A bipartisan group of U.S. senators reintroduced the Focus on Learning Act (S. 404) on February 5, 2025, establishing a five-year, $5 million federal pilot program that awards grants to local school districts for secure containers and lockers to store student mobile devices during the school day. The bill, introduced by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) with cosponsors Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL), and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), also directs the Surgeon General to complete a study within two years on the impact of mobile devices on academic achievement, mental health, and school climate.
What the bill does and does not do
The bill defines a mobile device as any personal mobile telephone or other portable electronic communication device used for calls, messages, games, or video, excluding school-issued devices. A school environment free of mobile devices means a school where student devices are kept in a secure container controlled by a school administrator. The pilot program, run by the Secretary of Education in consultation with the Department of Health and Human Services, awards grants to local educational agencies to purchase containers and lockers. Grants go to applicants whose participation will yield helpful information relevant to testing a phone-free environment.
Applicant districts must assure that each participating school has a communication system for teachers, administrators, and staff to talk to each other and local emergency responders, and a clear process for students to contact parents. Districts must notify parents at least 30 days before applying and solicit parent feedback. The bill carves out exemptions for students with disabilities, students needing devices to monitor or treat health conditions, and English learners for translation purposes.
The bill authorizes $5 million over five fiscal years. Up to 2 percent may be used for administrative expenses, data collection, and the Surgeon General study. Sen. Cotton said the widespread use of cell phones in schools is at best a distraction and at worst exposes schoolchildren to harmful and addictive content. Sen. Kaine said the bill would provide more information on cellphone use so schools and parents can make the best decisions. The senators said they are not seeking a federal mandate and want local officials to determine the right balance.
State action far outpacing federal intervention
As of the 2025-26 school year, at least 26 states have laws or policies requiring local school boards to ban or limit cellphone use in K-12 classrooms, with 22 of those laws enacted in 2025 alone, according to Ballotpedia News. Using a broader count, the Associated Press reports 35 states now have laws or rules limiting phones and other electronic devices in school. Phones are banned throughout the school day, or bell-to-bell, in 18 states plus the District of Columbia, while seven states ban them only during class time.
Florida became the first state to pass a law banning cellphone use during instructional time for K-12 in 2023, also banning social media access on school Wi-Fi. The law took effect July 2024, and the legislature is now considering bills to move from classroom-only bans to bell-to-bell policies, according to the Parents Television and Media Council. Louisiana implemented a strict bell-to-bell statewide ban in public K-12 schools via SB 207, effective the 2024-25 school year, requiring devices to be turned off and stored away, with exceptions for students needing learning accommodations.
Virginia implemented a statewide ban via Executive Order 33, issued July 9, 2024, with school divisions required to adopt compliant policies by January 1, 2025. The policy mandates bell-to-bell restriction but allows districts to choose storage methods and establish emergency communication protocols, NBC News reported. High schoolers may use phones between periods and at lunch but not during instruction; middle schoolers have no phone access throughout the day. The governor allocated $500,000 for implementation support.
Oklahoma's SB 139, signed in May 2025, mandates a bell-to-bell ban on cellphones and personal electronics for the 2025-26 school year, with exceptions for school-issued devices, emergencies, and medical necessity. The ban is mandatory for one year only; districts may opt out starting 2026-27. The law includes grant funding of up to $2 million for locking pouches or storage solutions.
Delaware enacted a $250,000 pilot program to test cell-hiding pouches in middle and high schools, with the state Department of Education responsible for creating the application system and evaluating outcomes. The department was to assess pilot outcomes by May 1, 2025, which may inform future statewide policy. South Carolina implemented its ban through a budget proviso tying compliance to state funding: districts must implement a policy banning personal electronic communication devices during the school day to continue receiving State Aid to Classrooms. The State Board of Education approved a model policy in September 2024.
What the evidence shows
Research on the effects of school cellphone bans is mixed and often contested, with no single study providing a definitive answer. A 2024 National Bureau of Economic Research working paper using detailed student-level data from Florida and a quasi-experimental design found that enforcement of cellphone bans led to a significant short-term increase in student suspensions, especially among Black students, that dissipated after the first year, significant improvements in student test scores in the second year after an adjustment period, and significant reductions in unexcused absences. Effects were more pronounced in middle and high school settings.
In contrast, the SMART Schools study, a cross-sectional observational study of 1,227 adolescents across 30 English secondary schools published in The Lancet, found no evidence that restrictive school phone policies were associated with better mental wellbeing, anxiety, depression, sleep, physical activity, or academic attainment. Restrictive policies reduced in-school phone and social media time by about 30 to 40 minutes, but students compensated outside school, so there was no overall difference in usage. However, increased phone and social media time was independently associated with worse mental health, sleep, and academic outcomes.
A 2024 rapid review and meta-analysis of five quantitative studies published in MDPI Education Sciences found a small but significant overall effect size of 0.162 for smartphone bans, with effects more pronounced for social well-being, such as reducing bullying, than for academic performance. The authors noted the limited number of studies and recommended that bans be accompanied by educational measures and evaluated regularly.
A forthcoming Journal of Human Resources study using administrative and survey data with an event-study design found that banning smartphones in middle schools had no average effect on education or mental health, but masked gender differences: bans reduced psychological health care use among girls, lowered bullying for both genders, and improved girls GPAs and academic track placement, especially among those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
An NBER conference paper evaluating lockable phone pouches nationwide using a staggered difference-in-differences design found that pouch adoption substantially reduced phone use but in the first year increased disciplinary incidents and decreased student subjective well-being. Effects on well-being turned positive in later years and disciplinary effects faded. Average effects on test scores were consistently close to zero, though high schools saw modest positive math effects and middle schools saw small negative effects. Little evidence of effects on attendance or online bullying was found.
A scoping review of 22 studies across 12 countries, published in SAGE Journals, found an absence of randomized controlled trials, with evidence resting on studies with different designs, samples, and operational definitions of bans. Of seven studies examining effects of bans on academic outcomes, four reported increases and three found no differences. The review noted that positive effects were often concentrated among low-achieving and low-socioeconomic-status students, and that reconciliation was challenging due to methodological heterogeneity.
A preregistered study of South Australia's mobile phone ban, phased in over 2023 across five secondary schools involving 1,282 students, found no significant differences between ban and no-ban groups in problematic phone use, academic engagement, or school belonging. Bullying decreased in both groups over time. The study found limited to no short-term benefits and recommended further evaluation with more sensitive methodologies.