Fueling these bans is growing research on the harmful effects of smartphone and social media use on the mental health and academic achievement of grade to high school students.
In 2024, at least eight states — California, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Ohio, South Carolina and Virginia — either expanded or adopted policies or laws to curtail cellphone use in schools.
This year, lawmakers in Alabama, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin have proposed bans moving in their state legislatures.
Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders last week signed a law requiring schools to ban students’ access to cellphones and other personal electronic devices during the school day.
Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds introduced a broader electronics device ban this year.
Last month, New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled her plans to ban smartphones at schools.
And last week, Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker proposed a statewide ban on cellphones in classrooms.
Meanwhile, in Utah, a bill that has initially seen strong legislative support would require school districts to adopt a policy governing cellphones and devices in schools, and establish that in the absence of a policy, the default is a complete device ban.
Some experts warn, however, that these bans might be difficult to enforce — or may simply be outdated before they even take effect.
“The genie is out of the bottle, and squeezing it back in is going to be nearly impossible,” said Ken Trump, a longtime school safety expert and president of National School Safety and Security Services, a consulting firm. “Phones and social media have fundamentally changed society, and by extension, schooling. Outright bans may be unrealistic or difficult to enforce effectively.”
Trump thinks governors, in particular, are responding to a trend rather than conducting thorough research. “Our elected officials are running to say, ‘he [introduced a bill] so I’m going to do it too.’ … Once Florida passed their bill, it’s been an explosion.”
Florida in 2023 became the first state to enact an outright ban on cellphone use during instructional time, followed by Louisiana and South Carolina last year. Other states, including Alaska and Connecticut, issued recommendations rather than mandates, encouraging local districts to develop their own policies.
In Minnesota, districts are required to implement their own policies under the law passed last year. But a bill sponsored by Democratic state Sen. Alice Mann would ban cellphones and smartwatches in elementary and middle schools, and restrict the use of those devices in high school classrooms beginning in the 2026-2027 school year.
Mann began considering the measure after hearing directly from students last year.
“We had a committee hearing where kids told us how distracting cellphones were. That really caught our attention,” she said. “We talked to school districts across the state — some had no policy, some had bans for one or two years, and some had bans for longer. The ones with bans all said the same thing: ‘It’s been wonderful.’”
Read the full report at UtahNewsDispatch.com.
