Reclaiming focus: The shift toward phone-free schools
As school phone bans take effect throughout the United States, teachers and administrators are experiencing how difficult it can be to enforce them.
But for many in favor of phone bans in school, this is a good problem to have. Progress is happening at a rapid speed as phone bans roll out in all fifty states.
Welcome to the front lines of turning tech policy into practice.
In this week’s newsletter, we explore the growing adoption of phone bans, the benefits of phone-free learning environments, and how researchers, school administrators, teachers, and students are adjusting to a world where phones are no longer distractions.
// The latest: coming to a school near you
Phone bans are going into effect across the country. Already, eight states in the U.S.—California, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Ohio, South Carolina, and Virginia—have enacted a complete ban or some form of restriction on students’ phones at school.
But there are dozens more with proposed bills or pilots: In the first month of 2025, Arkansas lawmakers introduced a bill to ban devices in schools, the District of Columbia introduced another, and there are calls for statewide bans from New York to Wisconsin.
Bipartisan support is driving this momentum.
- According to a Pew Research study last year, 68% of U.S. adults support banning middle and high school students from using phones during class time.
- About one-third (36%) support banning cell phones throughout the entire school day.
- Of those who favor phone bans during class time, 98% cite fewer student distractions as one reason for their support.
Kim Whitman, co-founder of the Phone-Free Schools Movement, believes parents and teachers across the political spectrum recognize how distracting phones in schools can be. It’s an issue that unifies.
“It doesn’t matter if you live in a big city or a rural town, urban or suburban, all children are struggling and need that seven-hour break from the pressures of phones and social media during the school day,” she said.
Nationally, 77% of U.S. schools say they prohibit phones at school for non-academic use, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. However, this statistic could be misleading as it only addresses the existence of a policy prohibiting phones, not how effectively that policy is enforced.
// A groundswell of momentum
Last month, children and phones were a hot topic at Future House in Davos, Switzerland, during The World Economic Forum.
The Project Liberty team partnered with Human Change to create Future House—a space that convened global leaders, CEOs, technologists, academics, and changemakers to tackle the most pressing issues facing the future of technology.
One session focused on the lessons from the global movement for smartphone-free childhood. Moderated by Dr. Mitch Prinstein, Chief Psychology Officer at the American Psychological Association, the session featured Chris McKenna, Founder and CEO of Protect Young Eyes, Dr. Marco Gui, Associate Professor and co-founder of Patti Digitali, Dr. Phil McRae, a Canadian educator and scholar, and Julie Scelfo, Founder and Executive Director of Mothers Against Media Addiction (MAMA).
Here are three takeaways from the panel of experts (and you can watch the entire session here):
- We’re exposing kids too early to phones. Panelists were in alignment that we’re exposing kids too early to phones. Scelfo noted that we don’t expose our kids to driving at age eight because they’re not ready for that responsibility. Why are we sending them to school each morning with a device that gives them access to the entire internet? “Whatever you expose a child to, they become,” she said. Interestingly, Gui said that surveys of parents in Milan, Italy found that there is a three year gap between the age that parents actually gave their child a phone and the (older) age that they believed their child should get a phone.
- A full-day phone ban, from “bell-to-bell,” creates the best chance to eliminate device-based distractions. Any ban is hard to enforce, but a bell-to-bell ban makes it easier for administrators to police phone usage (compared to approaches that allow students to use phones in between classes and during breaks).
- Banning phones in schools can catalyze conversations about phone usage in other areas of life. Dr. McRae cited anecdotal findings from Canada that phone bans are leading to meaningful discussions around dinner tables and in groups of friends about the role of devices in their lives. He said he sees how “The art of conversation is coming back” among his students. Gui added that he’s heard concerns from parents that a phone ban would delay students from developing critical online skills, but he argued that effective education can equip students for their future online life in different ways. More time spent with devices doesn’t necessarily create a healthier relationship with them.
// Tech policy to tech practice
Policy is one of the biggest levers for shifting behaviors and building a better internet. From Big Tech antitrust rulings to social media bans, 2024 was an eventful year in tech policy. After years of a laissez-faire approach to tech policy in the U.S., policymakers at the state and federal levels are leaning in and taking action.
But when the ink has dried on the newest law, that’s when the real work starts. Deciding to ban phones is one thing; ensuring compliance is another, and no one knows this better than teachers.
Ask any administrator or teacher, and they’ll tell you that enforcement is tough. Parents want to reach their kids, kids want to connect with their friends, phones are easy to hide, and teachers are already stretched thin doing everything else.
Schools have tried various methods to manage devices: physical “green and red” areas at school where phones are allowed and not allowed, lockable phone pouches for each student like the Yondr pouch (which are expensive but a popular solution across the country), “phone cabinets” sold on Amazon ($40), and requirements that phones must stay in lockers.
Right now, we’re witnessing a renaissance in phone ban innovations. Schools, states, and countries around the world are experimenting with creating phone-free learning environments.
The good news is that results from studies are promising. In the World Economic Forum session, Dr. McRae cited a to-be-released study from Canada that found disturbances are down 77%, 66% of teachers and administrators believe mental health is improving, and 57% of schools report improving academic results.
In a few years, a mobile phone at school may be as foreign as it was twenty years ago. But for now, we’re in the early days of tech policy becoming tech action.
We’d love to hear from you. What’s your opinion on phone bans at school? What is working well? What isn’t? Just reply to this email.
.png?upscale=true&width=1160&upscale=true&name=pl_newsletter_ban4%20(1).png)
