Education Week finds patchy phone enforcement
- Education Week reported Wednesday that most educators now work under school cellphone restrictions, but enforcement still shifts by classroom, grade, and storage rules. - Federal and RAND data show 77% of public schools ban phones during class, yet only 30% also bar them during passing periods. - States are tightening rules as schools move toward bell-to-bell bans and away-from-student storage. (ies.ed.gov)
Most U.S. schools now restrict student phone use, but Education Week found the rules often change from one classroom or grade to the next. (edweek.org) The Education Week report said many schools still let students carry phones in backpacks or pockets instead of locking them away for the day. That leaves teachers to handle repeated in-class bargaining over whether a device is really "away." (edweek.org) Federal data released February 19, 2025, showed 77% of public schools prohibited students from using cellphones during class. Only 30% prohibited phone use during class and outside class, including free periods and passing time. (ies.ed.gov) The same National Center for Education Statistics release found a sharp grade-level split: 86% of elementary schools barred phones during class, versus 55% of high or secondary schools. School leaders also said phones hurt academic performance, attention spans, and mental health. (ies.ed.gov) RAND reported in October 2025 that nearly all K-12 schools had a cellphone policy during the 2024-25 school year, and about two-thirds used a bell-to-bell rule. In those schools, 86% of principals said restrictions improved school climate, cut inappropriate use, and reduced cyberbullying. (rand.org) That still leaves a gap between having a policy on paper and enforcing one the same way across a building. Education Week said uneven enforcement can become its own discipline problem when students face different rules from one adult to another. (edweek.org) A separate University of Michigan-led survey released February 27, 2026, found bell-to-bell bans spreading fast, rising from 60% of schools in 2024-25 to 74% in 2025-26 in its national sample. The researchers said high schools remained more permissive, with only about half using bell-to-bell rules. (edpolicy.umich.edu) That survey drew more than 68,000 educator responses and found teachers reporting more face-to-face interaction as phone bans expanded. The same teachers estimated that about one-third of students were using laptops for nonacademic reasons, shifting part of the distraction fight from phones to other screens. (edpolicy.umich.edu) The result is a policy debate that is no longer just about whether schools should restrict phones. It is increasingly about whether schools can make one rule stick all day, in every class, without turning each lesson into a negotiation. (edweek.org)
