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school cell phone

Showing 1 - 21 of 21 results
In the News

It’s Still Demoralizing to Teach a Classroom of Scrolling Students

May 7, 2026 New York Times
In the past several years, about three dozen states have instituted phone bans in schools, and more are likely to follow. These bans have been trumpeted as game changers. Anecdotal reporting points to more books being checked out from school librarie...
In the News

Why School Phone Bans Aren’t About Kids

May 5, 2026 Newsweek
When Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed classroom phone restrictions in February, she used the student-centered language most governors now do. It was all about academic success, youth mental health and rescuing children from a life lost stari...
In the News

Did School Cellphone Bans Work? New Study Finds Mixed Results.

May 4, 2026 New York Times
Banning cellphones was supposed to improve many of the problems ailing American education, including distraction, bullying, declining test scores and absenteeism. The idea attracted rare, bipartisan support, and over the past three years, two-thir...
In the News

Do Student Cellphone Bans Improve Academic Achievement?

May 4, 2026 Education Week
Restricting student cellphone use during school hours doesn’t appear to lift academic achievement, improve student attention, or boost attendance, at least in the short term, according to the first broad national study of phone bans by researchers at...
Journal Article

The Effects of School Phone Bans: National Evidence from Lockable Pouches

May 4, 2026
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Hunt Alcott, E. Jason Baron, Thomas Dee, Angela L. Duckworth, Matthew Gentzkow, Brian Jacob
Schools across the U.S. have sharply restricted student use of phones during the school day. We evaluate one type of restriction—lockable phone pouches—using nationwide data combining large-scale surveys, GPS pings, standardized test scores, and scho...

Michigan School Cellphone Policy Study

Youth Policy Lab has partnered with colleagues at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention to examine the impact of school cellphone policies in Michigan. This study aims to identify variability in district cellphone policies; understand the barriers to and facilitators of implementation; and estimate their impact on indicators of community violence, including fights in school, school discipline, and police incidents; as well as a range of mental health, wellbeing, and academic outcomes. While school cellphone restrictions may improve y...