What Cell Phone Bans Mean for Students

"Proponents argue that the bans are essential to promoting academic achievement and overall well-being among students. Cell phone ownership has more than doubled among school-aged youth in the past decade. At the same time, rates of anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and cyberbullying have skyrocketed. And 72 percent of high school teachers say phone distractions are a major problem in their classrooms, according to Pew Research Center polling from June 2024."

"A study published last month by the National Bureau of Economic Research offers some insights from one Florida school district that banned cell phones in 2023. When the district first implemented the ban, disciplinary incidents spiked significantly due to violations of the new cell phone rules. The suspension rate more than doubled in the month after the ban began, and it was 25 percent higher compared to the same month in the previous school year."

In public schools nationwide, 30 states and territories now prohibit phones, tablets, and smart watches during school hours. Cell phone ownership among school-aged youth has more than doubled over the past decade while anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and cyberbullying have sharply increased. Seventy-two percent of high school teachers report phone distractions as a major classroom problem. One Florida school district implemented a bell-to-bell phone ban in 2023. Disciplinary incidents spiked immediately, with suspensions more than doubling in the month after implementation and rising 25 percent versus the same month the prior year. By the second year, suspension rates returned to prior levels, unexcused absences declined, and some grade levels saw nearly three percentage point test score gains. Effects were strongest in middle and high school.

Read at Psychology Today