{"id":367,"date":"2025-03-03T19:57:05","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T19:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/midamerica.news\/sigourney-news-review\/2025\/03\/03\/school-cellphone-bans-spread-across-states-though-enforcement-could-be-tricky\/"},"modified":"2025-03-10T07:35:49","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T07:35:49","slug":"school-cellphone-bans-spread-across-states-though-enforcement-could-be-tricky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/midamerica.news\/sigourney-news-review\/2025\/03\/03\/school-cellphone-bans-spread-across-states-though-enforcement-could-be-tricky\/","title":{"rendered":"School cellphone bans spread across states, though enforcement could be tricky"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

\"woman
New York is one of many states joining a wave of others proposing statewide cellphone bans and restrictions in schools. ( Photo courtesy of Paul Hanaoka\/ Unsplash )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

By:\u00a0Robbie Sequeira<\/a><\/em><\/p>\r\n

Across the country, state lawmakers are finding rare bipartisan ground on an increasingly urgent issue for educators and parents: banning cellphone use in schools.<\/p>\r\n

Fueling these bans is growing research<\/a> on the harmful <\/a>effects<\/a> of smartphone and social media use on the mental health and academic achievement of grade to high school students.<\/p>\r\n

In 2024, at least eight states \u2014 California, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Ohio, South Carolina and Virginia<\/a> \u2014 either expanded or adopted policies or laws to curtail cellphone use in schools.<\/p>\r\n

This year, lawmakers in Alabama, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin have proposed bans moving in their state legislatures.<\/p>\r\n

Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders last week signed<\/a> a law requiring schools to ban students\u2019 access to cellphones and other personal electronic devices during the school day.<\/p>\r\n

Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds introduced<\/a> a broader electronics device ban this year.<\/p>\r\n

Last month, New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled<\/a> her plans to ban smartphones at schools.<\/p>\r\n

And last week, Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker proposed<\/a> a statewide ban on cellphones in classrooms.<\/p>\r\n

Some experts warn, however, that these bans might be difficult to enforce \u2014 or may simply be outdated before they even take effect.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThe genie is out of the bottle, and squeezing it back in is going to be nearly impossible,\u201d said Ken Trump, a longtime school safety expert and president of National School Safety and Security Services, a consulting firm. \u201cPhones and social media have fundamentally changed society, and by extension, schooling. Outright bans may be unrealistic or difficult to enforce effectively.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Trump thinks governors, in particular, are responding to a trend rather than conducting thorough research. \u201cOur elected officials are running to say, \u2018he [introduced a bill] so I\u2019m going to do it too.\u2019 \u2026 Once Florida passed their bill, it\u2019s been an explosion.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Florida in 2023 became the first state to enact an outright ban on cellphone use during instructional time, followed by Louisiana and South Carolina last year. Other states, including Alaska and Connecticut, issued recommendations rather than mandates, encouraging local districts to develop their own policies.<\/p>\r\n

In Minnesota, districts are required to implement their own policies under the law passed last year. But a bill<\/a> sponsored by Democratic state Sen. Alice Mann would ban cellphones and smartwatches in elementary and middle schools, and restrict the use of those devices in high school classrooms beginning in the 2026-2027 school year.<\/p>\r\n

Mann began considering the measure after hearing directly from students last year.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWe had a committee hearing where kids told us how distracting cellphones were. That really caught our attention,\u201d she said. \u201cWe talked to school districts across the state \u2014 some had no policy, some had bans for one or two years, and some had bans for longer. The ones with bans all said the same thing: \u2018It\u2019s been wonderful.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Enforcement<\/h4>\r\n

Even where bans exist, enforcement varies widely. Some schools use Yondr pouches, lockable sleeves that prevent phone access during the school day. Others require students to store their phones in lockers or classroom pouches, while some schools rely on simple classroom rules prohibiting phone use.<\/p>\r\n

According to <\/a>the Pew Research Center<\/a>, 72% of U.S. high school teachers say that cellphone distraction is a major issue in their classrooms. While many teachers and administrators report positive changes after bans, students have quickly adapted, finding ways<\/a> to bypass rules by slipping calculators or dummy phones into pouches, or switching to smartwatches to check social media and send texts.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cStudents are more tech-savvy than lawmakers,\u201d said Trump, the school safety expert. \u201cThey find workarounds \u2014 whether it\u2019s through smartwatches, Chromebooks or school Wi-Fi.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

States such as Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho and Pennsylvania allocated funding for programs that provide schools with lockable phone storage pouches, or financial rewards for districts that create their own restrictive policies.<\/p>\r\n

A propos<\/a>ed bill<\/a> in Texas<\/a> would go so far as to charge students up to $30<\/a> to retrieve a phone that was confiscated for violating a cellphone ban.<\/p>\r\n

Schools have wrestled with how to regulate mobile devices for decades \u2014 with bans on devices such as pagers<\/a> dating back to the late 1980s. In 2024, 76% of U.S. public schools prohibited cellphones for nonacademic use, notes<\/a> the National Center for Education Statistics.<\/p>\r\n

Total bans?<\/h4>\r\n

The Girls Athletic Leadership School Los Angeles has enforced strict no-phone policies since its founding in 2016. The charter school\u2019s no-phone policy means no usage on campus, during off-campus experiences, or even on school buses \u2014 a step beyond most phone bans.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cCellphones present a major distraction and temptation for students,\u201d Vanessa Garza, Girls Athletic Leadership School Los Angeles executive director and founding principal, wrote in a statement to Stateline. \u201cThis long-standing policy has allowed our students to foster deep friendships, experience enhanced learning, and regulate healthy emotions.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Instead of top-down state mandates, Trump, the school security expert, thinks that schools should focus on reasonable restrictions and consensus-based policies that work for individual communities.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIf you try to ban phones entirely, enforcement becomes a nightmare,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat happens when kids don\u2019t comply? Are schools going to dedicate staff just to cellphone discipline? If policies aren\u2019t enforced consistently, they become meaningless.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Trump said in school emergencies, students flooding 911 with calls can overwhelm emergency responders.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n
\r\n
\r\n

If a parent needs to get in touch with their child, they can call the school, just like they always could before cellphones were in every pocket.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

\r\n
\r\n

\u2013 Minnesota Democratic state Sen. Alice Mann<\/b><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Mann, the Minnesota lawmaker, dismissed the idea that the pushback on phone bans is coming from students. Instead, she thinks parents are the ones most resistant to restrictions.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cSome parents are worried they won\u2019t be able to reach their kids, but they absolutely can. If a parent needs to get in touch with their child, they can call the school, just like they always could before cellphones were in every pocket,\u201d Mann said.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re hearing from students is that their phones are pinging in class all day long \u2014 and a lot of it is from parents. Parents texting, \u2018What should we have for dinner?\u2019 or \u2018I\u2019ll be home late.\u2019 These are not emergencies.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\r\n
\r\n
This story was originally published by\u00a0Stateline<\/a>, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org<\/a>.<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By:\u00a0Robbie Sequeira Across the country, state lawmakers are finding rare bipartisan ground on an increasingly urgent issue for educators and parents: banning cellphone use in schools. Fueling these bans is growing research on the harmful effects of smartphone and social media use on the mental health and academic achievement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[922,923,924,925,926,927,928,929,930,931,932,933,934,935,936,937,938,939,940,941,942,434,302,943,944,945,946,947,948,949,950,951,436,952,953,954,955,551,956,957,443,958,287,702,959,960,961,962,963,964,289,965,966,967,968,969,970,971,972,973,974,975,976,977,978,979,980,981,982,983,984,490,985,986,987,988,989,990,991,992,993,994,995,996,997,998,999,1000,1001,1002,1003,1004,1005,1006,1007,1008,1009,1010,1011,1012,1013,1014,1015,1016,1017,1018,1019,1020,453,1021,1022,1023,422,1024,1025,1026,1027,1028,1029,1030,1031,1032,1033,1034,1035,1036,1037,1038],"class_list":["post-367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-us-news","tag-academic","tag-academic-outcomes","tag-academic-achievement","tag-academic-environment","tag-academic-growth","tag-academic-performance","tag-academic-results","tag-academic-success","tag-bans","tag-behavior","tag-cell-phone-bans","tag-cell-phone-policy","tag-cellphone","tag-cellphones","tag-classroom-environment","tag-classroom-management","tag-classroom-discipline","tag-classroom-management-tools","tag-classroom-technology","tag-classrooms","tag-communication","tag-concerns","tag-debate","tag-device","tag-devices","tag-digital","tag-digital-devices","tag-digital-distraction","tag-digital-divide","tag-digital-learning","tag-distraction","tag-districts","tag-education","tag-education-technology","tag-educational-environment","tag-educational-impact","tag-educational-policies","tag-enforcement","tag-focus","tag-france","tag-impact","tag-learning","tag-legislation","tag-legislators","tag-mobile-phones","tag-parents","tag-performance","tag-phone-free","tag-phone-use","tag-phones","tag-policy","tag-policy-analysis","tag-policy-analysis-challenges","tag-policy-analysis-variations","tag-policy-consideration-variations","tag-policy-considerations","tag-policy-decisions","tag-policy-development","tag-policy-effectiveness","tag-policy-enforcement","tag-policy-enforcement-challenges","tag-policy-experts","tag-policy-impact","tag-policy-implementation","tag-policy-implementation-challenges","tag-policy-implications","tag-policy-makers","tag-policy-making","tag-policy-resistance","tag-policy-variation","tag-policy-variations","tag-research","tag-school","tag-school-bans","tag-school-bells","tag-school-cell-ban","tag-school-cell-phone","tag-school-cell-phone-bans-effectiveness","tag-school-cell-phone-bans-impact","tag-school-cell-phone-debate","tag-school-cell-phone-enforcement","tag-school-cell-phone-impact","tag-school-cell-phone-policy","tag-school-cell-phone-policy-variation","tag-school-cell-phone-usage","tag-school-cell-phone-use","tag-school-cell-phone-use-impact","tag-school-cell-phones","tag-school-cell-phones-debate","tag-school-cell-phones-effectiveness","tag-school-cell-phones-impact","tag-school-cell-phones-policy","tag-school-cell-phones-policy-implications","tag-school-cell-use","tag-school-cellphone","tag-school-cellphone-ban","tag-school-cellphone-ban-legislation","tag-school-cellphone-bans","tag-school-cellphone-use","tag-school-day","tag-school-day-end","tag-school-day-start","tag-school-disciplinary-actions","tag-school-discipline","tag-school-policy","tag-school-property","tag-school-related","tag-school-settings","tag-schools","tag-screen-time","tag-social-skills","tag-state-legislators","tag-states","tag-student-achievement","tag-student-engagement","tag-student-achievement-impact","tag-student-attention","tag-student-behavior","tag-student-conduct","tag-student-distraction","tag-student-learning","tag-students","tag-studies","tag-teachers","tag-technology","tag-technology-distraction","tag-technology-use","tag-tricky",""],"yoast_head":"\nSchool cellphone bans spread across states, though enforcement could be tricky - The News-Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/midamerica.news\/sigourney-news-review\/2025\/03\/03\/school-cellphone-bans-spread-across-states-though-enforcement-could-be-tricky\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"School cellphone bans spread across states, though enforcement could be tricky - The News-Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  By:\u00a0Robbie Sequeira Across the country, state lawmakers are finding rare bipartisan ground on an increasingly urgent issue for educators and parents: banning cellphone use in schools. 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