Cellphone restrictions are becoming more commonplace in school. But it’s no easy feat for educators to pull off.
At least 19 states have laws or policies that ban or restrict students’ use of cellphones in schools statewide or recommend districts come up with their own restrictive policies, according to an Education Week analysis. Elsewhere in the country, many districts have independently restricted students’ use of cellphones in the classroom.
But there are a lot of factors for school and district leaders to consider when implementing a new cellphone policy. Parent concerns need to be addressed, and to some extent, those of students. Teachers, too, need to be assured that if they have to take students’ cellphones away, administrators will back them up.
Lee Ann Wentzel, the superintendent of the Ridley school district in Pennsylvania, said it’s important to communicate any change in policy to each group—parents, teachers, and students—well in advance. That helped her district build support for cellphone restrictions, which were rolled out in phases starting in November 2024.
First, cellphones were barred only in math classes at the high school. Once Wentzel saw the positive effects of the policy, she gradually extended it to the rest of the classes in high school and to the middle school.
Wentzel was especially concerned about how principals and teachers would respond to being asked to “police something that the parents [have] bought their kids … and [are not] willing to say no to at home.” Once teachers saw that no cellphones in class meant less distraction, though, their “teaching experience” improved, she said. Students, too, were rid of the temptation of constantly checking their phones.
Researchers say there’s no concrete evidence yet that cellphone bans improve student concentration or lead to higher grades. But anecdotally, several school and district leaders say they have witnessed significant changes in their schools and classrooms once the use of cellphones was restricted.
Tim Callahan, an assistant superintendent at the North Adams school district in Massachusetts, saw a 75 percent reduction in disciplinary referrals over a period of one year. He attributes the drop almost completely to the district’s newly implemented cellphone ban introduced in the 2023-24 school year.
The details of cellphone restrictions differ across schools and districts: Some allow students to use their cellphones when changing classes or during lunch. Others have decided to lock up phones in pouches or lockers for the whole school day.
Either way, superintendents and school leaders report that having a clear cellphone policy can lead to fewer fights in school and make students less distracted in classrooms.
Education Week spoke to half a dozen district and school leaders about how they’ve mustered support for bans or restrictions on cellphones, and made that support stick. Their tips have been distilled in the following downloadable resource.
