LAUSD, the nation’s second-largest school district, has approved a ban on phones in classrooms starting January 2025. This decision aligns with a broader trend across California, as lawmakers and schools push for similar restrictions. Governor Gavin Newsom encourages districts to act now, citing the 2019 law empowering them to enforce bans. Read the full story.
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Throughout California, schools and lawmakers are moving to ban cell phones in classrooms. Los Angeles Unified, the nation’s second-largest school district, recently approved plans to ban phones by January 2025.
Meanwhile, Gov. Gavin Newsom has urged school districts statewide to act now and adopt similar restrictions on smartphone use, reminding them that a 2019 law gives them the authority to do so. One bill before the state legislature would impose similar limits statewide, while another would ban the use of social media at school.
Calls to limit how students use smartphones are driven in part by concerned educators. A Pew Research Center survey released in June found that one in three middle school teachers and nearly three in four high school teachers call smartphones a major problem. During school hours, in a single day, the average student receives 60 notifications and spends 43 minutes — roughly the length of a classroom period — on their phone, according to a 2023 study by Common Sense Media.
Urban Discovery Academy, a TK–12 charter school in San Diego, banned cell phones during the 2023–24 academic year amid an uptick in bullying, harassment, and anxiety among students, according to staff.
Nearly 90% of discipline cases across Urban Discovery Academy, in a school where Principal Ron Dyste previously worked, could be traced to misuse of phones or social media, including students filming fights, spreading nude photos of classmates, and encouraging students to kill themselves. At the end of the academic year, the school logged zero fights. The previous year, the school’s suspension rate was 13.5%, almost four times the state average.
For CalMatters, I’m Khari Johnson.
