CoSN2025: Why Are Cellphone Bans in K–12 Classrooms Sparking Controversy?

Contending With the Mental Health Ramifications of Cellphone Access

In today’s fast-moving, always-on culture, children are under increased pressure. “They are burning out and feeling real anxiety or real depression because of this pressure,” Lapus said. “More than one-quarter of American teens struggle with burnout, real burnout, clinically.”

While this pressure doesn’t come solely from cellphone access, nearly 70% of teens say that social media drives pressure around a need to succeed.

A way to address the mental health piece of cellphone use, Lapus said, is to bring values into the conversation. “Get students to apply these values to the ways that the technologies they use affect them,” he says. “If, for example, connection is an important value, they start recognizing that platforms make them feel connected, but they actually feel very disconnected from people in real life.”

Merve Lapus, vice president of education outreach and engagement at Common Sense Media, shared this slide in Tuesday’s presentation at CoSN 2025, asking audience members to identify one of their own values from the image.

One reason school and classroom leaders might try having students align their values with technology use before turning to an outright ban is because the latter frequently has mixed results when it comes to effects on youth well-being. “Evidence points to benefits and limitations,” Lapus said.

While bans could improve focus, engagement and academic performance in some classrooms, “what is still out there is limited-impact on the overall mental health of kids,” he explained. “They’re still feeling pressure. Some studies show that banning the phones could lead to kids spending more time on their phones outside of school.”

One audience member noted that many parents aren’t modeling responsible cellphone use at home. “What’s happening at home is killing us in the classroom,” he said.

Others noted further complexities in creating and enacting policies.

Cellphone Bans Come With Fine Lines and Many Considerations

The Tuesday session gave attendees numerous opportunities to engage with its content and one another. The room quickly came alive with conversation as participants took the opportunity to share thoughts, concerns and questions.

“At one point, teachers and students were asked to use their devices as an instructional tool,” one attendee called out, adding that it then caused confusion when the policy changed to forbid those same devices. “It’s like trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube,” another conferencegoer said in agreement.

LEARN MORE: Optimize K–12 devices for long-term success.

Someone also spoke up about the nature of the session itself. “We’re supposed to be preparing these kids for their futures, and we’re sitting here using devices,” she said. “How do we teach them the best way to use the devices?”

She went on to compare cellphone use in daily life to driving a car: You wouldn’t hand car keys to a teenager and give them unsupervised use of a vehicle without first teaching them how to drive.

“From a legislative standpoint, how do you ban cellphones in schools?” a different participant asked. “Do you send a police officer and arrest a child for having a cellphone?”

Lapus noted that it was a contentious topic and added that he couldn’t tell participants what they should do. He shared that bans don’t have to be all or nothing, and he encouraged school leaders to find policies that work with their state’s laws, where applicable, and their goals as institutions.

Megan Andrews, an education technology director at Antelope Valley Union High School District, noted that her district is favoring an “off and away” policy while providing strategic supports in classroom so that it’s “not a fight.”

Merve Lapus, vice president of education outreach and engagement at Common Sense Media, shared this slide, which outlines a variety of cellphone bans at different levels, in his presentation Tuesday at CoSN 2025.

Lapus noted that students are already finding ways around cellphone pouches; they’re filling them with dummy phones or rocks, using magnets to access their devices, or smashing the pouches off the corner of desks to break them open.

Safety was another issue he addressed: An audience member asked about potential litigation should someone get hurt and be unable to call for help in an emergency.

“What is the strategy for if there is an issue? If you’re collecting phones at the beginning of the day and something does happen, what is your policy then?” Lapus asked. He said that it’s difficult to know how to handle a situation like that, “but unfortunately, that’s the world we live in right now.”

Keep this page bookmarked to catch all of our CoSN2025 coverage, and follow us on the social platform X @EdTech_K12 for behind-the-scenes looks using the hashtag #CoSN2025.