At least 39 states and Washington, D.C., now require school districts to ban or restrict students' cellphones, according to an Education Week tally last updated July 28, 2026. In 29 of those states and D.C., the rule is supposed to run bell to bell, meaning phones stay put away from the first bell of the day to the last, lunch and passing periods included.
Those 29 states and D.C. enroll about 35.2 million of the 49.1 million students in public schools across the 50 states and D.C., or roughly 72%, according to allk12's analysis of federal enrollment data. Not all of those students are covered yet. Some of the laws apply the all-day rule only through eighth grade, and a few do not take effect until the 2027-28 school year.
Florida passed the first statewide law in 2023. Its statute now says elementary and middle school students "may not use a wireless communications device during the school day," while high school students may not use one during class unless a teacher directs them to for schoolwork.
Where each state stands
| Type of rule | Count | States |
|---|---|---|
| Bell to bell | 29 + D.C. | Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida*, Georgia, Hawaii*, Idaho, Illinois*, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and D.C. |
| Class time only | 8 | Delaware, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Wisconsin |
| Restriction required, scope not specified | 2 | Minnesota and West Virginia |
| No ban or restriction required | 11 | Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming |
*The all-day rule applies only to kindergarten through eighth grade. Source: Education Week, updated July 28, 2026.
Timing varies a lot inside that first row. Georgia's 2026 law covers kindergarten through eighth grade by July 1, 2026, and high schools by July 1, 2027. Illinois and Maryland start in 2027-28. New Jersey and Vermont start this school year. California gave districts until July 1, 2026, to adopt a policy.
Education Week counts five, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Utah, with a single state-level policy. The rest told each district to adopt its own policy that meets the state's standard, so the details, such as whether phones go in a locker, a pouch, or a backpack, can differ from one district to the next.
New York went bell to bell for the 2025-26 school year. When Gov. Kathy Hochul announced it, her office said New York was "becoming the largest state in the nation to require statewide, bell-to-bell restrictions on smartphones in K-12 schools," and the state set aside $13.5 million for storage such as lockers and pouches. Virginia started with an executive order from then-Gov. Glenn Youngkin in July 2024 and later wrote the rule into law. State code now tells every school to carry out a phone policy "from bell to bell."
States in the bottom row have not banned anything statewide, but that does not stop their districts. Education Week notes that some of those states require districts to write a general phone policy without requiring a ban. A 2025 federal defense law also bans phones during the school day at K-12 schools on military bases.
What studies have found so far
The best-known U.S. study comes from Florida, the state with the longest track record. Economists David Figlio and Umut Özek studied the state's ban in a working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in October 2025. They found suspensions went up in the first year, especially among Black students, then eased after that. Test scores improved significantly in the second year, and unexcused absences fell, which the authors said may explain a large part of the score gains.
A study of 1,227 students ages 12 to 15 at 30 schools in the U.K., published in The Lancet Regional Health - Europe in February 2025, found students at schools with strict rules did use their phones less during the school day. It found "no evidence" that those rules were tied to less phone use overall or to better mental well-being. That study compared schools at a single point in time.
States also run their own surveys. Hochul's office said about 80% of the 585 responses to its end-of-year survey of school staff reported positive outcomes, including better student engagement. That is the governor's own survey, not independent research.
Parents and teachers still split on how far these rules should go, as we found when we looked at the debate over school phone bans. Some schools moved before their states did, like the North Carolina school that banned phones which says students are happier and more talkative at home.
Sources
Education Week: Which States Ban or Restrict Cellphones in Schools?
Florida Statutes 1006.07: District school board duties relating to student discipline and school safety
Office of the Governor of New York: Distraction-free schools announcement
Office of the Governor of New York: Results of phone-free schools
Code of Virginia 22.1-79.3:1: Student cell phone and smart device possession and use
WHRO: Youngkin signs executive order to establish cell phone-free education
NBER Working Paper 34388: The Impact of Cellphone Bans in Schools on Student Outcomes: Evidence from Florida
University of Birmingham: School phone policies and their association with mental wellbeing
Enrollment figures from allk12's analysis of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data, 2024-25.
