Educators and parents are often at odds regarding school cellphone policies. While teachers and principals may want to restrict students’ access to the distracting devices, parents want to be able to reach their children in case of emergencies.
However, new data from the Pew Research Center shows there might be an area for compromise. While banning cellphones throughout the school day is not popular with parents of children in school—or U.S. adults generally—banning cellphones during class time has strong support.
Nearly 7 in 10 adults support that more targeted ban for middle and high school students, compared with about one-third of adults who support banning phones for the entire school day.
“This is a striking difference,” said Colleen McClain, a senior researcher at Pew Research Center. “It’s a nuanced issue. The public sees clear drawbacks to cellphones in the classroom. But the story is different when it comes to an all-day ban.”
The Pew survey further drilled down into why respondents did or did not favor a targeted ban of cellphones in middle and high schools during class time, said McClain.
Among those who say they support cellphone restrictions during class time, 91 percent said a major reason they did so was because it would reduce distractions. Seventy percent said a major reason for their support of a targeted ban was because it would help students develop better social skills. Those are both problems that are frequently flagged by educators in surveys by the EdWeek Research Center.
For those adults opposed to cellphone bans, the primary reason cited was the need for parents to be able to reach their children—6 in 10 said this was a major reason why they didn’t support a ban on cellphones, even if it was just during class. Among parents, 7 in 10 listed this as a major reason for opposing a ban. That finding aligns with data from another recent national survey conducted by the National Parents Union, which also found that parents’ hesitancy around cellphone restrictions stems from a desire to be able to reach their children during emergencies.
Interestingly, there was a bit of a difference based on political party. Among adults who opposed targeted cellphone bans, Democrats (65 percent) were more likely than Republicans (52 percent) to say they hold that opinion because they feel that parents should be able to reach their children in case of emergencies.
Overall, though, Democrats and Republicans are in agreement: banning cellphones during class is popular with both groups while banning them for the entire school day is not.
Young adults are less supportive of school cellphone bans
But there is one group that is wary of cellphone bans. Young adults were much less likely to support restrictions in schools than their older peers.
Among 18-29 year olds, 45 percent say they support banning cellphones from classrooms while 18 percent say they support banning cellphones during the entire school day.
The reason for the weaker support among this age group, said Meryl Alper, an associate professor of communication studies at Northeastern University, may have to do with wanting to reach people in an emergency. Alper, whose research focuses on children and families’ tech use, said it’s important not to assume that Generation Z is “addicted” to their phones and therefore less likely to support banning the devices.
“This is a generation that has grown up with a marked increase in school shootings and things like ALICE drill trainings,” she said, referring to a training program that uses the acronym for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate. Having a cellphone nearby might provide a sense of safety and comfort. “Those threats are very central in the psyche of [young adults more] than certainly among today’s senior population.”
Adults also might not support cellphone bans simply because they are inconvenient and not a good match for the busy lives of today’s families, according to Melissa Di Martino, an associate professor of psychology at the New York Institute of Technology.
Older students who are becoming more independent often use their phones during the school day to coordinate after school activities, such as rides to sport practices and social plans, she said.
Even so, Di Martino’s research, which examined how restricting undergraduates’ cellphone use during class affected their educational experience, found that young people benefit from not having their phones on them during class. She found that cellphones raise students’ anxiety and reduce their mindfulness and comprehension during class.
“They’re anxious when they’re by their phones because of that FOMO concept—fear of missing out—they immediately feel like something else is going on outside, something needs their attention elsewhere,” she said. “They’re not even present in class, and that in turn reduces their ability to just understand and comprehend the material that’s being learned.”
Why it can be difficult to enforce cellphone policies
But there are important considerations for K-12 educational leaders when formulating a cellphone policy that greatly restricts students’ access to their devices.
One issue is enforcement. Banning cellphones in class is a policy that must be enforced by individual teachers—versus administrators taking students’ phones at the school door—and may suffer from lax or inconsistent implementation, according to teachers who shared insights on the policy in a 2023 survey by the EdWeek Research Center. It also creates tension between teachers and students who don’t want to give up their phones.
The other issue is whether banning cellphones is a missed opportunity to teach students important lessons around building healthy cellphone habits, self-regulation, and media literacy, said Alper.
“I worry about the lack of scaffolding provided by educators, especially if it’s not happening at home, about how to prepare kids to best live in a world in which their attention is being monetized,” she said. “Kids are going to get their hands on cellphones no matter what. How are we preparing them to live in a world with them and how are schools doing that?”
