Newsom nudges school districts to restrict student cellphone use

The efforts mark a broader push by officials in Utah, Florida, Louisiana and elsewhere to try to limit cellphone use in schools in order to reduce distractions in the classroom — and address the impacts of social media on the mental health of children and teens.

But progress can be challenging. Cellphone bans are already in place at many schools. But they aren't always enforced, and students often find ways to bend the rules, like hiding phones on their laps. Some parents have expressed concerns that bans could cut them off from their kids if there is an emergency.

Districts should "act now" to help students focus at school by restricting their smartphone use, Newsom said in the letter. He also cited risks to the well-being of young people, a subject which garnered renewed attention in June after U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called on Congress to require warning labels on social media platforms.

"Every classroom should be a place of focus, learning, and growth," the Democrat said in his letter. "Working together, educators, administrators, and parents can create an environment where students are fully engaged in their education, free from the distractions on the phones and pressures of social media."

Newsom said earlier this summer that he was planning to address student smartphone use, and his letter says he is working on it with the state Legislature. Tuesday's announcement is not a mandate but nudges districts to act.

Newsom signed a law in 2019 granting districts the authority to regulate student smartphone access during school hours.

The debate over banning cellphones in schools to improve academic outcomes is not new. But officials often resort to bans as a solution rather than find ways to integrate digital devices as tools for learning, said Antero Garcia, a professor at Stanford University's Graduate School of Education.

"What I'm struck by is society's inability to kind of move forward and find other kinds of solutions other than perpetually going back to this 'Should we ban devices?' conversation as the primary solution to something that hasn't worked," Garcia said.

"Suggesting curtailing cellphone use in schools is a great thing to say," he added. "What that means for the middle school teacher come next week when many schools start is a very different picture."

But some parents say banning cellphones would help their kids focus during class. Jessica French, a parent of a 16-year old and a 12-year-old living in the Northern California town of Palo Cedro, said her son has played games on a classmate's phone while at school, further distracting him from learning. There should be a statewide ban on phones in class, she said.

If rules around student phone access were left up to school districts, "some local communities that might not agree" are just going to "do a disservice to their kids," French said. That means those students won't "have the same ability to learn because they're being distracted."

Some schools and districts in California have already taken action. Los Angeles Unified, the second-largest school district in the nation with more than 500,000 students, passed a ban on student cellphone use in June.

Troy Flint, spokesperson for the California School Boards Association, says districts should be able to create their own rules on device access at school.

"Cellphone usage and social media usage on campus is certainly a serious issue and one that deserves a close examination," Flint said. "But those decisions are very specific to certain schools and certain communities, and they need to be made at a local level."

South Carolina lawmakers this summer passed a temporarily one-year rule in the state budget requiring schools to ban student cellphone use or lose state funding. The schools have until the start of 2025 to get their specific rules and punishments for breaking them in place.

Education officials rushed to get the proposal together so districts would have time to tailor their own rules around the state guidelines.

But state board Chairman David O'Shields said Tuesday there was no need to rush and give the districts "runny eggs" when a little more time could be spent working on the rules, getting more input from teachers, parents and administrators.

"Let's get these eggs right. I want a good omelet," O'Shields said.

O'Shields was especially convinced by Jennifer Rainville of the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center who pointed out more than 100,000 students were suspended in a recent school year and asked that the rules be specific as possible in pointing districts away from that as a punishment.

"The last thing we need is to come up with cellphone polices that are an easy way out for students that might take a suspended day when they need to be in the classroom," O'Shields said.

There are questions whether to ban cellphones during bus rides or field trips or only during class time.

"Let's give back to kids a distraction-free childhood," state Education Department Deputy Superintendent Matthew Ferguson said.

A brief survey of South Carolina teachers in May showed 92% supported limiting cellphone access in classrooms and 55% wanted a total ban. The survey from Education Superintendent Ellen Weaver also found 83% of teachers think cellphones are a daily distraction to learning, the Education Department wrote in a memo to the board.