New York City Public Schools may be enacting a citywide cell phone ban for students by the beginning of next year. If so, it would become the largest school district in the country to have banned mobile devices. The City’s consideration for the motion comes as the Los Angeles Unified School District moved to ban cell phones from its schools just last week.
Two of the largest school districts in the states moving toward a ban indicates a shared frustration by educators across the country. According to a report published last week by the Pew Research Center, 72% of high school teachers in the United States said cell phone distraction is “a major problem in the classroom.”
During an interview with WNYW, David Banks, the chancellor of New York City Public Schools, says phone usage is not only a distraction, but an addiction. He clarified that he expects a formal announcement to be made as soon as he formulates how to implement a plan that would reach more than 1 million students across nearly 2,000 public schools in the country’s most populated city.
“In about two weeks, you’re going to hear a big announcement from us,” Banks told NY1 on Wednesday, the last day of school before summer break, adding that the ban could be enacted by January 2025.
While the city awaits this potential ban, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is also considering statewide action on the issues of smartphones in public schools. Former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio permitted cell phones back into schools in 2015 after his predecessor Mike Bloomberg barred them while Mayor Eric Adams has expressed his support for the ban being potentially reinstated.
“The distractions that come from cell phones is serious and we can’t ignore that,” Adams said during a news conference Tuesday. He said City Hall is looking for a “sweet spot” to “get parents in a comfortable place.”
Other states including Oklahoma, Kansas, Vermont, Ohio, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania, have all introduced similar legislation restricting cell phone use in public schools.
