How to Deal With Mobile Phones at School

More than two-thirds of children in the US own a smartphone by their 13th birthday, and the device’s ubiquity is fueling concerns among parents, educators and local officials over how to regulate it in school.

The two largest US school districts— New York City and Los Angeles—are moving forward with plans to implement phone bans in the coming academic year, while New York and California are weighing statewide restrictions. In a New York Timesop-ed article published in June, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy urged schools to ensure classrooms and social time are phone-free, citing the mental health crisis among adolescents. A survey from the Pew Research Center this year found that more than 70% of high school teachers consider phone distraction a “major problem.”

Yet implementing bans poses a number of challenges. Most parents think students should be allowed to use their phone occasionally at school, according to a February survey from the National Parents Union. The Pew poll, meanwhile, revealed that 60% of high school educators find policies somewhat or very difficult to enforce.

Some New York City schools began banning communication devices in the late 1980s when kids started bringing pagers to class. A smartphone policy was more stringently enforced under former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (founder and majority owner of Bloomberg Businessweek parent Bloomberg LP, and a vocal supporter of school phone bans) and then lifted in 2015 under then-Mayor Bill de Blasio. His children were students at the time, and he argued the rule prevented families from staying in touch with their kids, one of the most frequent parental objections, especially given the increasing frequency of school shootings. De Blasio also said the city’s approach was inequitable, because it was enforced mostly at lower-income schools with metal detectors.

The landscape has shifted over the past decade. Kids are getting phones earlier, cases of depression and suicidal ideation are persistent, and academic gaps are widening. The reasons are complex, but top psychologists have argued social media and smartphone use are key contributors. With phones here to stay, is there a common ground?

The Case For

Kids, like the rest of us, are on their phones a lot: A 2023 study found teens receive a median of 237 notifications and spend almost four and a half hours on their phone daily, with some usage reaching as long as 16 hours.

The Los Angeles Unified School District instituted a phone-use policy in 2011, but it was poorly enforced, and for years there was little appetite for a tougher stand. LAUSD board member Nick Melvoin says that changed with the publication of Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation in March. An instant bestseller, the book linked mental illness among children to smartphones and helped crystallize the political will to craft a stronger policy, says Melvoin, who took the lead in writing the rules that are slated to take effect in January.

Almost 1 in 4 countries have taken steps to ban mobile phones in schools, according to a 2023 Unesco report that assesses the benefits and risks of technology in education. Among them is France, which passed a law in 2018 that prevents younger students from using cellphones on school grounds but allows high schools to create their own policies. China in 2021 barred children from bringing phones to school without parental approval. Proponents of bans expect they’ll improve academic achievement, a growing concern as students’ recovery from the pandemic stalls in the US. (Last year, 13-year-olds showed the largest declines ever recorded on national math tests administered by the National Center for Education Statistics.)

Advocates for tougher controls also argue they’ll foster healthier social interaction among children. A January study by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health found bullying decreased after a ban, while girls’ mental health and grades improved, particularly for those from low-socioeconomic backgrounds.

Photographer: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

The Case Against

The chief concern among critics of outright bans is that parents would lose the ability to stay in contact with their children—whether for routine matters, such as a change in soccer practice, or more extreme circumstances, like a medical emergency.

Aaron Pallas, a professor of sociology and education at Teachers College, Columbia University, says children need to learn how to control their phone use for themselves. Moreover, he says most school districts haven’t worked out the logistics involved. For instance, there’s the cost of materials such as magnetic pouches to store phones, which can run as much as $30 apiece. And the process of collecting students’ phones at the start of the school day and then returning them at the end will eat into class time. “I understand the impulse to implement bans but worry that policymakers haven’t really thought through what it’s going to take,” Pallas says.

An uneven rollout could leave some students feeling ostracized, even while carveouts will almost certainly be necessary to accommodate those who might need such services as translation or speech software.

The Common Ground

A growing body of research has linked greater use of devices to poorer mental health in children and adolescents, but more information is needed to understand the effects of banning them in schools. In a rare bipartisan show of support, Republican Senator Tom Cotton (Arkansas) and Democratic Senator Tim Kaine (Virginia) introduced a bill in November that would require the Department of Education to carry out a study on the topic and allocate $5 million annually to a group of select schools. The funds would help cover expenses such as having to install lockers or purchase pouches for phones.

Some schools have experimented with a policy in which students forfeit their phone until their next-to-last class, allowing them time to sort through any changes in pickup or after-school plans with parents. Others advocate that schools make allowances for so-called dumb devices—think the flip phones of the early 2000s—that lack the addictive qualities of handsets that support a multitude of apps.

For parents worried about emergencies, some experts say phone access in such scenarios could actually make students less safe. In an active shooter situation, a buzzing phone could alert the intruder to a child’s location, and panicked calls from students could lead to miscommunication with emergency responders.

There’s also the delicate issue of what tech companies think about potentially losing young customers. Apple Inc. has been trying to position its Apple Watch as an alternative to the smartphone for children; since 2020 the company has offered a feature that allows kids to make calls and send texts from a watch connected to a parent’s iPhone. But the diminutive gadgets may not be the panacea both sides are searching for: One study found they’re more distracting to drivers than phones.