In 2017, I thought phones could be used for classroom instruction, such as formative assessment and gamification. However, even during that time, I saw worrying signs of disruptive phone usage, Web 2.0, and the addictive nature of social media. I even felt the effects myself in my own use of my phone. During that time, I did not have devices in all of my classrooms. It was not until 2019 that devices provided for school were placed throughout each classroom. As a result, when I wanted to use technology, phones were one outlet I had other than booking the computer lab or borrowing a colleague’s Chrome cart full of laptops. I tried to limit student phone use by having them place it either on the corner of their desks or completely out of sight. However, I had varying degrees of success with this as I had persistent students (who already had behavior and executive function challenges), which caused me many headaches throughout that period.
Fast forward to 2023, I have heard even more horror stories of phone usage in schools. While I left the classroom in 2021 to become an EdTech Trainer and Integrationist in Adult Education settings, I work with student teachers and am connected to K-12 schools within my local area. The problems I faced five years ago seem to only have gotten worse and we see many negative consequences as a result that were more isolated incidents years ago. What I hear and see is increased disengaged due to phones, lack of self-control and widespread phone addiction, chronic absenteeism, a mental health crisis amongst adolescents, and persistent bullying. Ultimately, this is a problem we need to address in our schools and districts.
My goal will be to highlight many of these areas and argue for an all-out ban as well as provide an outline for how schools can integrate technology to build digital literacy and digital citizenship and navigate our ever-changing world. I am far from technophobic. However, when it comes to the freedom to use phones within classrooms and on school grounds, I am completely against phones being used in classrooms and schools given the consequences outlined above. This discussion will focus on these consequences and provide a framework for an all-out ban. Our discussion will focus on falling test scores, the absenteeism crisis, bullying, and mental health, and recommendations for how to move forward.
Falling Test Scores
Beyond these major issues, recently the 2022 PISA scores were released, which demonstrated yet another significant fall in Mathematics, Reading, and Science scores. What I noticed is that all scores were gradually moving up until about the time smartphones began to be widely adopted amongst OECD countries between 2009 and 2015. Between these years, we began to see a significant downward trajectory of these scores.
Interestingly, part of this new set of scores released was data related to student anxiety and distractability of phones. The PISA 2022 Results Report indicated that 45% of students who were surveyed felt nervous or anxious without their phones. Additionally, the report noted that 65% of students responded that they were distracted by digital devices during math lessons. In the report, it noted a strong association between the use of digital devices and their distraction with lower PISA Math scores – students who reportedly felt distracted by devices in Math class scored 15 points lower on average. However, the report does discuss that the time on digital devices at school also seems to have a positive effect when devices are used for learning one to five hours per day. Although, interestingly, if students spent more than an hour of time of leisure activity on their devices, they saw a big drop in math scores. It seems when a digital device was used at least one hour per day for leisure activities versus five hours a day, scored up to 49 points higher on their math assessment. The report noted the largest decline when students spent five to seven hours a day glued to a device.
Chronic Absenteeism
Besides a fall in PISA scores worldwide, in the US we see an increase in chronic absenteeism and disengagement by students. Chronic absenteeism is nothing new, but it has only gotten worse over the last five years. Other variables (such as the pandemic) can be placed into this equation, but I argue smartphones and the use of smartphone parenting by parents can be associated with this increase in absenteeism and disengagement in school. Below is a study conducted by Future Ed where we see only modest improvements in absenteeism after the pandemic in 2023. If we look at the percentage of student absenteeism before the pandemic versus now, in many states we see an average of 10% higher rate of absenteeism. I hypothesize that with far more distractions and the inability of parents to moderate phone use, we see many students withdrawing and avoiding school.
Bullying and Mental Health
Much of the root of bullying we see in our schools takes place within the digital world. I have spoken to K-12 administrators in many areas of the country. They describe much of their major behavior and bullying they see takes place through the use of phones. Ultimately, they say it starts with the phones and then it manifests in person within our classrooms and hallways.
Regarding student mental health, a telling study from Wu et al (2022) demonstrates a positive correlation between high school students’ depression and cyberbullying victimization. Additionally, it looked at how cyberbullying perpetration “mediated the relation between mobile phone addiction and high school students’ depression.” Numerous studies underscore a continuing mental health crisis among adolescents and young adults, affirming the need for policy change. Countries like Spain, Norway, and Belgium, which have adopted relevant policies, have observed significant improvements, including reductions in bullying and enhanced academic performance. The United States could benefit greatly by emulating these successful examples.
Anecdotally, I have heard from students of schools who have outright banned phones that their overall experience in school has improved. More studies will have to see if various variables relating to mental health and student well-being can be measured where schools have banned phones during school time. Overall, while we cannot regulate how students use their phones before and after school hours, we can mitigate their use during school hours, which is still a quite substantial amount of time that covert bullying activity may not be taking place anywhere close to what it was before the phone ban taking place.
Recommendations: Ban Phones, but Use School Devices Strategically Throughout the Day with High Impact Instructional Strategies
While there has been a rise in phone bans, schools and districts across the US and the world need to complete a full ban within K-12 schools. There may be exceptions for students who need phones to monitor their health, these will be rare. Thus, in response to the growing concerns highlighted throughout this post, such as falling test scores, absenteeism, bullying, and mental health crises linked to smartphone usage in schools, a two-fold approach is recommended:
- Implement a Full Ban on Phones in K-12 Schools: Schools and districts should enforce a comprehensive ban on phones during school hours, with exceptions for specific health-related needs. This ban aims to reduce bullying, violence, and negative impacts on student well-being. The ban must be a full-stop ban, which is not only a physical ban but also a school cultural change whereby stakeholders such as school leaders, teachers, support staff, students, and families buy into this ban to ensure it’s enforced and maintained.
- Strategic Integration of School Devices with High-Impact Instructional Strategies: Instead of personal phones, schools should focus on utilizing district-approved EdTech devices. These devices should be integrated into daily classroom activities, ensuring they are used in a structured and pedagogically sound manner that impacts learning positively, such as for the use of formative assessment, practice, and developing digital content. In this same light, the focus should be on building digital literacy and citizenship skills in students, guiding them to navigate the digital world effectively and responsibly so that when they do have the freedom to use their phones and other technology outside of school, they will use it more responsibly.
While recognizing the potential of technology in classrooms and schools, it’s imperative to differentiate between constructive and disruptive uses. An outright phone ban, coupled with strategic use of school devices, can create a more focused, safe, and supportive learning environment, aligning with educational goals and student well-being. I believe with phone bans in place, student learning, well-being, satisfaction, and engagement with school will rise among students. I look forward to reviewing more studies in the future that focus on phone bans and the aforementioned variables.
Last, I recently spoke about this on the Teachers on Fire podcast. I debated Chris Nesi on this issue and outlined many of the arguments specified in this post. Check it out as it’s an important conversation that I believe all stakeholders in schools should listen to, reflect on, and discuss as this is an imperative issue that needs to be addressed in our schools.
Navigating the Present and Future of Education 
I think we should ban cell phones in school because when students use their phones to much they tend to loss focus in class and plus also when they use to much social media on their phone they and so influenced by the things people post on social media or whatever and they do not tend to focus in school. Another reason is that when students are having their phones in the backpack students take out their phone when the teacher says it time for recess goes out with their phone and goes to the grass area or go to the restroom to use there phone sneakily when their is no one looking and also not getting in trouble.
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