By the start of the 2025-26 school year, 22 states had enacted laws restricting or banning student cellphone use in K-12 schools, making school cellphone policy the most bipartisan education legislation of the decade. Governors from both parties — including Republican Ron DeSantis of Florida, Republican Greg Abbott of Texas, Democrat Kathy Hochul of New York, and Democrat Gavin Newsom of California — signed similar restrictions. These facts are confirmed by the National Conference of State Legislatures, Fox News, NPR, The Guardian, and the Surgeon General's office.

The laws vary by state: some ban phones entirely during the school day, including lunch; others restrict use during instructional time while allowing storage during breaks. Most require students to store phones in pouches or lockers. The impetus for the legislation was a wave of research showing significant negative associations between smartphone use and adolescent mental health, and a January 2024 Surgeon General's advisory calling on Congress to require social media warning labels similar to those on tobacco products.

A 2023 study published in JAMA Pediatrics and a 2024 UNESCO report both found that schools with cellphone bans showed measurable improvements in student attention, academic performance, and self-reported wellbeing. The UNESCO report, which covered 14 countries, found that banning phones improved math and reading scores, with larger effects for disadvantaged students.

Fox News and conservative outlets praised the bans as restoring traditional educational environments and reducing the influence of what they called 'Big Tech's addictive products' on children. NPR and left-leaning outlets generally agreed on the mental health rationale but raised equity concerns — noting that some students rely on phones for after-school transit safety and that low-income families may not have home internet access as an alternative for homework help.