Utah students could soon be prohibited from using smartphones during the school day

West Valley City • In a bid to reclaim students’ attention in the classroom, Utah lawmakers are considering an outright ban on cellphone use by students in grades K-12 during the school day.

Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, announced a draft bill Monday, “Devices in Public Schools,” that would prohibit students from using “a cellphone, smartwatch or emerging technology during instructional hours.”

The proposal is one of the state’s many efforts to crack down on youth social media use, which has been linked to negative mental health outcomes, including depression and anxiety.

“The learning environment is no longer as focused as it was,” Fillmore said Monday at a news conference at Granger High School. “Distractions are too present, and cellphones, especially internet-enabled cellphones, smartphones with social media, are damaging to the learning environment and to our kids’ health.”

Emily Bell McCormick, president of The Policy Project, a Utah-based nonprofit that supports the proposal, said “this smartphone bill is critical to the educational, emotional and social outcomes of our students.”

While the draft bill states the Legislature is allocating $4.8 million for the plan, McCormick clarified that the actual amount is closer to $3.5 million. The Policy Project hopes to raise $1 million toward that total, she said.

“We will work to ensure there’s funding available for schools to purchase needed technology or physical interventions to support the students and teachers as they work to break the habit of smartphone use in class,” McCormick said. “We’ve lost enough of our kids, attention, emotional energy and ability to learn to this epidemic.”

The draft bill would essentially “flip the script” on current law by changing the default from allowing cellphone use to prohibiting it statewide. School districts would still have the authority to permit students to use smart devices, but would have to create policies to do so, according to the new proposal.

The draft bill also directs school districts to establish policies outlining any exceptions to the prohibition, including use during an emergency and use by students with disabilities.

In January, Gov. Spencer Cox sent letters to Utah school districts, charter schools and state education leaders, urging teachers to remove cellphones during class time.

Granger High School is one example of an early adopter of a complete ban on cellphone use, and school officials said Monday that it’s going well.

“We’re on Day 9 of the school year [and] we’ve seen major changes in our school,” Granger High Principal Tyler Howe said. “I’ve got teachers reporting to me that they have never fit so much stuff into the time that they have a class period. They’re getting ahead of schedule because there’s just not the same level of distractions.”

At the start of the day, students place their phones in what’s called a “Yondr pouch,” which is then locked shut. Students carry the pouches with them throughout the day. When the final bell rings, staff members stand outside with an “unlocking base,” against which students tap their pouches to access their phones.

Fillmore said that while parents have expressed concern about being able to contact their children during an emergency, the bill enables districts to put workarounds into their policies.

“The very worst-case scenario is it would go back to when I was a kid: If my parents needed me, they called the school,” Fillmore said.

In the event of an emergency at school, McCormick added, there is emerging data that suggests children are better off not being on their phones and instead focusing on their teacher as the primary source of information.

“The danger that kids face in school from some of the current threats that are sincerely very, very scary, don’t come close to the danger they face with cellphones,” McCormick said.

If passed in the general session, which starts in January, the legislation would take effect in fall 2025.