Utah schools may ban cellphones during class time in 2025

Granger High School students unlock magnetic locking pouches containing their phones after class with a newly-established a phone-free policy on Aug. 26, 2024. Photo: Alixel Cabrera/Utah News Dispatch

Lawmakers and schools cited substantial distractions and negative mental health effects of social media as the main causes for the prohibition

By Alixel Cabrera, Utah News Dispatch

A universal prohibition of cellphones may be implemented in Utah public schools as soon as in March 2025, if the state Legislature approves it.

State law doesn’t mention the use of cellphones in schools, South Jordan Republican Sen. Lincoln Fillmore said on Monday. But, a draft bill that Fillmore and Rep. Douglas Welton, R-Payson, introduced ahead of the 2025 legislative session intends to change that, setting a cellphone and smartwatch ban as a default for school districts, citing substantial distractions for students.

The districts that would like to opt out of the prohibition can adopt policies to allow smart devices in their schools.

“We’ve preserved local control, but we’re recognizing that in the time since cellphones, and especially smartphones, became ubiquitous in schools, we have learned so much about their impact on students and their impact on the learning process that we need a reset,” Fillmore said in a news conference at Granger High School.

There would be specific exceptions to the prohibition, according to the bill’s draft, including responding to an “imminent threat to the health or safety of an individual,” to accommodate special education plans, or to address a medical necessity.

Districts would adopt their own policies on communication plans in case of emergency, Fillmore said. In the Jordan School District, for example, every student has access to a computer they could use to speak with their parents.

“Some school districts may allow students to carry a cellphone in a backpack. Of course, the very worst case scenario is, it would go back to when I was a kid, where my parents called the school, and then I came down and talked to them,” Fillmore said. “But that will be up to individual school districts to work out in collaboration with their parents, teachers and students.”

Funding and support

The bill would appropriate a one-time payment of $4.8 million from the Public Education Economic Stabilization Restricted Account to create a grant that schools could use to acquire equipment, such as magnetic locking pouches that students would use to keep their devices, or to gather data to evaluate the program.

Each pouch costs about $20 and has a lifespan of four years, according to Granger High School, which started using them this school year.

The private sector is also expected to tap into this effort, said Emily Bell McCormick, president of The Policy Project, a nonprofit that helps fund different policy solutions.

“We will work to ensure there is funding available for schools to purchase needed technology or physical interventions to support the students and teachers as they work to break the habit of smartphone use in class,” Bell McCormick said. “We will do that by creating a public, private partnership with the Utah legislature and donors.”

There will also be support for teachers and administrators, Bell McCormick said, with a best-practice model to implement the change.

Gov. Spencer Cox has been a vocal critic of the use of social media among young people. Earlier this year, he encouraged educators to remove cellphones during class.

“Cell phone-free learning environments will help our teachers teach and our students learn,” Cox wrote in January. “We want to give our schools every opportunity to succeed and so I hope our local school districts and charter schools will join me in this effort to keep phones in backpacks or lockers during class time.”

The governor is welcoming this effort, said Rich Nye, senior education adviser to Cox.

“The data is very, very clear as the greater the use of cellphones, the more negative effects that it has on students,” Nye said. “And the converse could be said as well.”

How is the policy working in Granger

Before the first period, about 3,300 students at West Valley City’s Granger High show their teachers a sealed magnetic locking pouch containing their phones. At the end of the school day, they go to different unlocking base stations held by school staff, where they tap the pouches to open them.

It’s a pilot program for Granger. But, on the ninth day of school, Tyler Howe, the school principal said, there have already been major changes in the school.

“I’ve got teachers reporting to me that they have never fit so much stuff into the time that they have a class period,” Howe said. “They’re getting ahead of schedule because there’s just not the same level of distractions.”

Some students already found a way to open the pouches without the help of the unlocking bases, however. By the end of the first week, eight students had broken the pouches, as well, and had to cover a $20 replacement fee.

“That adds up quickly if that becomes the game they want to play,” Howe said.

Granger is joining a couple other schools in the state in their phone-free endeavor. The school established the program after months of community engagement, Howe said. A survey of teachers and parents found that 69% were in favor of banning cellphones during class time, while 20% opposed the policy and 11% remained neutral, according to the school’s website.

In addition to the distraction concerns, the school cited instances of social media harassment during school.

Guardians who want to communicate with the students are able to email their children on their computers or call the school’s main office to relay a message, and things are, so far, running smoothly.

However, some students “are still in mourning,” Howe said. One of them is Cameron Black, a 17-year-old senior at Granger.

“I don’t really like the idea of my phone being pouched up during lunch, because the way I see school is like a job, where at least being at a job, I’m able to have little breaks in between,” Black said. “I mean those types of breaks, being on my phone help me kind of regain my balance here at school.”

However, he’s not angry, and he sees the point of the policy, he said, as he sees using phones during lessons as “a waste of time” and “plain disrespectful.”

“Short term, I think it’s negative, because a lot of students are still so used to being on their phones, and especially because we’re coming back from summer break,” he said. “But in the long run, it’s gonna hopefully turn our future society back to being a normal society.”