforce-related learning, while reducing regulatory burdens on districts.

The Indiana State Teachers Association, the state’s largest teachers union, has not yet released its 2026 agenda.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com.

SAN MATEO, Calif. – On a cool Friday morning in April, the halls of California’s San Mateo High School were full of students chatting, running to class or trying to find their friends.

But one common sight in high schools across the country was and always is absent from the halls of San Mateo: cellphones.

“When you look at the crowd, kids are not buried in their phone,” said Yvonne Shiu, the school’s principal. “They have grown to value being in the moment.”

Students at the public high school about 20 minutes south of San Francisco have been prohibited since 2019 from using their cellphones while in school — from bell to bell. Schools nationwide, including some in Maryland, are now increasingly imposing such bans, but San Mateo was one of the earliest and largest schools in the country to implement a complete ban on cellphones during school hours.

At the start of each day, each of the 1,600 students lock their phone in a magnetically sealed pouch, created by the San Francisco-based company Yondr, that won’t be opened until the school day ends.

The decision to introduce Yondr pouches was the school’s attempt to tackle the increasingly pervasive effects of cellphone and social media overuse on its student body: cyberbullying, loss of sleep, self-esteem issues and endless distractions in class.

Teachers and administrators quickly embraced the program, saying it restored their grasp on students’ attention in class. Some even said if the school were to end the program, they’d leave.

As schools around the country implement similar cellphone bans, San Mateo offers a six-year track record of how a cellphone ban can force young people to focus and, in many cases, feel better.

“If schools can help alleviate some of those expectations and pressures about appearance and performance and embarrassment, and take away some of those elements that a lot of kids really struggle with and are confronted with, that is a benefit to them and to the school community and the school culture,” said Casey Teague, a longtime world history teacher at the school.

A slow start

The decision to implement the Yondr program at San Mateo began with observation and a trial run.

One of its faculty members, Alicia Gorgani, observed a similar cellphone ban at San Lorenzo High School, a smaller school in the area, and brought the idea to San Mateo’s teachers and administrators.

Adam Gelb, San Mateo’s assistant principal at the time, said seeing the cellphone ban in action at San Lorenzo “blew [his] mind.”

“Students were engaged with one another,” he said. “They were interacting. They were playing card games. They were playing out on the yard. They were goofing around. They were in circles, talking to each other.”

Gelb helped bring the program to San Mateo, which tested Yondr pouches in a few classrooms in spring 2019.

Teague, who’s worked at the school for more than 20 years, was one of those first instructors to pilot the program. He said he decided to try out the Yondr pouches in his class after noticing students’ smartphones were constantly bombarding them with notifications.

“By 2018, every kid had a phone. That wasn’t anything new,” Teague said. “But the distracting nature of the phone was becoming more and more obvious.”

Health education teacher Brittany Dybdahl said leading up to the ban, the school was seeing an increase in cyberbullying and drama stemming from online activities.

Embarrassing moments or conflicts among students had the risk of getting captured on video and being immortalized online.

“It basically created way more opportunities for students to be emotionally impacted throughout the school day,” Dybdahl said. “And that would, of course, affect their academics and learning.”

After the pilot program, and many discussions with students and their parents, San Mateo implemented the program schoolwide beginning in the 2019-20 academic year.

Some teachers were apprehensive about the cellphone ban, thinking it would create more work for first-period teachers to check that each student had their phones sealed away.

But those checks quickly became part of the daily routine, said physics teacher Patrick Thrasher.

And after seeing the impact the program had on their students, most faculty members got on board, Thrasher said.

“There was such a pretty clear, drastic difference in the classroom,” he said. “It was just night and day.”

San Mateo’s cellphone ban was not even a year old when the COVID-19 pandemic moved all learning online for a year starting in March 2020. But the school decided to continue the cellphone ban when students returned to the classroom in 2021.

“They do spend enough time already on screens that, you know, seven hours a day here at school [without screen time] is not going to kill them,” Shiu said.

The student reaction

Enforcement of the ban hasn’t been entirely without issues.

San Mateo faculty members said some students — albeit a small percentage — are determined to bypass the Yondr pouches and keep their phones on them. Some put calculators, hard drives or other phone-shaped objects in their Yondr pouches. Others put old, unused “burner phones” in their pouches while keeping their personal phone on them.

But many San Mateo students, like junior Lulu Bertolina, embraced the program. She said the Yondr program was one of the reasons she enrolled at San Mateo.

“Having our phones [in Yondr pouches] made it easier to make friends, because I can’t go off on my phone and not make conversation with people,” she said. “It almost forced it — in a really good way.”

For San Mateo senior Siddharth Gogi, the absence of phones made the school feel more welcoming. He said students aren’t glued to their phones playing video games at lunch or distracted on social media in class.

“Conversations move past surface level when you have that time to talk to one another,” said Gogi, San Mateo’s three-time class president who graduated this spring.

He acknowledged, though, that some students are concerned about not having quick access to their phones in case of an emergency.

In the early 2000s, many schools repealed their cellphone restrictions after the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado.

But Shiu said it’s better if students don’t have access to their phones during an emergency. The pouches prevent students and family members from sharing misinformation or flooding 911 with calls overwhelming first responders and the cellphone network.

“In any emergency, we want students to be focused on the adult giving the information,” Shiu said.

The experts

To hear the experts tell it, there’s an overriding good reason for schools to ban cellphones. Cellphone use and social media sites can both have a serious impact on young peoples’ well-being.

Extensive cellphone use during the day has a “direct correlation with a decline in mental health,” said Annette Anderson, the deputy director of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Safe and Healthy Schools.

“We also know that cellphone use late into the evening has a disruptive factor in our young people getting enough sleep and then being attentive enough in the morning,” Anderson said.

Young people are grappling with the reality that the phone in their hand could be doing them harm. A Pew Research Survey released in April found almost half of U.S. teens age 13 to 17 agreed social media sites have a mostly negative impact on kids their age.

San Mateo wellness counselor Helen Citrin said a cellphone ban can provide students a much-needed break from their phones.

For students who are highly anxious or struggle managing their emotions, Citrin said, not having access to a cellphone can help as it prevents them from constantly texting their parents.

“That pouch offers a boundary,” she said.

One recent study echoed this sentiment. Independent research on school cellphone bans is limited, but a 2024 study conducted by Yondr found that students saw a 15% increase in the likelihood they received a passing grade after their school implemented Yondr pouches. The report also found a 44% decrease in behavioral referrals after implementation.

Data from San Mateo paints a mixed picture of the school’s performance since implementation of the cellphone ban. Math and English test scores declined from 2019 through 2024, but both the graduation rate and preparedness for college and careers have inched upward. Meanwhile, the suspension rate increased.

Gelb offered an explanation for the rise: “Everybody was forced to communicate in person, so you had more people talking, and there’s more chance for someone to say the wrong thing or be in the wrong place.”

But, he added, the premeditated incidents and cyberbullying disappeared from the school day.

A growing trend

Although San Mateo might have been early to the cellphone ban movement, it’s among growing company now.

State and local governments and school districts across the country are now considering — or have already passed — policies on cellphone use in school. Yondr boasts that millions of students from all 50 states are now using its pouches.

While there is no statewide ban in Maryland, more than a third of its public schools prohibit cellphone use, . Several school districts, including Howard and Baltimore counties, have passed a total ban.

About 30% of U.S. schools now have a ban on cellphone use throughout the school day, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

That percentage is likely to rise. In the nation’s largest state, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed legislation last year requiring all public and charter schools in California to create a policy to reduce or ban cellphone use during school hours by July 1, 2026, but left each school or school district to decide the specifics of their policy.

And recently, New York joined the more than two dozen other states instituting a complete ban on cellphones during school hours.

Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said the decision comes as part of the state’s efforts to protect youth mental health.

“Our young people succeed when they’re learning and growing, not clicking and scrolling,” Hochul said in a statement in May.

A model to follow?

San Mateo faculty and staff said the school’s careful implementation of the Yondr program and the conversations it had with families and educators led to its success.

But several San Mateo faculty members said Yondr alone can’t solve youth mental health issues stemming from social media and personal devices.

The second students leave school grounds, they once again have access to their phones and can browse as much as they want. Citrin, the school’s wellness counselor, said many of the students she deals with stay up late into the night doomscrolling, or texting or video chatting with friends.

That being the case, Gelb said schools should also teach students how to develop a healthy relationship with their phone and social media.

The pouches also carry a financial impact on schools.

Each student at San Mateo receives a free Yondr pouch at the beginning of the school year, but each replacement costs $15. In total, Shiu estimated the school spends about $20,000 a year on Yondr pouches.

However, San Mateo teachers and administrators said the program’s benefits outweigh its costs.

“From a school perspective, it keeps kids off of their phone during class time,” Citrin said. “Because the main focus here is education, that’s what the purpose is, and that’s what the use is benefiting.”

Capital News Service is a student-staffed reporting service operated by the University of Maryland’s Phillip Merrill College of Journalism. Stories are available at the  and may be reprinted as long as credit is given to Capital News Service and, most importantly, to the students who produced the work.

Their reactions were followed by a sigh of relief at the next question: How has life changed since your schools implemented phone bans?

A huge change, they both said, in their classrooms and throughout their schools. Where once TikTok videos were being filmed in school hallways and Instagram Reels watched during instruction, teachers now feel like they “actually have the whole attention of the class,” Corletta said.

“It’s like night and day. It’s so different,” said Corletta, comparing his experience as an English language arts teacher at MS 137 in South Ozone Park Queens, which began using magnetically locked phone pouches about five years ago, to his previous experience at a Bronx school with no restrictions. “I don’t touch [the phones]. I don’t hold them. I don’t see them, I don’t do anything like that and it’s really really nice.”

Once silent cafeterias now have kids yelling, gossiping and playing cards – a refreshing sight for many educators like Corletta and Leston, who teach in middle and high schools respectively. Lunchtime, for many school leaders, used to feel like phone time. 

But now, “students are playing Uno again in the cafeteria,” said New York City Department of Education Deputy Chancellor Danika Rux in an interview with The 74. 

New York City schools have had of phone restriction policies, with an outright ban in the early 2000s that was reversed about . Individual schools, like the ones where Corletta and Leston teach, have had the their own restrictions. 

That will change again in the new academic year as all schools in New York state will implement a bell-to-bell ban — one of the strictest among dozens of other states that — barring students from access to personal devices that can connect to the internet for the entire school day. Schools will be required to provide storage for the devices. 

But with such new policies, many being implemented for the first time this school year or in effect for less than two years, no one knows what the perfect model looks like. 

Researchers are moving cautiously as they grapple with uncertainty about the effectiveness of in-school phone bans on mental health. Data yields — and there’s growing a sentiment that more has to be done outside of schools to get kids off their phones and back into the world. 

A recent Pew Research survey found that nearly restrictive phone use in schools, up six percentage points since last year — but many are also unsure how far the bans should go. About 44% of respondents supported all day bans, with others split on whether students should have access to their phones between classes or at lunch. 

“We do have some emerging evidence from the research that shows that phone bans can have pretty substantial positive effects,” said Katie Rybakova, an associate professor and chair at the Lunder School of Education at Thomas College in Waterville, Maine. 

But studies are limited and “really small from the researcher lens.” Inconsistencies in how bans are implemented from state to state, district to district, school to school and classroom to classroom make it hard to measure, she said. 

“You can’t compare a rural district in Alabama to a suburban district in New York,” Rybakova said. “It’s going to look very different, depending on the place and space, and the students that you’re working with, the teachers, how it’s monitored and what kind of accountability measures are in place.” 

With the ban in New York about to take effect, some schools have had to scrap policies that have worked for them to now adhere to new legislation, while others are implementing digital bans for the first time.

“Implementation is daunting,” Leston said. “When I heard of the [state] ban, I was like, ‘Oh, that’s great!’ My school already had one, but then I thought about it for a minute, and I said, ‘Oh, this is going to be a big deal for a lot of schools, especially large comprehensive high schools.’ … It’s going to be a very hard norm to create cellphone free schools.”

Growing support across the country

Annette Campbell Anderson, an associate professor at John Hopkins School of Education, said increasing legislation calling for cellphone bans in schools nationwide has come from a “perfect storm” of push and pull between district leaders, teachers and parents.

The COVID-19 pandemic and remote learning pushed students into an unprecedented dependency on technology use for school, socialization and entertainment. 

“There was this overwhelming desire for kids to get their education online, and so because schools were closed, … everyone thought, ‘Well, we’ve got these phones. We’ve got this access to technology. Why don’t we use that?’ ” Anderson said.

At the same time, parents also had unparalleled access to the classroom during the pandemic where they got to see what and how their children were being educated. When students returned to their physical campuses, parents wanted to “keep a bird’s eye view on what was happening in school,” and tried to remain in close communication with their children, Anderson said, also acknowledging growing fears of school shootings and school safety.

The result? “We pushed the phones into the hands of our young people,” Anderson said.

In schools, students remained mentally checked out and educators grew frustrated.

“Before we instituted a ban, kids were preoccupied with their cellphones. They were on their social media. … They were creating TikToks in the hallway,” Leston said. “It contributed to conflict in the building. Kids couldn’t communicate with each other. They were distracted in the classroom.”

Mental health issues , hitting a breaking point for everyone.

“All these things were coalescing into this perfect storm of a moment,” Anderson said. “What you have [now] is a bunch of people who have the instinct that we’ve gone too far.”

Extent of cell bans triggers split response

Around 31 states across the country have implemented or recommended some type of school-based technology ban, according to tracking from . 

There’s some argument that New York’s policy may be too restrictive and left some superintendents across the state feeling like their hands were tied when their schools had bans that were working.

“We’ve seen districts which had adopted very thoughtful policies, and in some cases, with student engagement, they were accepted,” said Robert Lowry, deputy director for advocacy, research and communications for the New York State Council of School Superintendents. “They seemed to be working well, so [the new legislation] was a point of contention.” 

One New York district, for example, allowed students access to personal devices in certain areas of their schools buildings and with permission, which was popular with students, parents and educators, Lowry said. 

But with the state ban going into effect, that policy will quickly have to be revised with limited time and community input. 

“If you want to try and engage parents, teachers and others in developing a policy – hopefully building a consensus – summer is not the best time,” Lowry said.

New York State allocated in its latest budget toward implementation, which is expected to help purchase storage options. New York City has also added an to its budget to help support the shift for the upcoming school year.

“We’ve given them templates of what a policy could look like, so that they can customize for their school community. We’ve given them sample communication to families,” Rux said.

More work to be done, in and out of school buildings

For researchers, cellphone bans raise concerns if parents and educators are going to see the outcomes they’re hoping for — with many researchers saying there needs to be more proactive measures outside of school to see an improvement in children’s mental health.   

“I feel like the bans don’t go far enough, and if we just check the box to say we’ve banned it in school, we’ve basically pushed this responsibility on to teachers and administrators to be responsible for this and then we’ve also said that we don’t care what happens after school,” John Hopkins’ Anderson said.

Researchers suggested reform may begin with better educating parents on the effects of screen-time and a push toward better modeling of behavior, but it may also be a call for more legislative action on social media use as a whole.

“What we really need is a digital code of conduct for our young people to understand what they should be doing,” Anderson said. “We’ve got warnings on nicotine, we’ve got warnings on alcohol, but the device that’s actually in a kid’s hand more times than not – we don’t have any guardrails around any of that.”

A quarter of the 13-18 year olds in the study used devices for two hours each school day, which lasts around seven hours. The averages outnumber minutes allotted for lunch and period breaks combined, showing youth are distracted by phones throughout huge chunks of class time. 

, is the first to accurately paint a picture of adolescent phone behavior by using a third party app to monitor usage over four months in 2023. Previous studies have relied on parent surveys or self-reported estimates. 

“That’s pretty alarming … It’s too much, not only because of the missed learning opportunity in the classroom,” said researcher Lauren Hale, sleep expert and professor at Stony Brook’s Renaissance School of Medicine. 

“They’re missing out on real life social interaction with peers, which is just as valuable for growth during a critical period of one’s life,” she told The 74. 

Hale and the other researchers’ early findings come from 117 teens for which they had school data, just one slice of a pool from over 300 participants, which will be analyzed and used to consider how phone usage impacts sleep, obesity, depression and other outcomes. 

Teens most often used messaging, Instagram and video streaming platforms. While most spent about 26 minutes on Instagram, in one extreme case, a student was on the app for 269 minutes — nearly 5 hours — during the school day.

Data reveal particular groups of students are using their phones more than their peers: Girls and older kids, aged 16 to 18, spent a half hour above the average 1.5 hours; and Latino and multiracial students spent on average 15 minutes above average. 

Additionally, though researchers cannot hypothesize as to why based on the descriptive data, kids who have one or more parents with a college degree used smartphones less during the school day. 

The findings are particularly concerning given young people missed key social years with peers during the pandemic, the impact of which is felt in ways big and small, like being hesitant to work with peers in groups.

Teachers in contact with Hale since research went public in early February say of the 1.5 hour average, “that’s too low an estimate. They think we underestimated.”

is among several districts with plans to institute a cellphone ban, though such bans are inconsistently implemented and new research from the UK suggests bans alone .

“These results are consistent, supportive evidence of anecdotal stories from across the country about kids missing out on learning and social opportunities. [They] can help justify efforts to provide a coherent smartphone policy for schools,” said Hale, adding that such policy should not be left up to individual teachers to enforce.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma lawmakers filed hundreds of bills affecting education for the next legislative session.

Oklahoma Voice collected some of the top trends and topics that emerged in legislation related to students, teachers and schools. The state Legislature will begin considering bills once its 2025 session begins Feb. 3.

Bills would restrict minors’ use of cellphones and social media

As expected, lawmakers filed multiple bills to limit student cellphone use in public schools, an issue that leaders in both chambers of the Legislature have said is a top priority this year.

The House and Senate each have a bill that would prohibit students from using cellphones during the entire school day. Some while others allow cellphone access in between classes.

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After , Gov. Kevin Stitt that have done so.

from Education Committee vice chair Sen. Ally Seifried, R-Claremore, would require all districts to ban students from accessing their cellphones from the morning bell until dismissal, and it would create a $2 million grant program to help schools enact phone-free policies.

from a House leader on education funding, Rep. Chad Caldwell, R-Enid, would prohibit student cellphone use while on school premises.

Multiple bills target children’s social media use. Sen. Kristen Thompson, R-Edmond, aims to ban social media accounts for anyone under 16 with and, with , to deem social media addictive and dangerous for youth mental health. 

A from Seifried would outlaw social media companies from collecting data from and personalizing content for a minor’s account, which a child wouldn’t be allowed to have without parent consent

from Sen. Micheal Bergstron, R-Adair, would require districts to prohibit the use of social media on school computers or on school-issued devices while on campus. from Sen. Darcy Jech, R-Kingfisher, would allow minors or their parents to sue a social media company over an “adverse mental health outcome arising, in whole or in part, from the minor’s excessive use of the social media platform’s algorithmically curated service.”

School chaplain bill reemerges

Multiple lawmakers have refiled a bill seeking to enable . A version of the controversial bill but .

Its original author, Rep. Kevin West, R-Moore, refiled it as . Sen. Shane Jett, R-Shawnee, and Sen. Dana Prieto, R-Tulsa, filed similar school chaplain bills with and .

More restrictions suggested for sex education, gender expression

Another unsuccessful bill returning this year is legislation that would have families opt into sex education for their children instead of opting out, which is the state’s current policy.

Students wouldn’t be allowed to take any sex education course or hear a related presentation without written permission from their parents under from Prieto, from Danny Williams, R-Seminole, and from Rep. Tim Turner, R-Kinta.

Sen. Dusty Deevers, R-Elgin, would have any reference to sex education and mental health removed from health education in schools with .

Prieto’s bill also would exclude any instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity from sex education courses. It would require school employees to notify a child’s parents before referring to the student by a different name or pronouns.

Other bills similarly would limit students’ ability to be called by a different name or set of pronouns at school if it doesn’t correspond to their biological sex.

�ٱ�𱹱����’ would bar teachers from calling students by pronouns other than what aligns with their biological sex or by any name other than their legal name without parent consent. Educators and fellow students could not be punished for calling a child by their legal name and biological pronouns.

Rep. Gabe Woolley, R-Broken Arrow, filed a .

No public school could compel an employee or volunteer to refer to a student by a name or pronoun other than what corresponds with their sex at birth under from Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant, nor could any printed or multimedia materials in a school refer to a student by another gender.

Corporal punishment in schools

Once again, Oklahoma lawmakers will consider whether to outlaw of students with disabilities. State law currently prohibits using physical pain as discipline on children with only the most significant cognitive disabilities.

In 2020, the state Department of Education used its administrative rules to ban corporal punishment on any student with a disability, but similar bills have failed to pass the state Legislature, drawing frustration from child advocates.

Sen. Dave Rader, R-Tulsa, was an author of last year’s bill to prohibit corporal punishment of students with any type of disability. He filed again for consideration this session.

from Rep. John Waldron, D-Tulsa, would require schools to report to the Oklahoma State Department of Education the number of times they administer corporal punishment along with the age, race, gender and disability status of the students receiving it. The state Department of Education would then have to compile the information in a report to the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth.

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.

The Senate Education Committee voted 4-1 to send  to the floor for consideration by the whole body, but not before softening the language to read “restrict” instead of the original “prohibit.” 

The measure comes amid a bipartisan trend of new limits on smartphone and social media use in schools. Nearly 20 states, including California, Oklahoma, Minnesota and Florida, have passed laws or enacted policies that either ban or restrict students’ use of cellphones or recommend local districts enact such policies. 

Sponsor Sen. Wendy Schuler, R-Evanston, a retired teacher, said she was inspired to bring the bill by a common teacher complaint that policing phone use has become a classroom nightmare. She cited data on the harmful mental health effects of social media and the hours of screentime many teenagers experience. 

“When we talk about trying to do good things for our kids in education, I think this might be one of the most important things we can do for our students,” Schuler said. 

The bill zeroes in on restricting use just during “instructional time.”

Not everyone agreed, however, that it’s as simple as banning devices, and due to potential complexities around safety, health conditions and communication needs, lawmakers replaced the more stringent “prohibit” in the original version with “restrict.”

What they said

At least 18 of Wyoming’s 48 school districts — and likely more — do not have cellphone policies, according to data collected this fall by the Wyoming School Boards Association. The lack of district-wide policies hasn’t stopped some schools in those districts from adopting specific rules. Senate File 21 would force all districts to adopt policies restricting smartphone use

In states that already have such regulations, Schuler said, the results are promising. “They’re seeing better social interactions with kids with their peers, better focus in class, higher achievement.” 

Kirk Schmidt of Lander, a retired school administrator, warned lawmakers about passing a bill that would not be nimble enough to react to the ever-changing realities of technology. 

Schmidt also noted that some teachers use these devices for instructional purposes. “This takes all that away,” he said. 

Others wondered about enforcement, privacy concerns and timelines. 

Supporters, meanwhile, echoed that smartphones are correlated with declining academic performance and behavioral problems like bullying. 

“I can tell you that the phones in the schools are very difficult for the teachers and administrators,” said Cheyenne resident Deb Mutter Shamley, who has experienced it firsthand as a substitute teacher. 

Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder supports the bill, a spokesperson told lawmakers. Degenfelder and Gov. Mark Gordon penned a joint letter in September urging Wyoming schools to limit cellphones. 

Tweaks 

In order to allow districts more flexibility, committee members voted to amend the language. They also pushed out the timeline two months to give school districts until Sept. 1 to enact policies. 

Sen. Charlie Scott, R-Casper, said he thinks the measure can “make significant progress in improving the quality of instruction in public schools.”

Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie, who cited concern about state government overreach, was the lone dissenting vote. 

The bill now heads to the Senate floor where it must pass three readings before it can advance to the House.

This was originally published on .

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 .

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.

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

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.

This was originally published on .

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 .

The results come from a that polled 1,506 parents of K-12 public school students conducted by the National Parents Union between Feb. 6-8.

For the past four years, the organization has surveyed parents leading up to the State of the Union address, “because we want parents to be able to give their own State of the Union,” said founding president and 74 contributor Keri Rodrigues. All questions are written by parents who serve on the group’s Family Advisory Council, composed of delegates across the country that represent different intersections of American families.

While some results were unsurprising — like parents welcoming more financial support — they are still important, according to Rodrigues, because they serve as an essential message to policymakers about what parents care about. “We have these little, ‘We told you so moments.’ I think this is yet another one.”

Rodrigues said that voters are repeatedly and inaccurately told that parents are angriest about hot-button, culture war issues.

“We have consistently said to people, ‘Please, listen. Look at the data …’ It is clear,” she said.
“Parents are struggling with economic issues … Inflation, the cost of living, people living on the edge. Parents and families are scared and they’re hurting.” 

“We are obviously focused on education justice but economic justice for families is equally important to us,” Rodrigues added later, “because we really deal with the intersectional issues … we just don’t think you can separate those things.”

Overall, surveyed parents ranked K-12 education as the third most important issue for the president and Congress to address, behind the economy and immigration.

“In education, we think we’re the center of the universe, and we’re not,” Rodrigues said. “We’re a piece of the puzzle. It’s relevant, it’s in the mix, it’s definitely a concern. But we have to understand the intersectionality of the larger political context and where we fall in it and how it competes with other issues for the average voter and for the average American family.”

According to another released by the organization in November 2023, voters trust Democrats slightly more on education and Republicans by a small margin on the economy. The majority of parents reported wanting policymakers to work together to find bipartisan education policy solutions, even if it means compromising with people they disagree with.

“It just makes me crazy that our elected officials don’t listen,” Rodrigues said. “There are really big, important things that American families want us to do,” including the child tax credit, which during last week’s State of the Union, and stronger, evidence-based reading and literacy programs. 

“We can do big things,” she continued. “We can have unity … The majority of us can agree on some big, important things.”

Of parents surveyed in February, 87% were in favor of expanding the child tax credit and 85% were in favor of expanding subsidies to reduce health insurance costs. The vast majority were also in favor of providing funding directly to families of K-12 public school students to help them pay for supplemental resources such as tutoring. 

The survey did not include questions about more controversial vouchers, which let parents use taxpayer money to send their kids to private schools. The National Parents Union is known for both its criticism of traditional public schools, including teachers unions, that is sometimes seen as aligning with pro-school choice education reform forces and for elevating the voices of parents, especially lower-income parents of color.

Over 80% of surveyed families want the federal government to support all K-12 public schools via counseling and mental health services, free school lunch, free, high-quality preschool programs and increased funding for schools in low-income communities.

Among the 484 parents who responded to demographic questions, 27% consider themselves to be conservative, 24% liberal and 43% moderate. They were also socioeconomically and geographically diverse. About half of respondents were white, 15% Black, 24% Hispanic or Latino and 3% Asian. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.

While the vast majority of school districts across the country have received additional federal funding to address COVID-related challenges, only 27% of parents reported having seen or heard anything about how these ESSER dollars were being used in their kids’ schools.

Just over 70% of parents, though, did report that their child’s public school had provided laptops or tablets for students since 2021 and about 45% said schools were offering additional tutoring or counseling services, which could have been supported by pandemic relief funds.

The ESSER funding results, Rodriguez said, reveal that parents did not get the voice they were promised in how that money was spent and that “a lot of things that we actually wanted — like additional mental health support — were not realized.” 

“Are we whipping laptops and chromebooks at kids? Hell yes we are. Is that necessarily a good thing? I mean a lot of parents would argue that that’s not actually getting us to the outcome.” 

Pro cell phones, wary of social media use 

To help inform the survey’s focus, Rodrigues said the National Parents Union presented data to their Family Advisory Council around student use of social media and its impact on mental health. 

A new understanding emerged from these discussions: Parents view cell phones and social media as separate issues, yet the two have become convoluted. This reframing was a lesson for her, she said, both as president of the organization and as a mother.

This same distinction was borne out in the survey results, she said: Parents want their kids to have access to their phones during the school day so that they can stay in touch with them, but they also recognize the dangers of social media and its negative impact on their children.

The top reasons kids use their phone, according to surveyed parents, is to contact family members, play games, contact friends, listen to music and take videos. A majority of parents (65%) also reported that their children used their phones for social media and 83% said there should be a minimum age limit on when kids are allowed to have their own social media accounts, with the largest share (20%) citing age 13. Just under 30% of parents said their children spend somewhere between four and five hours a day on their phone. 

Despite social media concerns, nearly half of parents said their child’s cell phone use had a positive impact on them and an additional 42% said phones have about an equally positive and negative impact. 

Parents listed a number of reasons they want their kids to take phones to school, with about 80% saying it was so they could use it in case of an emergency. About half of parents said it was an important tool for coordinating transportation to and from school, and 40% said they want their kids to be able to communicate with them about their mental health or other needs throughout the day. 

Just over half of parents believe that kids should sometimes be allowed to use their cell phones in school, while about a third believe students should be banned from using phones unless they’re needed for a medical condition or disability. There was very little parent support for locking up students’ cell phones in secure pouches or containers. 

“I think it goes back to something that we have been talking about since the beginning of the pandemic and the Great Parent Awakening,” Rodrigues said, “which is that the implicit trust that parents have in schools— that they’re going to tell us what’s going on and the communication — a lot of that has eroded. And that’s not toothpaste you can put back in the tube.”

Disclosure: Walton Family Foundation provides financial support to the National Parents Union and to The 74.

Spurred by his concerns about social media’s impact on children, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox on Wednesday announced he’s encouraging schools to adopt cellphone-free policies in their classrooms.

Cox has sent letters to district and charter school leaders, school principals, community council members and the State Board of Education “sharing his concerns about the harmful effects social media has on our children and asking them to remove cellphones during class time,” Cox’s office said in a news release.

“We all know that cellphones are a distraction and when we put phones away we can actually focus and study,” Cox said. “Cellphone-free learning environments will help our teachers teach and our students learn.”

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The governor said “we want to give our schools every opportunity to succeed” and he hopes Utah’s public and charter schools “will join me in this effort to keep phones in backpacks or lockers during class time.”

A spokeswoman for Cox told Utah News Dispatch the governor isn’t going as far as to encourage teachers to feel free to take away cellphones during class time, but rather he’s encouraging schools and their districts to adopt cellphone-free policies. He’s recommended “educators engage with parents and collaborate as they work together to develop cellphone policies,” according to his office.

Utah is currently suing social media companies including and , alleging their platforms are addictive and mentally harmful to children.

Last year, Utah also became the first state in the nation to pass two pieces of legislation prohibiting minors from using social media between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. unless authorized by a parent. The new laws, which take effect March 1, also require age verification to open and maintain a social media account in the state.

NetChoice, a group representing TikTok and other major tech companies, filed a federal suit against Utah in December, alleging the state’s regulations are unconstitutional because they restrict access to public content, compromise data security and undermine parental rights, the reported.

What’s happening in schools already restricting cellphones?

Cox’s office noted many schools in Utah have already moved forward with schoolwide cellphone policies to restrict student access, pointing to Delta High School and Millard School District’s “cellphone-free” policy, requiring students to put their phones in a clear pocket that hangs in front of the classroom.

“It was a battle to begin with, but it has been so worth it,” said Jared Christensen, vice principal of Delta High School, in a prepared statement. “Students and parents have all adapted, our teachers are happier and learning has increased.”

Cox’s office also said schools have “shared experiences that are supported by compelling national data,” citing an article written by Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at the NYU Stern School of Business titled “”

Haidt wrote “research is clear: Smartphones undermine attention, learning, relationships and belonging.”

Evergreen Junior High in Granite School District also does not allow cellphones to be out anytime during the day — in classrooms, halls or lunchrooms. Cox’s office said one of the reasons Evergreen Junior High “has been so successful” with adopting and implementing their cellphone policy is “that they proactively educate parents on the benefits.”

“It’s so much easier to just ban them altogether,” said Evergreen Principal Ryan Shaw. “Learning has improved, and our scores reflect that. Bullying and fighting have decreased. The students connect with each other in a more meaningful way. We are grateful for the support we have from our community council — it’s been critical.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Utah News Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor McKenzie Romero for questions: info@utahnewsdispatch.com. Follow Utah News Dispatch on and .