What if students had to pass a class to prove they could manage their cellphones and other tech use before being allowed to use personal devices at school?
That’s the idea behind a digital driver’s license, a concept some experts say is worth exploring, even as many districts and states rush to ban cellphones in schools.
While cellphone restrictions have broad support among teachers, critics say these bans may deprive students of the chance to build the digital self-regulation skills they’ll need in less controlled environments like college or the workforce.
“We have this very binary access to tech,” said Richard Culatta, the CEO of ISTE+ASCD. “You don’t get access, and then you get full access—that is a horrible way to introduce kids to the digital world.”
However, many schools have struggled to find a balance between allowing students some access to their cellphones without it tipping into distraction or chaos in the classroom.
How one school is trying the ‘digital driver’s license’
But at least one school in Wisconsin is trying this idea of a digital driver’s license.
At Greenville Middle School in Greenville, Wis., students take a 45-minute course on managing their digital devices—cellphones, tablets, and laptops—at the beginning of the school year. Students must pass a test of around 15 questions before they can bring their cellphones to school or use school-issued devices. If students don’t pass the first time, they have to retake the course until they do.
The course dives into digital literacy topics such as how students’ online activities leave a durable digital footprint and how to determine if a source is credible. The class also covers logistical issues, like how to log into school devices.
Students take the digital literacy course in the first two weeks of the school year, when the school focuses on relationship-building and get-to-know-you activities, said the school’s principal, Travis Lawrence.
“The first 8-10 days of school, we don’t do a whole lot of academics, because the first couple of weeks of school is time for our staff and students to build relationships,” Lawrence said. “We have learned that if you build that climate and culture, the rest of the school year will go a lot better.”
Spending that time setting expectations around device use early on has helped students manage their cellphones better, he said. However, students aren’t allowed to have their phones whenever they want. Students can’t have them out during passing periods or lunch, a policy that was implemented at the beginning of the 2024-25 school year.
But students can use cellphones in class for educational purposes and at their teacher’s discretion. Greenville Middle School does not currently issue laptops to all students, so teachers may ask students to use their cellphones, said Lawrence.
States are moving ahead with cellphone bans, but experts urge digital literacy
Every school community is different, and a single policy or program can’t necessarily be successfully grafted onto every student population. However, many experts say that schools should consider pairing cellphone bans with robust digital literacy lessons.
Nearly half of states and the District of Columbia require school districts to ban or restrict students’ use of cellphones in schools, according to an Education Week tracker. In a few other states, policymakers are incentivizing or recommending that local districts enact their own bans or restrictive policies. At least one state, North Carolina, requires schools to teach digital literacy as part of its new classroom prohibition on cellphones.
Lawmakers across the country have cited improving learning and reducing behavioral problems as reasons for passing these laws.
Some researchers have found that, beyond distracting students from learning, cellphones also undermine the quality of their social interactions with peers and teachers. Students can avoid some social interactions altogether if they’re absorbed by their phones, said Ashley Maxie-Moreman a clinical psychologist at the Children’s National Hospital in the District of Columbia and an assistant professor at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
“If a child or teen is on their phone texting or scrolling on social media it’s certainly going to be harder to gain their attention, whether it’s a friend talking to them at their locker or a teacher in the classroom,” she said. “Findings like this raise an alarm for how constant phone use may impact kiddos’ social skills or engagement, which is just as important as their academic learning.”
Do bans work? Research is still unclear
Research on how effective school cellphone bans actually are in curbing device use and improving students’ learning and socialization is mixed and still emerging.
A recent study that included a survey of students found that cyberbullying was higher at schools with cellphone restrictions and that there was no difference in students’ grades between schools with restrictions and schools without.
Students have also proven to be pretty adept at finding workarounds to school cellphone bans, according to teachers responding to a 2024 EdWeek Research Center survey.
An all-out cellphone ban might not always be the best answer, said Maxie-Moreman.
“Some limitations are important in schools because you need kids to be focused in a learning environment,” she said. “But I think ultimately, rather than taking something away, what’s going to be most effective is really equipping students with the skills to use their phones appropriately and responsibly, whether they’re at school or not.”
Building digital skills, not just setting limits
Allowing students the chance to prove they can use their cellphones and other digital devices responsibly and earn the right to use them in school might reframe the issue and win more buy-in for school cellphone policies than simply taking the devices away, said David Yeager, a psychology professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
Adults are very quick to demonize devices, he said, and students might interpret strict cellphone restrictions in a way that educators don’t really intend.
“I get it, they’re so distracting,” Yeager said. “But as adults, we’re on devices all the time. What it means to be a successful person in our culture is to be very good at devices. And when you say they’re all bad all the time, then it’s a subtle way of saying that [students] are not welcome in this adult world that is their future.”
Incorporating student feedback into how cellphone policies and digital literacy programs are shaped is also important to getting students on board, said Maxie-Moreman.
Whether it’s a driver’s license-style program or something similar, the idea is that schools should think about the skills they’re sending students out into the digital world with, said Culatta.
“This idea of scaffolding, gradually adding more ability as you demonstrate competency, is how we learn,” he said.
