New York public schools plan to ban cell phones

The nation’s largest school district could ban cell phones for students as early as January of this year. New York City Public Schools Chancellor David Banks said Wednesday that phone use is significantly impacting education.

“We recognize the problem and that it is an important issue,” he said told WNYW.

Banks said the district is finalizing a policy to bar phones in more than 2,000 schools for more than 1 million students. He said the policy will be officially announced in the coming weeks.

New York City wouldn’t be the first major school district to ban phones. The Los Angeles Unified School District voted last week to ban the devices starting in 2025.

“Kids no longer have the opportunity to just be kids,” said Nick Melvoin, a member of the Los Angeles council who introduced the measure. “I hope this resolution helps students not only focus in class, but also gives them the opportunity to interact and engage more with each other – and just be kids.”

The trend of banning cell phones has become increasingly popular in local districts, with some schools implementing cell phone stations where students have to turn in their cell phones at the beginning of the day and can only receive them at the end. Some states, like South Carolina, are considering banning cell phones in all public schools in the state.

Other districts have adopted creative solutions to lock down devices, including partnering with start-up companies.

Renesha Parks, director of wellness for Richmond Public Schools in Virginia, told The Hill in December about a pilot policy implemented at six schools in early 2024 to stop cellphone use, in partnership with Yondr, which creates magnetic cell phone bags. The measure impacts around 4,200 students and costs approximately US$75,000.

“It is a very expensive initiative. But we feel this will decrease the amount of infractions that occur as a result of student cell phone use and increase productivity and academic teaching in the classroom. It’s worth the investment,” said Parks.

In 2020, government data revealed that nearly 80% of schools banned cellphones for non-academic purposes, but enforcement varies widely across the country.

Lexi Lonas contributed.

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story