NYS school cellphone ban: LI educators say students talking more, engaging in class since ban took effect

Before the school year started, Farmingdale High School Principal Jed Herman worried his job would be consumed with enforcing the state’s bell-to-bell cellphone ban.

"I thought I’d be more of a phone police," he said recently. "I thought I would constantly fight this battle."

But in reality, that didn't happen.

Instead, Herman said he has seen his students engage more in the classroom and socialize during free periods. The teens are playing board games during lunch and talking more among themselves. He said he's even noticed they are more likely to make eye contact.

"It’s been really nice," he said. "Kids have really transitioned well to the change."

This fall, New York joined a growing number of states that have restricted the use of smartphones in schools. Students in public schools are now prohibited from using the devices from the first bell to the last, unless they have a qualified exemption. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who pushed for the ban, has said it would help minimize distractions in school and improve youth mental health.

While educators generally supported banning phone access during instructional time, some had opposed a blanket ban that covered free periods as well. Many raised concerns over how they could protect the privacy of students who needed to use phones for medical, family or educational reasons. And some parents worried about being able to reach their children in an emergency.

But nearly two months into the new school year, many Long Island educators said the rollout has played out "better than expected."

Tim Eagen, president of the Suffolk County School Superintendents Association, said he and his colleagues have been "pleasantly surprised" by how well the transition has gone.

"We were a little concerned that we were going to get some pretty significant pushback from students and parents," said Eagen, who leads the Kings Park district. "But by and large, our students, our parents and our staff have embraced the change."

A survey released Friday by the New York State United Teachers union showed "overwhelming support" for the ban, with educators reporting students more "present and participative during lessons" and "considerably more positive" social interactions among students.

The educators Newsday spoke to credited widespread buy-in from students who agreed smartphones can be a distraction. And because the ban covers all public schools in the state, they said students experienced less fear of missing out, as most of their friends also lacked access to their phones.

Mia Estrada, 14, a ninth grader at Memorial Junior High School in Valley Stream, said she felt "iffy" about the state ban when she first heard that it would take effect this school year. She thought it would be inconvenient, she said.

For example, Mia told Newsday during a recent school day that instead of texting her mother to bring a Gatorade for her soccer game after school, she had to go to a designated phone to call her.

Still, she said she had noticed some change in her since the ban took effect.

"This one time, I was sitting alone. So I was like, 'Let me just go up to this other kid that's sitting alone,' ” she recalled. "I found out his name and what class he has and all these other things. And now ... we're like acquaintances. So it's nice for me."

In the past, the teen — typically pretty social — said she probably would have been on her phone scrolling TikTok if she had access to the device.

"It's not that bad" was her assessment of the ban.

Fewer exemptions, phone confiscations than expected

One of the chief worries raised by Long Island educators was how to handle students who had exemptions allowing them to use cellphones during the school day.

Todd Winch, superintendent of Levittown schools, said his district has only had about two dozen exemptions out of roughly 7,000 students, much lower than he had expected.

Winch and his colleagues also anticipated a lot more phone confiscations.

The Levittown district has two high schools, each with more than 1,000 students. Officials used some of the $37,000 the district received from the state to buy three safes to store confiscated phones. The state had set aside $13.5 million for schools statewide to implement the ban.

But Winch said with each building confiscating five to 10 phones per day, they can barely fill one safe, which can store as many as 30 devices.

Winch, who supported limiting phone access during instructional time but not during free periods, now says he sees the benefits of a blanket ban.

"The students are actually engaging with one another in ways that we haven't seen for quite a while," he said. "I'm surprised by the level to which students have embraced the more old-school sort of entertainment, whether it be board games or talking to one another."

At East Hampton High School, which had opted to have students store their phones in pouches rather than lockers, Principal Sara Smith said the extra step of locking and unlocking the devices has been smooth.

"At first, it was a bit cumbersome," she said. "But within a week, students quickly were able to unlock them in a reasonable amount of time."

She said it added perhaps a minute or two during dismissal. And incidents of students trying to open the pouches during the school day have been "minimal," she said.

"I sort of chalk that up to adolescent human nature," she said.

Overall, she said the pouches "have worked beautifully for us."

Board games, clocks and paper sign-in sheets

Many Long Island schools have bought more board games since the cellphone ban was implemented. Winch said at one Levittown high school, officials also purchased a foosball table.

Some schools have added new clocks because students complained they didn't know the time without their phones.

In Farmingdale, Herman has reminded students to bring a physical credit or debit card to use the vending machines since they can no longer use Apple Pay through their phones. In cases where students scanned a QR code to sign up for meetings, they have gone back to the old-fashioned paper sign-in sheets.

At Memorial Junior High School in Valley Stream, Principal Bret Strauss said they started allowing seventh and eighth grade students to go outside during recess this year.

Teacher Robert Butler, who supervises the children while they are outside, was working in a different school last school year in Suffolk County, before the ban took effect. Butler, who had a phone caddie to store the devices, recalled the constant hassle to remind students to put away their phone during class.

"I had kids putting in fake phones, iPads, phones that were broken, and then keeping their real phones," he said before letting the children out on a recent bright sunny day, carrying with him a mesh bag with soccer balls and volleyballs.

"It was just so much to deal with on a classroom management perspective," he said. "The school policy has made all the difference. Honestly, it makes instruction much smoother."

Similar to in Levittown, Strauss reported few confiscations — typically two to four a day out of about 1,000 students.

Students cannot be suspended "solely" because they accessed their phone during the school day, but educators can take their phones away. Some schools impose tougher discipline like detention for repeated infractions.

Many schools require students to pick up their confiscated phone at the end of the day for a first offense. A parent would have to retrieve it for a second offense.

By noon on a recent school day, bins in Strauss’ office labeled first and second offense were empty. Like his colleagues in other districts, Strauss said he had anticipated a heavy lift to implement the ban.

"We were very nervous about the cellphone ban," he said. "We thought the genie was out of the bottle and that it was going to be an impossible thing to fix."

But like others, he said he has seen rising engagement from students and decreased conflict from issues like using artificial intelligence tools to cheat or writing inappropriate comments on social media that he and his team would then investigate.

"It's getting kids to be kids again," Strauss said. "Remember what it was like before [smartphones]? It's nice to see a return to that."

Some concerns remain

One unexpected consequence of the cellphone ban, according to some students, is that they cannot take photos and videos in school — documentation that could later be used to help them reminisce about their school life.

Xiarah Beltre, a ninth grader at Valley Stream Memorial Junior High, said some of her peers have remarked that was "one of the things that they thought wasn't really fair."

"We look back at seventh grade of all the videos and pictures and classes we had together," she said. "Now we can't really do that."

But the 14-year-old noted they still have yearbooks and said she has found the phone restriction has helped her focus more in school.

Not everyone, however, is a fan of the bell-to-bell ban.

Rabiyah Alli, mother of a ninth grader at the same Valley Stream school, said she found it quite inconvenient. Some days, her daughter Layla forgets to tell her when her club activities end or may decide to stay longer because she liked the activities that day — things that used to be easily conveyed through texts. Now Alli said she sometimes ends up waiting outside.

Also, "I like knowing where my kids are and I can reach them," said Alli, who also has a son who is a senior in high school. "I do miss that."

But Alli said she understood the intention of the ban to help all students, some of whom may have a harder time than others to put away their phones.

Xiarah’s father, Carlos Beltre, supports the ban. He said he sees it as a partnership between his family and the school to shape his daughter’s phone use habits.

"I don't think we have enough time to really say if it's working or not," he said. But, "It is a good idea to minimize the distraction."

John Caulfield, a middle school counselor and president of the Levittown teachers union, believes the new policy — while initially controversial — will eventually become the new norm.

"This will become one of those rules that we just do without even knowing we're doing it," he said.