Officials in Torrington, Waterbury, Manchester and New Haven say they’re seeing fewer discipline referrals, increased student engagement, and some are reporting marked improvements in academic achievement. Students and education officials in those districts say the ban has also improved students’ mental health, focus and morale, leading to positive outcomes all around.
State Rep. Jennifer Leeper D-Fairfield, co-chair of the state’s Education Committee, said recently that she will prioritize a bill on cellphone-free schools statewide “so we can join 31 other states plus the District of Columbia in ensuring our schools are places free from needless distraction and are fostering more student connection and engagement.”
The Connecticut House of Representatives approved legislation this past May that would have required all school districts statewide to “adopt a policy on the use of smartphones by students in K-12 schools,” according to the a press release from Gov. Ned Lamont’s office. However, that legislation did not pass the state Senate.
Connecticut State Department of Education officials said that they do not keep data on how many school districts have implemented cellphone bans. Patrice McCarthy, executive director and general counsel of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, said most districts have adopted a policy around cellphones and that it varies between middle and high schools.
McCarthy said she believes decisions concerning cellphone bans are best left at the local level with school board members as opposed to an outright state ban in schools.
In August 2024, the Connecticut State Board of Education unanimously passed guidance advising districts to remove or restrict cellphones from K-12 classrooms.
State Education Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker said in an email, “we are encouraged to see districts using the State Board of Education’s Personal Technology Use in Connecticut Schools guidance as they adopt age-appropriate, student-centered approaches that reduce distractions and strengthen student engagement.
“By enacting such policies, schools can better maximize learning time, and positively impact academic growth and success, all while supporting student mental health and well-being,” Tucker said.
STUDENT ENGAGEMENT
Bradon Daley, a junior at Metropolitan Business Academy, an interdistrict magnet high school in New Haven, said while he struggles with the cellphone ban at times in terms of connecting with others including his coach regarding scheduling, overall, he has seen the positive impact of the ban in increasing student engagement.
“People are talking to each other and socializing and there is more of a sense of a community and school spirit,” he said.
In student government, Daley said he has seen firsthand how the elimination of cellphones has resulted in students learning more about each other from cultural backgrounds to hobbies.
Genesis Guillen, a senior at Metropolitan Business Academy, agreed.
She said students wearing headphones and burying themselves in their phones was almost a way to hide.
“If I have my airpods on and am looking down at my phone, nobody is going to talk to me,” she said. “I feel removed.”
Guillen said she has seen more interaction with students concerning a club she is part of which teaches students about homelessness. Before the cellphone ban, she said, when she shared information about the club, students would immediately go back on their phones instead of listening. Now she said they are more engaged.
Madison Gay, a senior at the same school, said at the beginning of the school year when the cellphone ban was put into place there was awkwardness among students but then students began socializing and started learning about each other, making it easier to make friends.
James Tierinni Jr., Manchester Education Association president and a mathematics teacher at the city’s high school, said he supported the cellphone ban.
“I think that kids need to be kids and that the cellphones don’t let them be children,” he said. “When this first started, some kids were resistant because of what they have known. Now I think some of the students are able to go back to a world without them and I really think they are in a better mental space.”
New Haven Superintendent Madeline Negron said in “the cafeteria and in our hallways kids are actually talking to one another and looking at one another and having conversations.”
Torrington Superintendent Michael Wilson echoed similar sentiments.
“Our students are learning to be better communicators without having technology as their means of communication,” he said.
Kate Dias, president of the Connecticut Education Association, said she has heard positive feedback from teachers about the cellphone bans.
“Books are being taken out of the library at a great rate,” she said. “We are reducing a barrier for our kids. They are better communicators.”
INCREASED ACADEMIC GROWTH
Waterbury Public Schools implemented a ban on cellphones in the 2024-25 school year.
Waterbury Superintendent Darren Schwartz said that the new policy has positively impacted students.
“Last year, our high school students improved on the SATs across the board,” he said. “In fact, the percentage of students meeting proficiency on the SATs is now above the prepandemic levels.”
Torrington Board of Education co-chair Edward Corey said that student performance has increased markedly over the last few years with a portion of that attributable to the cellphone policy, which was put into place in 2022. There students are instructed to put their phones in Yondr pouches while in class.
Other factors may also be at play in the increased student performance, Corey explained, adding that the district also made changes to the graduation requirements.
Wilson said the district has seen academic growth across the K-12 spectrum, but that it is too early to make a direct correlation to the restriction of cellphones in the classroom.
“We are still in the process of continuing to monitor that,” he said.
Manchester Superintendent Matthew Geary also said while there have been slight upticks in grades at the high school, he believed it was too early to make a correlation between the outcomes and the cellphone policy put in place in the middle schools in December 2023 and the high school in 2024. He said the district will be watching test scores in the next few years to see if there are marked trends that can be related to cellphone restrictions.
Tierinni Jr. said he has seen students make gains in academics.
Negron said as a result of the cellphone-free policy in schools beginning last year in the middle schools and this year in the high schools, she is hearing that more homework assignments are being returned and that there is more active engagement on the part of students during class.
“Instruction is at a faster pace because kids are more focused,” she said.
Guillen said that she has improved academically due to fewer distractions from her phone.
Previously, she said, “whenever I would be on the phone every couple of minutes I would check to see if I had notifications and would miss out on notes and classwork.”
FEWER DISCIPLINE REFERRALS
Geary, Manchester’s superintendent, told the Courant that there were 600 fewer discipline referrals last year at the high school than the previous year when the cellphone ban was not in place.
“Our sense is that students are more engaged,” Geary said. “When kids are able to access the phones during the day it is a lot easier to get into trouble. We have kids engaged in less conflict and other troubling behaviors. It is healthy for students to be off these devices at least during the school day.”
Negron said when New Haven implemented the cellphone-free policy at the middle school last year officials saw decreased rates in student discipline.
Tierinni Jr. said as a teacher in Manchester he has seen fewer fights and less hostility among students due to the cellphone ban.
Corey said Torrington has seen fewer students referred for expulsion.
“We really feel it has been a good way to reduce disciplinary incidents because what was happening with the phones is that students were constantly in touch with each other,” he said, adding that this could increase drama that would boil over throughout the day and would result in fights in some cases.
Gay said the cellphone ban has changed her habits at home with her phone.
“I am more productive,” she said. “I don’t feel like I pick it up as much anymore.”
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