NJ Approves School Cell Phone Ban: What To Know

New Jersey lawmakers approved a statewide cell phone ban in schools Monday, with the final bill headed to Governor Phil Murphy's desk to be signed into law.

Bill A4882, sponsored by Assemblywoman Rosaura Bagolie (D-27), establishs guidelines and limitations for K-12 students’ cell phone and social media usage during school hours and at school events. Assemblyman Cody D. Miller and Assemblywoman Carmen Theresa Morales joined Bagolie in sponsoring the bill.

Bagolie, who also serves as the Administrator of the East Newark School District, says that cell phones in the classrooms create "real challenges" for New Jersey teachers.

"As both a legislator and a school administrator, I see every day how cell phones disrupt learning time, distract students, and create real challenges for educators. I sponsored this bill because our classrooms need to be environments where students can focus, collaborate, and learn without constant interruptions from devices that pull their attention away," Bagolie told Patch. "We want to restore meaningful, uninterrupted instructional time and give districts a clear framework so they can create policies that work best for their communities."

State Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, one of New Jersey’s top lawmakers, said he supported a bell-to-bell cell phone ban in schools, according to an NJ.com report.

A bell-to-bell ban entails staff collecting students' phones at the beginning of the school day, and returning them once students head home. This includes no access to phones during lunch, recess, or between classes.

Other implementations of the ban include an off-and-away policy, in which students keep their phones in a locker or backpack throughout the whole day, and a limited-use policy, where students can access their phones during free time, like lunch or recess, but keep them off and out of sight during class.

The bill would not only require school districts to address cell phone usage in school, but also other smart devices, including smart watches, tablets, and laptops.

It also highlights exceptions to the ban, including the use of these devices for educational purposes, translation purposes, and as accommodations for disabled students, to name a few.

Lawmakers are looking to implement the statewide ban by next month. The bill has passed in both the Senate and the Assembly, is currently pending a final signature from Governor Phil Murphy.

If the bill is not passed by Jan. 20, lawmakers will need to wait until the next legislative session to reintroduce it. However, Murphy is expected to sign the bill into law, previously calling its proposed policies "conducive to student success."

Murphy's support of the bill is also reflective fiscally, as he's awarded nearly $1 million in grants to districts that adopted a ban early.

Bans Already Enforced, Nearly $1M In Grants Awarded

The New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) has issued around $980,000 to 86 school districts to support measures of the ban, even before the bill is passed.

Grant amounts differ per school district, ranging from $1,000 to roughly $176,000. Districts in all 21 counties received the grants.

Related: 5 Bergen County School Districts Just Won NJ Grants To Lock Up Kids' Phones All Day

The funds will be used to implement things like phone lockers, pouches, check-in cabinets, and other cell phone storage measures. Some districts may use the grants to "provide staff training to ensure consistent and equitable application of the bell-to-bell policies," according to the NJDOE.

Several New Jersey school districts have already implemented phone bans and restrictions. Jersey City School District, the second-largest in the state, implemented a phone ban in October.

Other districts that have moved forward with adopting a cellphone ban early, including Middletown, Moorestown, Brick, Basking Ridge, Bridgewater-Raritan, Toms River, Morristown, as well as Cherry Hill, which was among the first districts in the state to implement the ban.

The bans currently in place have varying degrees of strictness. Some policies require phones to remain out of sight, be kept in students’ lockers, or even be checked in and stored before starting the school day. Policy violators are subject to phone confiscation, suspension, and more, depending on the district.

The statewide ban would give school districts a baseline of how to enforce the protocol while allowing them "full control to create their own policies that align with that guidance and reflect their community’s values."

“In recent years, we’ve begun to truly understand the threat that cell phones and access to social media pose to our children’s education. If we want to provide New Jersey’s children with a world-class education, we need to give schools the tools necessary to remove the very distractions that rob students of their attention and their concentration,” said Governor Phil Murphy. “Getting cell phones out of schools helps educators, it helps parents, and most of all, it helps our kids. I am proud of the leadership shown by these early-adopting districts, and I look forward to seeing the impact of these new policies on our young learners.”

Why Ban Cell Phones?

One of the main reasons lawmakers are calling for the ban is to limit distractions in New Jersey classrooms.

According to a study from the Pew Research Center, 72 percent of high school teachers across the country believe that students being distracted by cellphones is a major problem in their classroom.

Peter E. Castellano of the NJ School Boards Association says these distractions go hand-in-hand with the mental health crisis facing today’s youth, of which phone and social media usage serve as a catalyst.

He cites “problematic smartphone usage,” or PSU, a yet-to-be-certified psychological disorder regarding dependence on smartphones and similar technology.

“PSU is commonly defined as psychological or behavioral dependence on cell phones and has been associated with an increased likelihood of experiencing poor mental health, including heightened levels of anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbances, as well as enabling cyberbullying,” Castellano writes.

The mental health epidemic has grown to become such an issue, the U.S. Surgeon General released an advisory in 2023 highlighting the concerns of phone usage, specifically social media, and children and teens’ mental health.

The advisory says that young people who spend more than three hours per day on social media face double the risk of experiencing poor mental health outcomes, including symptoms of depression and anxiety.

"Students deserve classrooms where they can learn without the constant pull of social media, group chats, and apps that provide answers instead of supporting actual thinking," Bagolie said. "Educators have been sounding the alarm for years. Cell phones interfere with instruction, fuel anxiety, and create a range of behavioral issues during the school day.

"This bill protects the learning environment, supports mental and emotional well-being, and gives teachers the ability to teach without competing with a device," she continued. "It also supports parents, who overwhelmingly want schools to set healthy boundaries around phone use."

On The Other Hand…

Some believe that the bell-to-bell ban puts students at risk, saying that they may need access to their phones in the event of an emergency.

Castellano says, “A full ban should be weighed against the need for emergency use of cell phones in school.”

“There are some who believe that student access to cell phones may be critical in an emergency, allowing instant communication between students and parents, as well as others inside and outside the schools, including first responders,” he writes. “However, others argue that such access can make the situation worse by preventing students from focusing on following the emergency instructions given, alerting an intruder to student locations, or by jamming up communication channels for first responders.”

A Pew Research Center survey found that 68 percent of adults in the United States support banning cell phone usage during class, but only 36 percent support a full-day ban.

Castellano added that New Jersey school districts will need to “assess how cell phones integrate with their current safety and security plan,” given that several parents will likely want to have direct contact with their children in the event of an emergency.

A set of guidelines provided by the state regarding the ban includes policies to retrieve cell phones in the event of an emergency at the school. Conversely, if an emergency proves the need for caretakers to contact a student, the guidelines say that the guardian should contact the school's office, not the child's cell phone.

Assemblywoman Aura Dunn (R-25), a co-sponsor of the bill, says that the proposal contains "legislation that ensures school districts and their parent communities can tailor these policies to their own needs... It’s important that we avoid a one-size-fits-all, top-down approach. Every district is unique, and local leaders deserve the flexibility to create rules that work for their students."

Do Cell Phone Bans Work?

New Jersey would be joining the cell phone-ban party late, as more than half of all states have implemented statewide restrictions in some form or another.

Florida was among the first states to implement a statewide ban in 2023, and since then, both standardized test scores and student attendance have increased, according to a report from Education Week.

On a more local level, Ridge High School in Somerset County launched a “phone-free pilot” this past March.

In the first two months of the program, there were zero Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying (HIB) incidents involving social media, according to Principal Russell Lazovick.

“Students are expected to keep their phones out of sight from bell to bell, and the results have been clear: improved focus, fewer distractions and discipline issues, and a school environment where meaningful connection and engagement are thriving," he said.

Read More: No Social Media Bullying Reported Since Phone-Free Pilot Began At Ridge High School

"The bill is designed to restore bell-to-bell learning, reduce classroom disruptions, and promote healthier digital habits for young people," Bagolie told Patch. "It encourages responsible use, not punishment."

With 95 percent of teenagers owning a cell phone, and around 42 percent of kids having a phone by age 10, only time will tell if the ban makes a difference statewide, if the bill gets signed into law, no less.