“Put your phone away.”

If I had a nickel for every time I said that to a kid when I was a teacher, I wouldn’t be rich. But I’d still have a lot of nickels clanking around my pockets.

Cellphones have long been the bane of educators. But Indiana legislators decided to do something about it in 2024, passing a cell phone ban that applies during instructional time. Now, they may upgrade that to a full, bell-to-bell ban during school hours during the current legislative session.

Honestly? It’s about time.

One of the biggest objections students and families tend to raise to a full ban (and may raise again during this legislative session) is that they make it harder to contact their students in emergencies. As a former educator, a student, and a parent myself (though, admittedly, to a child who is not yet of cellphone-carrying age), I’m not sympathetic to this argument. My short answer? That’s what school front offices are for.

I’m old enough to recall a time when students, even middle and high school students, didn’t have cellphones in school because they didn’t yet have cellphones. I was one such teen once upon a time. We managed just fine.

Enough schools have already enforced some kind of ban (in Indiana and across the country) and things seem to be, well, fine even where full bell-to-bell bans are in place. The biggest drawback to these bans tends to be uneven implementation from school to school or within a school (with an equity-related issue sometimes popping up that I touch on in a moment).

Initial throat-clearing out of the way, I’m interested in what Indiana’s legislature might do here because there’s plenty of evidence that cellphone bans in schools are good for student achievement and well-being. And the elimination of cellphones may just be the canary in the coal mine for rethinking the role of technology in the classroom writ large.

Is Banning Cell Phones Good for Student Academics?

Yes. Yes, it is. And while it may have been a gut feeling for years, it’s been studied enough to convince me there’s clear academic upside to banning cellphones during the school day. (Not to mention benefits to overall well-being and mental health.)

One such piece of evidence comes from an October 2025 study (truly, in the way of scientific research, scorchingly hot off the presses) titled, “The Impact of Cellphone Bans in Schools on Student Outcomes: Evidence from Florida.” Key findings (which I’m quoting from the paper’s abstract) include:

• “Significant improvements in student test scores in the second year of the ban after that initial adjustment period.”
• “Findings suggest that cellphone bans in schools significantly reduce student unexcused absences, an effect that may explain a large fraction of the test score gains.”

It’s not surprising the impact was most pronounced in middle and high school grades. Now, this is all tempered by one key downside, albeit an avoidable one. I quote again from the paper’s abstract: “The enforcement of cellphone bans in schools led to a significant increase in student suspensions in the short-term, especially among Black students, but disciplinary actions began to dissipate after the first year, potentially suggesting a new steady state after an initial adjustment period.”

We shouldn’t ignore that. The good news is it dissipated. What’s more, that’s not an inevitable side effect, by any means (even if it’s predictable given the racial disparities in all forms of discipline). Something to guard against for sure; and Indiana definitely would need to if we advance to a full ban in schools. But not a reason to avoid the pursuit of one altogether.

Global studies regarding cellphone bans’ impact on academic and other elements of student well-being are perhaps even more notable. This great piece from The 74 rounds up a few from England, Denmark, and elsewhere. For example, in England, a major study found “…dozens of high schools that instituted bans on mobile phones saw significant improvement in scores on high-stakes tests. The increase was especially large for the lowest-performing pupils.”

Banning cell phones entirely in schools isn’t a silver bullet for academic achievement or a panacea for student mental health all on its own. But there’s enough evidence in support (and very little in the way of downsides that can’t be controlled for, in my opinion at least) to convince me this is a very good policy for our schools.

The Indiana legislature appears to agree. We’ll see what movement happens come early 2026.

Will One-to-One Devices Become a Thing of the Past?

Cellphones aren’t the only form of technology under attack in the classroom. The other being laptops. As a recent Chalkbeat Indiana article noted, “Indiana is not alone in reconsidering the role of laptops for classroom learning. That represents a reversal of COVID-era policies that sought to give all students a device in order to access online learning.”

It’s unclear what statewide policy might look like regarding broader device usage in classrooms. For example, it would be ludicrous to ban computers from classrooms. They serve a real purpose. But, at least in particular schools, there’s a clear rethink happening about the utility of devices to either send home or use in class or both.

I taught at what felt like the pre-COVID height of the one-to-one push where it was framed as an equity issue for every student to have access to a laptop or similar device in the classroom. COVID accelerated things dramatically, and for good reason given the prevalence of school closures and the need for students to access school from home.

There do seem to have been positive impacts on student achievement in that initial one-to-one push some years back. But there’s a growing number of schools considering a less technological approach as AI rises and Ed Tech’s myriad promises fail to pan out.

I for one don’t mind a less technological classroom. I’m not saying we go back to projectors or tvs on rolling carts. Nor am I laying the lack of notable academic recovery post-COVID (despite billions of nationwide investment) at the feet of our increased technological dependence in classrooms.

But reading physical textbooks, taking notes, handwriting essays… call me a Luddite, but a little more of these could do a whole lot of good. Especially when the cellphones are tucked away and no longer a distraction.