New NYS Phone Policy

A glowing, rectangular piece of metal that contains all the world’s knowledge and entertainment right at your fingertips. Who would've thought that this could be distracting. But not only is it temporarily distracting, the phone builds perpetual distraction. It creates destructive habits that are almost impossible to break and fills the brain with mind melting information that has no value, taking up any inch of space anywhere. Even the value it does provide, such as building relationships with friends, doesn’t extend into the school building. In response, Governor of New York Kathy Hochul has implemented a new policy taking place state-wide in 2025: distraction-free schools. This policy mainly features the banning of the use of smartphones and other internet-enabled personal devices on school grounds in K-12 schools for the entire school day. This is an important step in rectifying the widespread problem of kids entanglement with their phones, and will help them to spend more time actually learning in school rather than wasting their valuable time staring at a screen.

For parents, this may seem like a dangerous policy. How are they going to communicate with their children in school? What if there is an emergency? This notion of everybody always needing to know everything all the time (especially parents) has been blown far out of proportion. Parents act as if it is the end of the world when they cannot be in constant contact with their children. But before the 2000s, children went to school without phones, and they turned out just fine. However, Hochul’s policy quells these concerns by requiring schools to address any parent inquiries about staying in contact with their children during the day. Additionally, her report cites how phone-free environments do not compromise student safety. Schools are filled with educated adults and school safety protocols that do not require students to use their phones in any way. In fact, law enforcement officials have found that it may be safer if students did not have their phones during emergencies, so their sole focus could be on following the directions of teachers and administrators. 

Another issue may be during lunchtime. In some schools, students are permitted to have off-campus lunch, and under the new policy, these schools would be allowed to give kids their phones back during this time. In my opinion (and Kathy Hochul’s), this would take away from the idea of a phone-free school day, with lunch being a crucial time for social interaction, and would also be much more complicated to arrange for the school. Students would argue that they need to get their phones back in order to buy lunch using Apple Pay from their phones. Although, returning to my past statement, kids were perfectly fine when going out to buy lunch before Apple Pay existed and can manage just fine paying with cash or card. 

Parents may also interject here and say that because kids are not within school parameters, they need their phone for safety reasons. But yet again, kids have been roaming the city without phones for decades (including the parents complaining) and still made it to adulthood. In fact, today, crime rates in New York City are far lower than they were in past decades. According to the New York City Police Department, in the year 2000, the seven major felony offenses (crime index), rape, murder, robbery, felony, assault, burglary, grand larceny, and grand larceny of a motor vehicle, totaled 184, 652. In 2024 the total was just 123, 890, which is a 33 percent decrease. The non-seven major felony offenses, possession of stolen property, forgery/theft, arson, sex crimes, dangerous drugs, dangerous weapons, criminal mischief & related offenses, and other felonies, totaled 80,861 in 2000. In 2024 the total was 66,433, which is a 17 percent decrease. These are historic lows for the city and continue to trend downwards towards a safer environment. 

Furthermore, concerns about the negative effects that a phone free school may have, pale in comparison to the positive effects on academic performance. In the classroom, phones are a raging battle between students and teachers, with teachers constantly scolding students to put them away over and over again. When interviewed by the online news source amNY, Audra, a NYC public high school teacher, said “As a high school teacher, cell phone use is literally the main disciplinary concern I have among my students… Asking these students to put their phones away even for 10 minutes is like asking them to remove a limb.” This behavior is not just a specific case in a certain school, it is consistent throughout. According to a 2023 poll published by the Pew Research Center, nearly 75 percent of teachers said cell phone distraction was a major problem in their classrooms. Hochul’s report states how this distraction causes real, harmful effects on students’ ability to learn and to successfully demonstrate critical thinking and creativity. This claim is widely supported by an array of studies, including one from the London School of Economics, finding that not only does student achievement improve as a result of a phone ban, but also that low achieving and low ­income students gain the most. 

The ban doesn’t just increase the academic engagement of students in classrooms, but also in communal spaces and during extracurricular activities such as school clubs and arts. For students, being present during the school day is a struggle and kids constantly find themselves instinctively reaching for their phones both during class and outside the classroom. To me, school is equally important in terms of academics and the building of social skills for the future. Excelling at networking and socializing gives people a significant advantage in succeeding in their work, no matter what industry or field. With every student having a phone in school that they can hide behind at any time; they are missing out on vital social interaction that kids are supposed to be experiencing. In a survey conducted by Auburn University at a high school with a phone ban, teachers reported more social interaction in class between students, including students helping others with assignments. Without phones in schools, not only will students' academic achievement increase, but the culture and atmosphere will as well. 

No matter what stance you take on how much time a kid should be spending on their cell phone, it is undoubtedly a positive for them to not be spending their school time with it. The world’s future is in the hands of high school students and with that responsibility, schools should aim to maximize student growth in every way possible. To create an environment where both learning and social interaction is encouraged and strengthened. With Kathy Hochul’s new policy, this goal will be accomplished.