On Tuesday, May 6, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that New York will enforce statewide restrictions on smartphones in schools. The new policy, implemented as part of the agreement on the Fiscal Year 2026 State Budget, will take effect for the 2025-2026 school year and will apply to all public school districts, including ICSD, and charter schools.
Hochul’s policy creates a statewide standard for distraction-free learning by prohibiting unsanctioned use of smartphones or internet-enabled personal devices, such as smart watches, on school grounds for the entire school day, including during lunch and study halls. Exemptions to the ban include using devices for medical needs, academic purposes, emergency situations, or as part of accommodations under Individual Education Plans (IEPs).
The policy allows districts to develop their own plans for storing smartphones during the day and allocates 13.5 million dollars for schools that need assistance in purchasing storage solutions for devices.
There are many possibilities for what a cell phone ban in ICSD could look like. Some have proposed having students drop off their cell phones in the Welcome Center before school and pick them up after. Strategies used in other districts include requiring students to place their phones in designated lockers at the front of the classroom or carry their phones in locked pouches during the school day. Some schools only confiscate phones if students take them out of their bags.
Many details of Hochul’s plan remain unclear, with much of the implementation left to individual districts. The overall effectiveness of such bans is still debated, as many of these plans can be easily circumvented with fake or burner phones. Prohibiting cell phone use in school has been found to improve student engagement and academics, but the impacts on mental health from cell phone and social media use can only be mitigated fully if phone use outside of school is addressed as well.
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