by Grace Deng, Oregon Capital Chronicle
September 23, 2024
When a school district in southwest Washington began a cellphone ban this year, superintendent Asha Riley said teachers and administrators saw positive results right away.
Students were talking more to each other in class, she said. One math teacher noted they were solving problems collaboratively, instead of plugging them into calculators on their phones. Woodland Public Schools staff even overheard kids telling parents to stop distracting them with texts during class.
Riley said her students are reluctant to say the policy has had positive impacts — but one student admitted to Riley that she was “actually kind of glad” the school banned phone use. Other students used to film people in the hallways, leading kids to hide their faces in their sweatshirt or jacket hoods. The student told Riley that now, she won’t have to wear her hood up anymore.
“I actually walked our campus this week, and I did notice: fewer kids have their hoods up,” Riley said.
The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction released guidance in late August recommending that schools update their cellphone policies to limit use by the start of the 2025-26 school year amid a wave of research on the harmful effects of smartphones and social media.
But many Washington districts are already instituting cellphone policies that restrict or ban use in classrooms. Policies differ across districts, but the goal remains the same: prevent distraction, improve mental health and get kids offline.
“It’s not about taking the phones away, it’s about how to manage them and utilize them in an effective way,” Riley said.
Updating policies
According to a 2022 study by Pew Research Center, 95% of teenagers have a smartphone, compared to 73% in 2014-2015. A 2024 survey by Pew found 72% of high school teachers and 33% of middle school teachers say smartphones are a major distraction in class.
But Pew also found that 82% of K-12 teachers in the United States say their school or district has a cellphone policy of some kind, and 30% of teachers found those policies very or somewhat difficult to enforce.
Many districts have sought to revamp their guidelines in recent years.
Kris Hagel, chief information officer at Peninsula School District, one of Washington’s first big districts to ban cellphones, said he gets calls all the time from districts looking to update or begin implementing a cellphone policy.
Some districts have completely different concerns from the ones Peninsula has dealt with. A district with many students from low-income households, for example, was worried about taking cellphones away from families who have worked extremely hard to afford one. That’s not as big of an issue in Hagel’s district, but he said his advice remains the same: Consult parents and students before and after the policy is implemented.
“Districts need to figure out what’s going to work in their community,” said Hagel.
It’s why Hagel doesn’t support a statewide ban on cellphones in schools, which has passed in other states and was considered by Washington lawmakers last year. Every district is different, Hagel said, and mandating a ban at the state level would make it harder for districts to cater to their communities.
Policies differ in whether a student’s phone has to be away in a backpack, in silent mode, airplane mode or off entirely and when phones can be out — for example, in the hallways or at lunch. At Woodland Public Schools, phones simply have to be “off and away” — it doesn’t matter what mode it’s in or whether the phone’s in a back pocket or backpack: “If we don’t see it, it’s not a problem,” Riley said.
“We want to teach them how to handle the device appropriately,” Riley said. “And if they can’t, take the phone down to the office. In most instances, our kids can [handle it]. We just had to set the expectation.”
A few districts are even considering or implementing cellphone policies for school staff. Woodland administrators, for example, are using walkie-talkies and asking teachers to keep their phones off during class.
“We have the same expectations for our teachers,” Riley said. “It’s [about] modeling good cellphone personal device management.”
There’s very little research on the efficacy of different policies, but that may change soon. Researchers at the University of Washington are launching a study looking at the impacts of cellphone bans on students, teachers and parents across various schools in western Washington, including Peninsula School District.
“That’s going to be our next big project for this year: Can we quantify that this is actually making a difference?” Hagel said.
Handling emergencies and exceptions
Some schools that have found kids can’t always follow the rules are requiring phones to be locked in sealed pouches made by a company called Yondr. The pouches can’t be opened without a circular magnet, or “unlocking base unit.”
At Walla Walla’s two middle schools, there’s been a cellphone policy in place for about eight years requiring phones to be off and in backpacks. Still, kids would leave their phones on and wouldn’t be able to resist checking a notification, said Kris Duncan, principal at Pioneer Middle School. While most kids were following the rules, enough weren’t that it became an issue, Duncan said, so this year, they started using the Yondr pouches.
“We’re fighting an addiction,” Duncan said. “They need a little extra help.”
Parents have raised concerns about being able to communicate with their kids during emergencies, especially in the case of a school shooting. Districts that opted not to use Yondr pouches, like Spokane Public Schools, said that choosing not to lock phones up has helped assuage parents’ worries.
Duncan said school shootings and other emergencies are the “chief concern” she hears from parents about the Yondr pouches, and she understands where they’re coming from. But her district’s superintendent spent a lot of time talking to emergency responders, who said cellphones often make their jobs more difficult.
“What he heard across the board is that cellphones only add to a potentially dangerous situation,” Duncan said. “Students are more concerned with contacting someone or trying to figure out what’s going on. They’re not paying attention to the adults in charge.”
Districts have also heard concerns that some kids need access to phones due to medical reasons, learning disabilities or other exceptions. But so far, handling that hasn’t been an issue, said Adam Swinyard, superintendent of Spokane Public Schools.
“It’s totally appropriate and doable for kids to understand that a student next to you is using the device because they have an accommodation,” Swinyard said.
‘They’re all having success’
Raquel Martinez, principal of Sageview High in Pasco and president of National Association of Secondary School Principals, said she’s hearing from districts not just across the state, but across the country that are interested in cellphone bans.
“I was just having a conversation with a group of principals across the country,” Martinez said. “All of them are either in year one, two or three of instituting a ‘no cellphone’ policy in their schools. They’re all having success with it.”
Martinez’s own district revamped its cellphone policy a few years ago and surveyed students about their cellphone use while working on the new policy.
“Students were like, ‘Yeah, my phone in my pocket will buzz five or six times in one class period. Yeah, it’s distracting to me, and yes, I want to take it out,’” Martinez said.
At Peninsula School District and Spokane Public Schools, fewer kids are taking their phones out during lunch or in other scenarios where phones are allowed, officials at those districts said. Swinyard said it’s partly because kids are getting fewer messages during the school day.
Districts with phone restrictions in place also report fewer instances of cyberbullying and more students showing up to class.
But Swinyard said cellphone bans alone won’t be enough to address negative trends with youth mental health, chronic absenteeism and other hard-to-solve issues.
Spokane Public Schools has launched an initiative with the city of Spokane and local youth organizations called “Engage In Real Life.” The idea is that “every kid, every day is doing something in real life after school,” Swinyard said, such as a sport, performing art or a club.
“There has to be an alternative,” Swinyard said. “It can’t just be ‘give me your device.’”
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Washington State Standard, like Oregon Capital Chronicle, is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Washington State Standard maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Bill Lucia for questions: [email protected]. Follow Washington State Standard on Facebook and X.
Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Lynne Terry for questions: [email protected]. Follow Oregon Capital Chronicle on Facebook and X.