Bell-to-bell cell bans may not show significant changes in the numbers, but clear classroom improvements are evident

Studies of American schools with bell-to-bell cellphone bans – which include schools in Missouri and Kansas – may not reveal an immediate improvement in quantitative areas such as standardized test scores, yet scholars and teachers agree there are evident benefits in the classroom that might just take longer to appear on paper.

Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools (KCKPS) is enforcing a bell-to-bell ban for the first time this year following the passage of the bipartisan statewide ban in March.

“We must have one uniform standard across the state to tackle this issue and set our students up for success,” Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said about the bill. “By banning cell phone use during the school day, we’re taking a commonsense approach to address the impact smartphones and social media have on Kansas children’s academic performance, learning environments and mental health.”

While most Kansas school districts are entrusting students to keep their phones put away in light of the new law, KCKPS has spent $150,000 on cellphone lockers for middle and high school students to use each day.

Those in favor of cellphone lockers or lockable pouches argue the measures make the ban easier to enforce and reduce stress on teachers who would otherwise have to deal with noncompliant students using their phones during class. Aside from that, University of Michigan professor Dr. Brian Jacob, who has studied cellphone bans nationwide, says there might not be much of a difference in which enforcement method schools choose.

Kansas City (Missouri) Public Schools (KCPS) has taken a different approach after deciding extra implementation measures aren’t worth the additional cost.

The district is in its second year of having the bell-to-bell ban and says the restriction has been a success, mostly due to its way of implementing it. The school system spent a significant amount of time gathering feedback from students and families before implementing the ban, KCPS told Heartlander News, and after exploring options, decided it would allow students to keep their phones in their backpacks. Even though they have their devices with them, KCPS students aren’t allowed to use them during or between classes.

“That collaborative approach remains important to us,” KCPS wrote in a statement to Heartlander News. “We chose not to treat students as passive subjects of a policy but as stakeholders and partners in creating a school environment focused on learning. Because of that, we’ve seen very few infractions.

“Students themselves often reinforce expectations with one another because they understand the purpose behind the policy and don’t want a small number of violations to affect the broader school community.”

A growing national trend

Bell-to-bell cellphone bans are growing in popularity across the nation as at least 20 states have adopted statewide bans and 35 states have some form of phone restriction, according to Paragon Health Institute.

A national study of phone bans by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, which specifically focuses on the use of lockable pouches, revealed nearly 5,000 schools were using lockable pouches for phones by 2026.

The study analyzed more than 43,000 middle and high schools across the U.S. over a three-year period and concluded that the use of lockable pouches didn’t significantly affect school attendance, classroom attention, online bullying or standardized test scores.

The results also revealed disciplinary incidents increased in the first year of the phone ban but improved each year after that.

“I think we’re still at the very beginning stages of figuring out exactly what type of restrictions implemented in what way will be most effective,” Jacob, one of the study’s coauthors, told Heartlander News.

“The national study we did on lockable pouches was a bit surprising and discouraging, I have to admit. Although I have to say none of the co-authors on the study expected this one change in a school in and of itself to dramatically raise standardized test scores.”

Despite the unremarkable statistics surrounding phone bans, 77% of Americans support in-class bans and 48% support bell-to-bell bans, with both groups increasing in support from the previous year, according to Pew Research.

Even if quantitative data doesn’t reveal a dramatic shift, educators say students appear more focused and more socially engaged with each other. Jacob argues that while standardized test scores might not be immediately influenced by cellphone bans, deeper studies could reveal improvements in students’ classroom grades and, besides, it’s not all about academics anyway.

“My view is that there are really good theoretical, educational and medical reasons for restricting student cell phone use in schools, and so I’m quite supportive of a bunch of the recent efforts to do this across states and districts,” he said.

KCKPS gave schools until the end of the day Monday to comply with the new bell-to-bell ban, which also requires each school to develop a policy restricting teachers’ use of social media to communicate with students. As of last week, 250 of Kansas’ 297 schools were properly certified, the Kansas State Department of Education said.