The nation’s largest school system could announce a smartphone ban early next month, New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks said this week. But experts say the success of such a ban would depend on the details.
“You’re going to hear within the next two weeks the big announcement, but I will tell you we are very much leaning towards banning cell phones,” Banks told reporters on students’ last day of school. “We’re working out the kinks on this.”
If implemented, New York City would be following public school systems in Florida, Los Angeles and Indiana, with the latter two still ironing out plans. But a review of districts that are implementing the policy shows no two cellphone bans are exactly the same. Key questions and concerns revolve around whether to implement a total ban, who holds onto students' phones during the school day and what to do in the event of an emergency.
In Florida, a statewide law that passed last year required local school districts to block students from social media on school Wi-Fi and give lessons on the negative impacts of social media. Only one large school district in the state has ordered a total ban of phones during the school day.
Orange County, which includes Orlando, requires kids to keep phones sealed up in their backpacks during all periods, including lunch. Educators described “remarkable results” to the Orlando Sentinel, saying students were more focused and engaged in the classroom. Although teachers said it took a while for kids to comply, one said she chuckled when she discovered kids passing paper notes to each other because they could no longer text.
As New York City's education department finalizes its own plans, Gothamist interviewed experts, parents and staff around the city and country about some of the key challenges of keeping phones out of school.
A classroom ban? Or bell to bell?
For the past decade, New York City has allowed public schools to set their own phone policies, leading to a range of rules and compliance. Some schools require students to surrender their phones at the start of the school day. Others allow students to use phones in hallways and common spaces like lunchrooms, while asking kids to turn them off during class. Enforcement also varies from school to school.
Kids and educators say schools that allow access to phones in hallways and lunchrooms run the risk of more online conflicts spilling over into the physical realm.
Michael Mulgrew, president of the city’s teachers union, said educators are enthusiastic about a ban during instruction. He said they should be able to “workshop” the idea over the summer with education department leadership.
Many advocates argue that the only effective way to keep kids off their phones in school is to make them totally inaccessible by locking the devices up.
“Teachers are put in a position where they have to choose whether they police phones or they teach,” said Kim Whitman, cofounder of the Phone Free Schools Movement, a grassroots national group. “They can't do both.”
She said she preferred what experts call a “first-bell-to-last-bell policy.”
But that introduces another logistical challenge: Who holds onto students' phones during the school day?
Lock them up?
If the city opts for a bell-to-bell ban, the question becomes how students are separated from their phones. Many schools use Yondr pouches, which can only be opened using a special device. Similar pouches are common at concerts where phones are banned. The Town of Bethlehem in Albany County spent roughly $20 on each pouch, a cost that could quickly add up in New York City's school system of more than 900,000 students.
One Bronx principal, who spoke on background because he was not authorized to comment, said he preferred the Yondr pouches because if a student loses one, the school is not at fault.
In interviews with Gothamist, local students pointed out that even with lockboxes and pouches, they’ve been able to find plenty of loopholes. Some copped to putting decoy phones in pouches. And even if the city bans phones, they said, they could still text on other school devices.
Some said their phones were actually helpful for completing assignments and shouldn't be banned.
“The thing about high schoolers or just kids in general is they will always find a way to overrule the rules you give them and find loopholes,” Clementine McCoy, a junior at Grace Church School in Manhattan, previously told Gothamist. “That's just a fact of life."
Henry Rubio, the president of the city principals union, the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, said education officials will need to be crystal clear about how schools should store phones and what discipline for infractions should be.
“There must be clear citywide protocols for collecting and storing phones, stakeholder engagement and meaningful consequences for students that ignore the ban, so that principals aren’t left to navigate implementation without adequate support and resources,” Rubio said.
In case of emergency
Many parents interviewed by Gothamist said they worried about how they would reach their kids during emergencies, such as natural disasters or school shootings, if a phone ban were imposed.
“I don’t support this ban at all,” said Paullette Healy, a parent of two high schoolers who advocates for students with disabilities. “This administration is very very slow in terms of emergency responses, [including] snow days, flooding, toxic air, even sheltering-in whether there’s a shooting or bomb threat. If kids don’t have access to their cell phones … there’s no way to reach our children.”
She added that she was concerned about the city spending more education funding on contracts to implement the ban instead of other goals. “Right now we’re struggling for every dollar,” she said.
But Whitman, the Phone Free Schools Movement cofounder, argued that phones can be a deadly distraction during emergencies. She said students should be listening for crucial information rather than texting at such moments.
“If you're in a classroom and you have … 25 kids that are all on the phone calling their mom or 911, they're obviously not listening to the teacher's instructions,” Whitman said.
