Commentary: Banning phones in schools is the first and most important step to addressing the addiction U.S. students have to their electronic mobile devices.
Teenagers report checking their cellphones 100 times a day, including at school. Offering instant access to social media, games and more, smartphones have the power to severely undermine an effective learning environment.
At a time when reading and math scores are in steep decline among post-pandemic students, removing these distractions should be a no-brainer.
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An increasing number of states are enacting bans on phone use in schools, but that’s just the first step. Federal guidelines would offer states a consistent structure and support — but at the end of the day, parents should feel empowered to use the tools already at their fingertips and encourage their kids to develop healthy phone habits.
To date, 33 states and the District of Columbia have established policies restricting cellphone use in schools, of which 18 include a blanket ban throughout the school day. We’re already seeing encouraging results in states with total bans. Florida, for example, is reporting higher average test scores and lower unexcused absences since its statewide ban was implemented in 2023. Prior to that, New York City was the first American city to introduce a cellphone ban.
With more states finally taking action, the federal government can play a vital role by establishing regulations banning cellphones in all public schools. Congress could also create a national grant program offering financial support to districts as they implement bans and evaluate their effectiveness. These funds could also help states and districts operating on slimmer budgets cover the costs of phone storage solutions. Banning phones in schools is the first and most important step to addressing the addiction U.S. students have to their electronic mobile devices.
Bolstered by federal support, state leaders could be motivated to adopt a digital citizenship curriculum that teaches students how to navigate and evaluate online content safely. Students should be taught to see technology as a tool for learning, not as a means of using social media and YouTube. Districts have an opportunity to build on students’ interest in digital technology by offering courses on app development and coding — exposing students to gainful careers in computer science and related fields.
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Ultimately, while federal guidelines and stronger state bans will help curb excessive cellphone use in schools, lasting behavior change outside the classroom will require support from parents. Although parental control features exist on mobile phones and other devices, their use is still limited. Just 34% of parents report activating these controls to help manage or restrict their teen’s cellphone use. Many more families should take advantage of these features.
States and districts can help by educating families about the well-documented harms of excessive cellphone use and offering strategies for limiting use beyond academics.
Florida’s phone ban offers a helpful example. An important aspect of Florida’s policy is that it offers leverage to boost enforcement, with districts like Martin County requiring parents to personally retrieve their child’s phone from school when there’s a violation. The policy also raises the severity of cellphone use to a higher-level infraction, which carries the weight of interventions like suspension for repeated violations.
These strategies incentivize parents to take an active role in ensuring their students’ phones aren’t used as distractions during the school day. When a parent has to take time off work to drive to school to retrieve a phone or attend a meeting about a policy violation, it encourages them to take proactive steps to limit phone use — for example, by activating controls on their teen’s device.
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At the end of the day, schools alone should not be expected to drive behavior change. Strong statewide bans on cellphone use in schools, reinforced and undergirded by federal guidelines and district interventions, are a good step in the right direction. However, improving healthy cellphone use among students will require proactivity from parents.
When boundaries around cellphone use aren’t set and maintained from the get-go, it increases the risks of unhealthy digital habits that can damage a child’s well-being and success in school and college — and even undermine their professional trajectory in adulthood.
Weadé James is senior director of K-12 Education Policy at the Center for American Progress. She wrote this for InsideSources.com.
