Today the Senate passed legislation to ban cell phone use in public schools. Below appears a fact sheet prepared by the senate press team which I have cross-posted from the Senate Press Room so that people can comment on this site. I was pleased to vote for this legislation.
Fact Sheet & Highlights: An Act to Promote Student Learning and Mental Health, S.2561
July 30, 2025
An Act to promote student learning and mental health seeks to keep students’ eyes on their classwork and instructors and away from their cell phones. By removing personal cell phone use from the classroom, Massachusetts public schools will be places where students can focus on learning. Reasonable exceptions to the rule will safeguard students who need their phone for treating medical conditions, for an individualized education plan (IEP), or to accommodate a disability. Details of the Senate bill are outlined below.
Distraction-Free Classrooms
No Cell Phones During the School Day. Under policies that districts would be required to implement by the autumn of 2026, students in every public school district in Massachusetts would be prohibited from using or holding onto their personal electronic devices during the school day, either at school or during school-sponsored activities.
Communication with Parents. Schools would be required to ensure at least one way for parents and guardians to contact a student, and vice versa, during the school day.
Reasonable Exemptions
Doctor’s Notes, Lesson Plans, Travel. Students would be able to hold onto their devices with a note from a health care provider stating it is necessary to treat a health condition, which may include smart technology such as a continuous glucose monitoring system. Other exemptions to the rule include using a device as part of an individualized educational plan (IEP) or during travel time between school and off-campus learning opportunities.
Local Flexibility. Schools would craft district-specific policies that implement the constraint on cell phone use in a way that makes the most sense for the local community. Options may include pouches, lockers, or some other storage system. School districts could also write variations into their local rules based on grade level or the structure of the school day.
Administrative Requirements
Shaping the Policy. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) would formulate guidance and a model policy to provide a template for school districts. DESE would solicit public input and then make its recommendations publicly available online. The agency would have 180 days to prepare a model policy after the law takes effect.
Local Implementation. Public schools and school districts would implement their cell phone policies before the school year begins in the autumn of 2026.
Notice to Families. As families prepare for each new school year, local districts would be required to notify students and caregivers about the policy every year by September 1.
Initial Report on Implementation. The Legislature would hear back from DESE by the end of 2027 about how these policies were deployed in local districts.
Yearly Check-Ins. Every local school district would file a copy of its current policy with DESE every year.
Senate Press Release
Senate Passes Legislation to Make Schools Cell Phone-Free
Bill removes ‘greatest distraction device ever created’ from classrooms, keeps students focused on learning
(BOSTON—07/31/2025) The Massachusetts Senate today passed legislation to create cell phone-free schools across the Commonwealth. By requiring school districts to prohibit student cell phone use during the school day, the bill aims to boost focus, improve mental health, and foster healthier learning environments.
S.2561, An Act to promote student learning and mental health, requires all public school districts to adopt cell phone-free school policies by fall 2026. Reasonable exceptions to the rule will be made for students who need their personal devices for treating medical conditions, off-campus travel requirements, individualized education plans (IEP), or to accommodate a disability. Districts must ensure that students and caregivers have at least one method of communication during school hours and that students and families can communicate during emergency situations.
“Massachusetts has a proud history of supporting and uplifting K-12 public education for our residents, but a device small enough to fit in a pocket presents a profound challenge to ensuring student success,” said Senate President Karen E. Spilka (D-Ashland). “That’s why I charged the Senate in May of this year to explore ways to make our schools cell phone free. This legislation delivers on that commitment and builds on the Senate’s mission of creating a statewide education system that continues to promote learning and growth. I am deeply grateful to Chair Lewis and Chair Rodrigues for their leadership on this bill, and each of the Senators who have contributed to addressing this challenge.”
“This impactful legislation will make many beneficial and lasting improvements in the quality of our public school education. Countless studies have shown the detrimental and distracting effects of cell phone usage both in the classroom, and for entire school day,” said Senator Michael J. Rodrigues (D-Westport), Chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means. “While many school districts have already implemented some type of cell phone restriction, this bill takes a uniform approach to this problem, tasking the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to establish a clear ban on cell phones and electronic devices for public school students. The results in the other states that have enacted similar legislation is startling; students are more engaged, become more proficient in their studies, and the student-teacher relationship is enhanced. This measure also greatly reduces the threat of cyber-bullying. I would like to thank Senator Lewis for working to craft this final bill, and Senate President Spilka for her leadership on this issue.”
“There are a myriad of negative effects linked to the growing issue of student cell phone usage at school and in the classroom, including diminished academic performance, poorer mental health, worse relationship building and social skills, reduced safety during emergencies, and more,” said Senator Jason Lewis, Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Education. “According to Pew Research, 72 per cent of high school teachers consider cell phones to be a ‘major problem’ in the classroom, and numerous studies have shown the many robust benefits to student learning and growth by removing cell phones from their educational environment. Thank you to Senate President Karen Spilka for championing this issue and to all the many students, parents, teachers, school administrators, researchers, and other stakeholders and legislators we’ve worked with while putting this bill together.”
To guide districts in crafting these policies, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) will create model guidelines within 180 days of the enactment of the law. Districts will have the freedom to decide what works best for them, whether they decide on using pouches, lockers, or other storage options for electronic devices. Districts will also have the ability to adjust rules based on grade levels or the structures of their school days.
According to Pew Research Center, surveys have shown that 72 per cent of high school teachers report that cellphone distractions are a major problem in the classroom. The survey also reports that 68 percent of U.S. adults are in support of banning personal electronic use in the classroom, demonstrating the strong public approval of this bill. Research from KKF demonstrates a rising number of states implementing classroom cellphone bans to address youth mental health issues and eliminate academic distractions.
Approximately 80 school districts have already reported, through a Department of Elementary and Secondary Education pilot grant, that they have implemented student cell phone use policies, with even more districts likely putting similar measures in place outside of the grant program. Additionally, numerous states have enacted statewide bans or restrictions on cellphone use in schools, with another seven states having issued policies aimed at limiting student electronic use.
Each district will be required to notify families of their policy each year by September 1, beginning in 2026, and submit annual updates of their district’s current policy with DESE. DESE will then provide an initial report of implementation to the Legislature at the end of 2027.
Having passed the Senate, the bill now goes to the House of Representatives for consideration.
Statement of Support
“The evidence from schools that have gone truly phone-free—bell to bell, with minimal exceptions—is overwhelming.” said Casey Mock, Senior Policy Director, The Anxious Generation Movement. “Students rediscover conversation, teachers can actually teach, and learning environments are restored. The most effective policies are the simplest ones, applied uniformly across all schools.”
Whilst I support this policy in principle, I am concerned about the burden that implementing and enforcing this effectively unfunded mandate will place on our school districts and individual educators.
Well intentioned but likely to backfire. I’m disappointed in this legislation. As with any law or rule, enforceability and consequences are key. It’s not like schools haven’t thought to ban cell phones. The energy they will put into enforcement will come at a cost to education. This is also a major overstep of the legislature into minutiae of education. I don’t think it’s appropriate for the state legislature to make this level of law
Will local schools (or districts) be held liable for: theft of/damage to students’ phones, or instances of identity theft/hacking/doxxing, et cetera, that can be directly linked to persons other than their owners gaining access to those phones, when they are taken from students and stored on school premises? Will the schools be given blanket immunity from lawsuits? I don’t necessarily object to the overall policy of making classrooms phone-free. (It would depend on exactly how that goal were to be achieved.) I just want to know if anyone will be held accountable when (not if) something eventually goes wrong after implementation of such a policy.
Addendum: after a particularly scandalous incident makes the headlines, everyone in the salaried professional/managerial class will come up smelling like a rose. The parents will excoriate the school board. Who in turn will blame the principal. Who will promptly pin it on the administrative assistant. And so on, down the line. Eventually they’ll end up firing a janitor.
How about students and caregivers having an affirmative obligation to check that school year’s policy by September 1 each year?
As a teacher, I support this 100%. Phones are by far the biggest distractors to kids; the effects of chewing gum, fart noises, and other juvenalia are trivial in comparison. For anyone concerned about the declines in kids’ academic performance, their social skills, and their personal resilience in the face of challenges, making phones unavailable is as close to a magic bullet as you can get to mitigate or reverse those trends.
Some people have brought up real issues of implementation – loss, theft, inappropriate use by someone else. These are realities, and need to be accommodated, but they are not so severe as to make banning phones unfeasible.
No one has mentioned other issues which will get in the way. Kids are smart, will figure out ways around this, and there will need to be policies for such behavior. Some kids cut a hole in their Yondr pouch and access their phone that way. Others bring 2 phones to school, one to sequester to satisfy the adults, and their real phone to keep with them. Kids (and their parents!) will come up with all sorts of convincing reasons why the kid has to keep the phone (health issue, need to be in touch with employer, upcoming college interview). Schools need to specify, in advance clear consequences for such behaviors and will need to devote significant personnel effort to making sure those consequences are implemented.
Finally, as administrations often mention, teachers and other adults in the school are models. What the kids see, they will do. This means that the adults have to keep phones away for much of the day. Those teachers now in the 20’s and 30’s grew up with phones and may be as challenged as the kids to uphold this standard. That means that they should be using them only during times (e.g. prep period) and only in places (teachers’ room, not classroom) where they are not in contact with kids.
Rules are made to be broken, and any set of rules will have exceptions. But, if you want kids to improve their academic performance, have better social skills, and be more resilient, this is the way to go.
Senator Brownsberger, I am disappointed that you supported this. I would consider myself as progressive as you are, but I wholeheartedly disagree with this move.
Cell phones are nothing more than modern technology. If a student is distracted by it, then we should be providing support instead of an authoritarian ban. What if we banned computers from the classroom back in the 1980s? What if we banned televisions in the classroom in the 2000s? As someone who was a child who was able to watch the events on 9/11 unfold because we had a television in the classroom, I am forever grateful that I was able to witness history, however horrific.
A cell phone is a tool, and its usefulness depends on how it is used. Just like a computer. Or a television.
This piece of legislation is anti-progress, and it reeks of “we have a problem, and instead of finding productive ways to solve it, we took the easy way out.” I hope that this eventually gets repealed, and that you eventually change your mind about it.
Piggy-backing on that thoughtful comment: have they considered school-shooter incidents? What happens when some crazy individual, with a grudge and a firearm, realizes that all the phones formerly available in every classroom are now locked away somewhere…with potential victims unable to call 911 to summon police? And unable to tell them what the shooter looks like, what kind of weapon he has, which part of the building he is in, in which rooms casualties in need of immediate medical help are lying, how to access various entry points to cut off the shooter or surround him, and so forth? A possible workaround would be to have an emergency phone connection to 911 installed in every classroom, dining hall, gym, auditorium, playground, parking lot, etc. And having regular drills to ensure that school staff and students know where the emergency phones are located and how to use them. Naturally, all such phones to be equipped with a built-in vid cam to provide a permanent record of whoever is making the call. (To discourage pranksters from activating an emergency response ten minutes before final exams begin.) Might also be a good idea to install regular security cameras, if such have not already been set up, that will automatically start transmitting live video to the police as soon as one of the special phones is activated. Probably there are a number of ways to deal proactively with such possible incidents. Most schools must already have implemented such plans. Just saying, if private phones are taken from students, and if teachers can’t always have theirs on their person in the classroom, then this state of affairs should be seamlessly integrated into the school’s regular security plans and policies. Before…not after…a bad incident happens. Sure, such incidents are a lot less frequent than the scare headlines would have us believe. So are tornadoes. That doesn’t mean precautions are not taken to deal with possible tornado threats.
Those who argue phones are “just another tool” and we need to teach kids to manage these instead of banning them have not spent time in classrooms for the past ten yers. I’ve taught for 28 years I can’t emphasize how disruptive these devices are to every aspect of teaching and learning. The pandemic supercharged this change. For years I agreed with many of the comments here. Kids are going to have these devices for the rest of their lives, so I need to teach them to self-regulate. Then I learned that college professors are adopted methods like giving students extra-credit for voluntarily surrendering phones / laptops. I started reading studies that showed phone / laptops in the classroom not only distracted the student using them, but also the students surrounding them. I implemented a voluntary, daily storage in pockets in the front of my classroom and it was amazing how it transformed my classroom culture. I stored my phone on my desk (I don’t teach near my desk, so students knew I was adhering to the same regulations). The social media apps on student phones are designed to keep them engaged. This is not at all like having a television in the classroom because students would access a television collectively and no student would try to “sneak a peek” during class time. Before I implemented my voluntary ban I spent so much time correcting students and asking them to put their phones away. Many times students didn’t even notice they were checking their phones until I pointed it out (showing what a habit it was for them!). My students admitted that they like the break from their phones and they know they shouldn’t be checking them, but they also admit when they have them on their person they cannot resist checking. My one concern is that now that it is state law, will adolescents try to get around this just because they don’t like people telling them what to do? I don’t know. In anonymous surveys my students noted they appreciated the choice and that minimal reward (I give a small amount of extra-credit each day they store their device). Hopefully I will be able to continue my individual policy after this legislation. Also, to the parents who want to be in contact with your students all day, every day I ask you to remember what it was like when you were in school. Our parents could only contact the Main Office to send us a message during the school day. That allowed us to develop independence and autonomy. Please don’t contact your kids during the school day. Give them a break and let them develop independence. If they text you, don’t reply until the end of the school day. It would be better for all of us.
While I definitely agree that cell phone usage by today’s kids poses many potential risks, this bill is an overreach from the state government. School districts should set school policies based on the priorities, needs, and abilities of their local population. Personally, I think a full cell phone ban for all public school students (assuming this means K-12) unrealistic to enforce and unreasonable, especially for older students who should have a right and responsibility to properly use their personal devices. However, this should be up for local debate and decision.
I also note that the text of the law includes personal tablets and laptops in addition to phones/smart watches, which seems especially restricting to me when many students can use these devices for positive, learning-adjacent uses (research, homework, art, …) and not just social media and messaging.