Survey: Parents and teens support school cellphone bans, and most don’t perceive major downsides

In response to the distractions cellphones pose to classroom learning—and building on evidence documenting the harmful effects of cellphone use during school hours—states, districts, and schools across the country have been adopting policies designed to limit students’ access to phones at school. In fact, over 30 states now have policies governing cellphone use in schools, with more state-driven restrictions coming into effect in 2026.

We wanted to know what “personal device” use (including smartphones, smartwatches, etc.) looks like in schools now that restrictions are prevalent, and how teens and adults perceive current policies. We used the Understanding America Study panel to survey a nationally representative, probability-based sample of adults about the school-aged children in their homes—and teens in those same households. Here, we include results only from adults answering about students in grades 6 through 12 to make direct comparisons to teens themselves. (See our methods report for more details about survey administration and sample information.)

Our survey responses from nearly 1,100 adults and nearly 400 teens nationwide offer useful insights into implementation of cellphone rules and show a surprisingly positive response from students, who see some value in the rules.

Nearly all students (98%) attend schools with cellphone use restrictions

As seen in Figure 1, almost all schools now restrict students’ access to cellphones during school hours according to both teens and their caretakers. As of October 2025, most respondents (55%) report that their schools have “bell-to-bell bans” that restrict students’ use of cellphones/devices throughout the entire school day. Another 43% of teens and 42% of adults reported schools restrict use only during class time, with students able to use their devices at other times (e.g., during lunch). Just 2% of adults and teens reported no cellphone rules at all.

Teachers are enforcing rules as a unified front, with very few ignoring use

Teen reports suggest teachers are responding as a unified front to enforce their schools’ policies. Regardless of which type of policy their school has, a majority of teens report “most” or “all” teachers are reminding students not to use their devices and are giving penalties to students caught using them, such as points off assignments or taking the phone away. Though few are going to the extreme of collecting phones before class begins, ignoring phone use altogether is rare. These results are shown in Figure 2 below.

Support for restrictions on cellphone use at school is high among teens and their caretakers—and might be growing

Perhaps surprisingly, 76% of teens expressed a preference for some form of restrictions on phone use during the school day. This is an increase over RAND’s reported 60% of teens who supported restrictions on cellphone use during classes in 2024-25. While we cannot say for sure whether this represents a real trend (as opposed to differences between these surveys), it could indicate that teens are acclimating to rules or appreciating the reduction in phone use they have already experienced.

Pew recently reported survey findings suggesting a rise in adult support for cellphone restrictions in classrooms—from 68% last fall to 74% in summer 2025. Acknowledging survey differences, we find 93% of our adult sample preferring either a bell-to-bell ban or no phone use during classes for their teens.

Figure 3 depicts the results across all of these surveys.

Teens are still using their devices in school, even when they are not supposed to

Unsurprisingly, cellphone restrictions have not eliminated students’ phone use during the school day. More than half (56%) of teens say they check their phones a few times or often during the day; 64% say their friends do, and 74% say students in general do. Fewer (25%) admit to using their devices when they are not supposed to, “sometimes” or “often.”

But they use them less in schools with more restrictive rules

We found less use in schools with more restrictions, as seen in Figure 4. Though there is not much of a difference in core academic classes, where approximately one-quarter of students under both policy types admit using phones despite rules, larger differences emerge in other contexts. The differences in use during lunch and passing periods are particularly large, with half as many students in bell-to-bell policy contexts reporting phone use compared to students with restrictions during instruction only. Notably, still half of students with bell-to-bell restrictions are reporting device use during lunch. While restrictions are indeed reducing phone use, phone use remains quite common.

In most respects, teens do not feel that cellphone restrictions impact students either positively or negatively

We asked teens and adults whether cellphone restrictions make students feel better or worse in six areas, these results are presented in Figure 5 below. In five of six areas, a clear majority of teens think phone restrictions have no impact. The only exception is nearly half of teens express concern about the negative impacts on students’ happiness. On the other hand, nearly a third of teens and half of parents believe bans have a positive impact on students’ attention.

In general, we see similar responses from teens who are experiencing bell-to-bell bans and teens who are experiencing bans during instructional time only. The clear pattern is that most teens do not see social, emotional, or academic benefits from restrictions—at least not in the areas we asked about. What is unclear, then, is why teens want restrictions when most don’t expect to see positive impacts from less phone availability during the school day. Further surveying at the end of the school year will potentially add insight into these somewhat contradictory findings.

Where do we go from here? Fewer phones, better communication

Several years ago, parent pushback  to school cellphone restrictions was a legitimate barrier to phone-free schools. Now, over 90% of adults and nearly 80% of teens support cellphone restrictions. With stricter restrictions, students use their phones less in classrooms, hallways, and during lunch. Regardless of policy specifics, the majority of students and adults do not perceive downsides. Yet, teens routinely disregard rules, requiring constant teacher enforcement.

Schools should consider stricter approaches, such as using locked pouches or requiring phones to be in lockers throughout the day. Schools could also communicate more effectively with families about justifications for the policies, asking parents to reinforce school messaging, which might increase student compliance. Students may acclimate to new rules over time, developing new norms for behavior that require less teacher enforcement effort.

It seems few education policy issues exhibit the level of cross-stakeholder consensus we see related to reducing phone use in schools. These data should reinforce school, district, and state policies working to create phone-free schools, as we expect to see benefits for students and teachers alike.