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A new California law prohibits cellphone use in schools and within the classrooms from 2026. The cellphones would be required to be put away as soon as the class starts, the law said.
The new state law AB 272 passed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday proposed minimization of cellphone use in schools. It would be done to boost students’ mental health. The state cellphone ban in schools gives the time till 1 July 2026 for all the schools to implement policies reading cellphone ban in schools.
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Newsom said, “We know that excessive smartphone use increases anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues- but we have the power to intervene. This new law will help students focus on academics, social development, and the world in front of them, not their screens when they’re in school”.
The new California law prohibits cellphone use in classrooms but has an exception. The AB 272 law allows the use of phones in case of emergency. Teachers and school administrators can allow phones in perceived threat situations or when they think of some emergency conditions that become inevitable.
Although the use of AI in education is another issue that is debatable with limited phone time, the use of cellphones for a long screen time still raises eyebrows when it comes to students’ mental health.
Can schools ban cellphones?
With growing concerns about adolescent’s worsening mental health, cellphone use in schools has become a major concern. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the portion of schools in the pie chart that prohibited the use of cellphones for non-academic use increased from 66 percent in 2015 to 77 percent in 2020.
The efforts for state cellphone ban in schools have been observed since 2009 when 91 percent of public schools banned the use of cellphones. It drastically fell to 66 percent in 2015 before noticing a skyrocketing rise to 76 percent again in 2020-21.
Research conducted by the Pew Research Center revealed that 72 percent of high school teachers and 33 percent of middle school teachers declared cellphone use as a major distraction in class.
A Common Sense research report published that a whopping 97 percent of students use cellphones throughout the day with an average of 43 minutes.
In June, the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Board of Education voted to implement restrictions on cellphone use in school.
It had more than 429,000 students enrolled at the moment, who would be strictly banned from using cellphones in school throughout the day from January. The nation’s second-largest school district will witness a clear cellphone ban in school with no online presence on social media platforms throughout school hours.
Should cellphones be banned in schools?
The alarming concerns about teen’s mental health have asked for a ban on the wide-scale use of cellphones and social media. To restrict young people from phones and encourage them to socialize more in person throughout their school hours is one of the efforts that the government is making to reduce the future economic burden of teens’ mental health, hospital admissions, and suicide rates.
US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said kids under fourteen years should not be allowed to have social media accounts. It is public health advice that parents should seriously think about before it becomes a highlighted social dilemma regarding young people’s mental health in the coming years.
California law prohibits cellphone use
The new law, AB 272 builds upon the previous 2019 law which allowed but did not require the school districts to regulate cellphone use within the classrooms along with the use during school hours.
Seven states have passed laws banning cellphone use in schools. The states include Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Ohio, South Carolina and Virginia.
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