Phone Bans in Schools

School phone bans. One-to-one devices. Class-time screen use. These hot-button issues are sparking debate in schools and households around the country as educators and parents grapple with how device use during school time impacts student focus, learning, and development. But what do we know about the effectiveness of phone bans, and what do experts recommend for device use in the classroom?

A growing wave of education leaders and policymakers are adopting new cellphone policies, with the debate swinging decidedly in favor of tighter restrictions. Limiting access, they argue, will benefit students’ mental health and learning. At least 38 states and the District of Columbia require school districts to ban or restrict students’ use of cellphones in schools. Some other states are either incentivizing or recommending local districts enact their own bans or restrictive policies.

According to a 2023 report from Common Sense Media, half of kids ages 11 to 17 receive at least 237 notifications on their phones on a typical day — 25% of which are received during the school day. In the past year or so, dozens of school districts have sued the parent companies of Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube, alleging their apps cause classroom disciplinary problems and mental health issues and divert resources from education.

Aside from the more obvious concern of cell phones being a significant distraction from learning, in June 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory calling on Congress to require warning labels on social media platforms regarding their effects on young people. The advisory said social media may cause body image issues, affect eating behaviors and sleep quality, and lead to social comparison and low self-esteem.

Overall, the researchers found 12-year-olds who had a smartphone had a 1.3 times higher risk of depression, a 1.4 times higher risk of obesity, and a 1.6 times higher risk of insufficient sleep. Even children who did not have a phone at the age of 12 but received one a year later reported poorer mental health and sleep quality than kids of the same age who didn’t have a smartphone. Additionally, the earlier the age at which a child received a smartphone, the greater the risk of developing the problems increased by about 10% for each year earlier age, starting as young as age four.

In summer 2024, two states announced they were piloting programs to restrict cell phones in the classroom. Delaware and Pennsylvania approved funding in 2024 to provide some districts with pouches for storing cell phones during classroom instruction. On July 1, 2024, Delaware Governor John Carney signed a $168 million supplemental spending bill that allocated $250,000 for a state Department of Education pilot program for cell phone pouches. Under the pilot program, students would place their phones in locked pouches and would not have access to them until the end of the school day. Lawmakers suggested five to eight schools be chosen to participate in the pilot. The state DoE has been charged with implementing the pilot and collecting and evaluating data.

Allison Green
Boston Tutoring Services