Phone-Free Schools Action Kit for Parents

If your school wants to go phone-free, we recommend downloading and following the steps in the Phone-Free School Administrator Toolkit (created by our colleagues at PhoneFreeSchoolMovement.org). Comprehensive and packed with practical resources, it’s a step-by-step guide for how schools can go phone-free, including how to prepare, how to roll out the policy, how to get parents on board, and how to deal with pushback. It’s the closest thing to a plug-and-play solution that we’ve found.

One of the most common mistakes we see is schools that claim to have a phone-free policy, but don’t have a system in place to enforce it. This essentially means that phones are simply discouraged. Students end up continuing to use their phones, and classroom teachers are put in charge of enforcing the so-called “rule,” adding to their workload and resulting in even more missed class time. This is why it is essential to have a detailed plan for where phones will be stored during the day, who will be responsible for enforcing the policy, and what the consequences will be for violating it.

No, unfortunately neither kept in backpacks nor accessible during breaks is enough, because it means students will be on their phones during recess, mealtimes, and “bathroom breaks” — thus interfering with valuable opportunities for in-person socialization with friends and classmates.

A 2023 study from Common Sense Media of 11- to 17-year-olds found that they received a median 237 notifications a day, about a quarter of which were delivered during school hours. That’s a lot of temptation for students to resist. Also, when students are minutes away from getting on their phones, they are less focused in class.

“Bell to bell” refers to requiring students to keep their phones away from the very start of the school day all the way to the final bell. (The alternative, which we do not recommend, is to only ban phones during class time but allow them during breaks between classes, recess, and lunch.)

As Jon explains in further detail in this post, when phones are allowed in schools, they interfere with attention, learning, relationships, and belonging. Students can’t focus on class — the temptations and dopamine stimuli are never far away — and they are also likely to spend their recess and meal time staring at their phones instead of interacting with their friends and peers.

The best solution is to have smartphones locked away for the duration of the school day, giving students a full 6 to 7 hours (or more!) free from distractions and online drama.

We recommend that students store their phones (and all communication devices, including smartwatches) in Yondr pouches, phone lockers (many options on Amazon), or turned off/on silent in a box or other central storage location for the entire school day. (Yondr pouches are lockable phone pouches that are used in many schools and concert venues. The pouches cost about $30-40 each; the price includes customized help from Yondr in introducing the pouches to your school. (We do not receive a commission from Yondr in exchange for recommending the pouches.)

Much of the pushback toward phone-free schools comes from parents who want to communicate with their children during the school day. Some parents argue that they need to be able to get in touch with their children about logistics; others believe that having a phone at school will make their child more safe.

In order to successfully go phone-free, schools need to address these parental concerns. Some ideas:

• For simple logistical things like a change of pickup, schools could have a bulletin board in a central location where notes could be left for particular students (parents would call the office, and the person on call would write down the message and post it on the bulletin board).
• For a true family emergency that can’t wait till the end of the school day, parents could call the office, and the person on call could simply deliver the message to the student’s teacher, or pull them out of class. (Note that this is how things used to work before smartphones!)
• For a school-wide change of schedule or emergency that needs to be communicated to parents, such as an early school closing, power outage or, heaven forbid, an intruder or active shooter, the school itself should have a multi-layered system in place to communicate directly with parents—for example, via a combination of text messages, website and social media updates, and perhaps a phone tree.

An important takeaway when it comes to parental fears about emergencies at school (including school shootings) is that smartphones do not make things safer in a crisis. As Dr. Kenneth S. Trump, a school security expert and founder of National School Safety and Security Services, points out that “student use of cell phones during an unfolding emergency can distract their attention from safety and emergency response directions being given by school staff.” He also explains that, in addition to potentially overwhelming cell networks, “Cell phone use, texting, and other outside communications by students during a crisis also expedites parental flocking to the school at a time when school and public safety officials may need parents to be away from the school site due to evacuations, emergency response, and/or other tactical or safety reasons. This could delay or otherwise hinder timely and efficient parent-student reunification. It could potentially thrust parents into a zone of potential harm.”

Public officials also say kids are less safe with a phone during an emergency, because they are more distracted (many of them have the impulse to film) and less likely to listen to directions. Smartphones are likely to create noise in situations where silence is imperative. Cell phone use can also accelerate the unintentional — and potentially intentional — spread of misinformation, rumors, and fear. In cases like these, which thankfully are exceedingly rare, would a parent want their child to be on the phone with them or to be listening to instructions from emergency-trained staff? (For more information, we recommend this article from The Washington Post.)

There are legitimate situations in which particular students may require access to a smartphone during the day — for example, a student with Type 1 diabetes who monitors their blood sugar or controls an insulin pump through their phone.

As our colleagues at Protect Young Eyes point out, “Exceptions can be made, and there should be processes and training for these limited but important situations.” They go on to quote this statement from a closed parent Facebook group where parents were commenting on the idea of an “away for the day” policy:

“I have a child on a 504 and she has a ‘chill pass’ accommodation where she gives the pass to the teacher, retrieves her phone and goes to the counselor’s office to contact me. That’s a perfectly acceptable anxiety accommodation.”

This depends on state laws; your district legal counsel can advise. If liability is a concern, you may want to consider using a solution such as Yondr pouches, which allow students to maintain possession of their phones but don’t allow them access to their phones unless they unlock the bag at one of several unlocking stations.

There are ways in which smartphones can be useful classroom tools. However, it is difficult — if not impossible — to allow students access to these positive functions without also allowing them access to distractions. Experiments show that even having a phone in sight is distracting. What’s more, requiring students to use smartphones for in-class assignments can present access problems and lead to possible accusations of discrimination (what if a student does not have a smartphone, whether because of the price, or because their caregivers have chosen not to give them a smartphone?).

While there may be situations in which a teacher or school decides to make an exception, we believe it’s best to encourage teachers to design lesson plans that do not require students to have smartphones. (Yes, this may require some creativity and an adjustment period.) We also recommend that teachers and school administrators use The EdTech Triangle from our colleagues at EverySchool.org. It’s an evidence-backed visual resource that can help guide decisions about when — and when not — to incorporate technology into lesson plans.

For inspirational success stories about what a phone-free school could look like, check out these articles from The Washington Post, The Spectator, and The Guardian about schools that have gone phone-free, as well as our list of schools and school districts that have already committed themselves to going phone-free.

You may also want to check out The Effects of Phone-Free Schools: A Collaborative Review, an ongoing open-source literature review posted and curated by Jonathan Haidt (NYU-Stern) and Zach Rausch (NYU-Stern). This document collects and organizes the published studies and essays addressing the questions: (1) What do we know about phone-free schools’ social, educational, and mental health impacts? And (2) how can elementary and middle schools best manage smartphone use during the school day?