CINCINNATI — A year after Ohio schools began requiring students to lock away their phones for the entire school day, teachers and principals say the hallways are quieter, lunchrooms are louder in a good way and fights sparked by social media posts have dropped sharply. Whether students are actually learning more is harder to say.
That is the picture emerging from a statewide survey of 412 districts released Monday by the Ohio School Leadership Council, along with interviews with teachers, students and parents across the state.
Fewer fights, more conversation
Most schools adopted a “bell-to-bell” policy requiring phones to be stored in lockers or sealed pouches from the first bell to dismissal. According to the survey, 78 percent of principals said student behavior had improved, and districts reported an average 23 percent drop in discipline referrals compared with the previous year.
- Districts surveyed: 412
- Principals reporting better behavior: 78 percent
- Drop in discipline referrals: 23 percent on average
- Teachers who want to keep the policy: 86 percent
- Average change in state test scores: about 1 percentage point
Teachers described the change in practical terms. “I used to spend the first five minutes of every period fighting a battle I couldn’t win,” said Brenda Kowalski, who teaches 10th-grade English at Mill Creek High School near Cincinnati. “Now the bell rings and we start.”
At lunch, they actually talk to each other. Some of them are awkward about it at first, and that’s fine. Awkward is how you learn.
Brenda Kowalski, English teacher, Mill Creek High School
Academic effects still unclear
On test scores, the evidence is thinner. State assessment results rose about 1 percentage point on average in districts with strict policies, a gain researchers called encouraging but too small to attribute confidently to the ban. Scores had already been recovering from pandemic-era lows.
“It would be surprising if a single policy moved test scores dramatically in one year,” said Dr. Patrick Odom, an education researcher at the Lakeshore Institute for School Policy. “The stronger evidence is around attention and climate, which tend to show up in achievement over a longer period.”
Students offered more mixed reviews. Many said they had adjusted and some admitted they liked the break. Others described anxiety about being unreachable, especially those with after-school jobs or younger siblings to pick up. “My mom texts me if plans change, and now I don’t find out until 3 p.m.,” said Jordan Ellis, a junior in Dayton.
Parents raised similar concerns, particularly about emergencies. Most districts responded by publishing front-office phone lines and routing urgent messages through staff. A few allow students with documented medical needs to keep devices. The policy has also created costs. Districts that bought magnetic locking pouches spent between $25 and $30 per student, and some schools reported losing pouches or dealing with students who carried decoy phones. Administrators said enforcement eased after the first semester as the rules became routine.
Not all districts are satisfied with the current approach. A handful of smaller systems have asked for flexibility to allow phones during lunch, arguing that the rule should be set locally. The state Board of Education is expected to review the policy this spring.
For now, most educators say they would not go back. “We gave it a full year,” said Mark Herrera, principal of a middle school in Columbus. “I’ve had zero teachers ask me to undo it. In this job, that almost never happens.”
