School Cellphone Bans Work for Children

Florida was the first state to implement a statewide ban in May 2023. Researchers David Figlio from the University of Rochester and Umut Özek from Rand Corporation looked at results over the two years after the ban took effect in a school district that is one of the country’s largest. The unnamed district, they said, implemented an even stricter rule than required by law: Students couldn’t pull out their phones at any time of day.

It seems to be working. Students improved their rankings on standardized tests by 1.1 percentile points overall between the spring before the ban took effect and the spring two years later. Those improvements were more substantial for black students (1.2) and boys (1.4), and for middle and high schoolers (1.3).

Florida tests three times a year, and the effect was more modest—0.6 points of improvement on average—across all tests. But the spring tests are higher stakes because they’re used for school and student accountability measures.

The researchers also found evidence that the ban “significantly improved student attendance.” The study doesn’t explore why, but Mr. Figlio tells us in an email that his “best guess” is that “the ban likely leads to a calmer and less distracting learning (and, frankly, social) environment.”

Take it from a teacher. “A student told me, ‘What’s the point of fighting if we can’t record it on our phones?’” a Long Island high school teacher told the New York Post last month as New York State rolled out a new ban. Students are “walking and talking to one another between classes instead of having their eyes glued to their phones.”

The evidence of the damage from cellphone overuse among the young is piling up, and it’s encouraging to see positive results when they’re kept out of school.

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