Teachers report phones are disruptive during class time even when school policy restricts smartphone and personal device use to between classes only.
According to a survey of 2,889 educators in the spring of 2024, disruption during instructional time is lowest when schools require phones to be stored away. Disruptions rise with each step toward less restrictive or less consistent policy, peaking when the policy permits individual teachers to set their own rules.
When phones are stored away and inaccessible, just 28 percent of educators report disruption during class time, and only 12 percent report phones are very disruptive.
When students can keep their phones but are not allowed to use them, nearly half of educators still report disruption during class time.
Disruption rises sharply when students are permitted to use phones between classes—almost three-quarters of educators report disruption during instructional time, even though phone use is restricted during class.
Educators are most likely to report disruption when teachers set their own rules. Without a uniform school policy, enforcement falls disproportionately on individual teachers, leading to inconsistency across classrooms and more opportunities for students to use phones during instructional time. Nearly eight out of ten educators in these schools report at least some classroom disruption, and nearly half report phones are very disruptive.
These survey findings support Paragon’s recommendation that statewide, bell-to-bell smartphone bans requiring phones to be stored away and inaccessible are the most effective policy for reducing classroom disruption. In a new bill spotlight, Paragon highlights Rhode Island as a model for bell-to-bell smartphone legislation, noting that comprehensive storage policies outperform less restrictive approaches. Less restrictive bans, including instructional time bans and bell-to-bell bans that don’t require phones to be stored away, still result in meaningful disruption during class time.
