There’s a growing debate around the country as to whether or not to ban cellphones in schools. On one side, many educators argue that cellphones are an impediment to learning as well as sources of increased stress and mental health issues among students. While on the other side of the argument, some parents have expressed safety concerns should their children not be allowed to access their cellphone during the school day. The debate seems to be growing as more and more school-age children have access to smartphones.
A survey from last year by the Pew Research Center, for example, found that 95% of U.S. teens have access to a cellphone. The same study also found that 46% of surveyed teens reported that they are online “almost constantly.” Last year, Florida enacted a law to restrict students’ cellphone use during class time, and since the law went into effect last July, some school districts in the state have passed even greater restrictions, including banning cellphone use throughout the entire school day.
So far, the results of the restrictions have sparked largely favorable reviews from teachers and administrators. “I don’t know … what went into making up that rule, but I can tell you that the result of it on a very wide scale has been extraordinarily positive for [students’] mental health from an anecdotal perspective,” Heather Kreider, the principal of Edgewater High School in Florida’s Orange County school district told Education Week. “Our kids are way more engaged.
The apathy that we had seen from them in the last year to two years has seemed to wane. They seem more like they’re waking back up to a social experience.” In addition to higher social engagement while at school, some administrators also report that limiting or restricting phone use can support students with socio-emotional development. For example, it’s not uncommon for students to retreat to their phones when something uncomfortable or challenging happens at school such as getting a bad grade on a test.
That student may then go to the bathroom and text their mom to try and handle the discomfort rather than managing it on their own, according to Roni Cohen-Sandler, a clinical psychologist and author of the book “Anything But My Phone, Mom!” “They’re sort of dumping all of this on their moms and they’re not sitting with feelings themselves,” Cohen-Sandler told The Hill.
“They’re not developing tolerance for frustration. They’re not sort of pushing themselves in terms of developing coping skills for dealing with uncomfortable feelings and they’re not solving problems by using the resources that are available to them in school.” Research also suggests that cellphone bans correlate with higher test scores.
A study conducted in Australia, for example, found that test scores of students age 16 and up improved by 6.4% after schools banned smartphones. However, not everyone is on board with restricting or banning cellphone use during the school day. Some students and parents voiced concerns about not being able to communicate with one another throughout the day in case of an emergency or in case a student needs to reach out to a parent.
Others argue that policing cellphone use in schools can hinder the learning experience as well as student-teacher relationships. “I think schoolwide bans are counterproductive,” Christopher Klein, a learning achievement specialist in Montgomery County, Maryland, told the National Education Association’s NEAToday publication. “We need to be careful not to degrade teacher-student relationships and make our schools feel more like prisons.”
Additionally, some technology advocates argue that outright bans don’t teach kids about how to manage technology responsibly or in a balanced way. “The far better approach is to make sure you create a culture in your school of healthy tech use,” Richard Culatta, CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education, told The Hill. “We’ve got to teach those skills. They’re essential. Nobody on the planet would tell me that healthy tech skills aren’t needed for future jobs and future life happiness. So then why on Earth would we not be teaching those skills that we know are so important?”
Outside of Florida, school districts across the country have tried various approaches to restricting or banning smartphones in schools, including implementing punishments such as suspension or even utilizing phone pouches that lock phones throughout the day. The debate as to the effectiveness of such restrictions will likely continue as school districts experiment with different approaches and as more research is conducted.
Teachers, parents and students will remain at odds over the issue.
For more background, see the October 2023 issue of Congressional Digest on “Parental Rights.”
