New York City, the nation鈥檚 largest school system, is considering a plan to ban cellphones in its roughly 1,600 schools starting in February, according to several principals briefed on the possible policy.

Schools would have to come up with their own policies, principals told Chalkbeat, whether they collect devices at the start of the day or have students carry their phones in Yondr pouches, cloth cases for phones that are locked with a magnet from morning to dismissal.

Even though such systems can be pricey, school leaders don鈥檛 expect to receive extra money in their budgets, principals said, according to the plans shared with them. The principals spoke on the condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to speak to the media.

When asked to confirm the preliminary plans, Department of Education spokesperson Nathaniel Styer wrote, 鈥淣o decisions have been made yet!鈥�

For collecting phones, schools might need to buy cubbies or other storage equipment, plus they need staffing. (Some school leaders have wanted to steer clear of collecting phones, worried about liability issues for lost devices.) Yondr pouches cost about $25 to $30 per student, with pricing varying depending on school size, a company spokesperson previously told Chalkbeat.

has been talking with principals across the five boroughs about cellphones, and said that they overwhelmingly want a citywide policy. is also planning to announce a statewide school cellphone policy this year.

School leaders have been able to set their own cellphone policies since 2015, when former Mayor Bill de Blasio largely due to equity issues: Students in schools with metal detectors, which largely serve low-income families, were forced to pay local businesses $1 a day or more to store their phones before they entered school.

Nearly 10 years ago, however, cellphones were not as ubiquitous, especially for younger kids, and teens weren鈥檛 glued to social media apps like Instagram and TikTok. They didn鈥檛 have easy-to-hide AirPods. And their parents weren鈥檛 calling their kids as often.

As a result, the city鈥檚 that many teachers say are difficult to enforce. Educators at schools where phones are already collected or put in pouches say those systems are not foolproof, but they at least appreciate the clear message to students. At schools with a cellphone ban on paper, teachers say the onus is on them to enforce, and enforcement can vary classroom to classroom, leading to confusion among students.

A growing chorus of educators, experts, and politicians have been raising the alarm more recently about the negative impacts of cellphones on youth mental health and how they take away from learning time. A growing number of school districts are banning cellphones, including Los Angeles, the nation鈥檚 second largest district, which .

One principal voiced concern about New York City鈥檚 possible February timeline, worried that starting a major new policy midyear could prove challenging to implement. But this principal also said there wasn鈥檛 enough time to implement a ban by September.

鈥淭he amount of money it takes to successfully collect, secure, and distribute around 700 phones every day is staggering,鈥� a school administrator said in response to .

Before this school collected phones, the administrator said, teachers were consumed with battles over keeping phones from disrupting class time. Administrators were spending an inordinate amount of time responding to cellphone issues. Student conflicts that the school previously could have mediated were instead being inflamed by social media.

But the administrator warned that students鈥� addictive connections to their devices could create conflict when they are forced to surrender or get back their phones each day. The system requires a coordinated approach and an empathetic staff who can de-escalate charged emotions.

Deborah Alexander, a parent leader who sits on the Citywide Council for High Schools, said her parent board recently met with Education Department officials, and she shared her views against a cellphone ban.

She understands why parents are in favor of a ban in theory, but she fears that enacting a ban will prove problematic. Many schools already ban phones, she said, and the remedy on the books 鈥� to confiscate a student鈥檚 device 鈥� would be the same with a citywide ban. (Several educators told Chalkbeat they are told not to touch students鈥� devices.)

Alexander wondered whether schools would have the staffing to collect and hand out, or pouch and unlock, phones as kids come and go throughout the day. She asked who will pay for lost or broken phones. She fears that equity issues might arise at schools with affluent PTAs that can make up for budget gaps created by cellphone policy costs.

She asked about exceptions: phones used to monitor health conditions or as translation devices, for instance. Parents might be surprised, she said, when their children have to arrive at school half an hour earlier and leave half an hour later because of cellphone storage or pouches.

鈥淜ids will be that much more glued to phones the second they walk out of school,鈥� Alexander wrote in an email. 鈥淎nd when they walk in, according to tons of teens I鈥檝e spoken to, they鈥檒l be reminded that they can鈥檛 be trusted; that they鈥檙e guilty before they鈥檝e done anything wrong, much like when they enter schools through metal detectors.鈥�

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at . Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Should smartphones be allowed in classrooms? A from , the education arm of the United Nations, raises questions about the practice. Though smartphones can be used for educational purposes, the report says the devices also disrupt classroom learning, expose students to cyberbullying and can compromise students鈥� privacy.

About 1 in 7 countries globally, such as and , have banned the use of smartphones in school 鈥� and academic performance improved as a result, particularly for low-performing students, the report notes.

As school leaders in the U.S. wrestle with , The Conversation has invited four scholars to weigh in on the issue.

Daniel G. Krutka: Use smartphones to encourage 鈥榯echnoskepticism鈥�

While the issue of smartphone use in schools is complicated, evidence suggests that spending more time on smartphones is .

Technology scholars have long argued that the is in finding limits. However, in banning smartphones, I worry educators might be missing opportunities to use smartphones to encourage what I and other researchers refer to as ; that is, questioning our relationship with technology.

For example, students might be encouraged to consider the benefits and drawbacks of using navigational apps to travel from one place to another, as opposed to old-fashioned paper maps. Or, students might explore their social media feeds to critique what algorithms feed them, or how notifications get their attention.

In , I have looked at how teachers can encourage students to go on 鈥� that is, abstaining from the use of technology for a certain period of time. This, I argue, will give students time to reflect on the time they spend .

Policy debates often focus on whether or not to put smartphones out of reach during the school day. But I believe educators might find it more beneficial to make the phones an object of inquiry.

Sarah Rose: Consult parents, teachers and students

While there is evidence that classroom phone usage , it can also promote . While research about the potential positive and negative consequences of classroom phones can be used to inform school phone policies, the who are most directly impacted by the policies should also be taken into account.

The views of parents matter because their views the extent to which their children follow the policy. The views of children matter because they are the ones being expected to follow the policy and to benefit from it. The views of teachers matter because they are often the ones that have to enforce the policies. Research shows that enforcing cellphone policies is .

In my research, I have found that children 鈥� aged 10 and 11 years old 鈥� in collaboration with their parents, were able to and solutions to help enforce them. For example, one parent-child pair suggested mobile phone use in school could be banned but that a role of 鈥渢elephone monitor鈥� could be given to an older pupil. This 鈥渢elephone monitor鈥� would have a class mobile phone that children and parents could use to contact each other during the school day when necessary.

This recommendation reflected how parents and middle and high school students 鈥� whether from rural and urban areas 鈥� felt cellphones were important to keep in touch with each other during the school day. Beyond safety, children and parents also told us that phones were important for keeping in touch about changing plans and for emotional support during the school day.

I believe policies that simply ban phones in schools may be missing an opportunity to educate children about responsible mobile device use. When parents and children are involved in policy development, it has the potential to increase the extent to which these policies are followed and enforced.

Arnold L. Glass: Cellphone use in college lectures hurts performance in ways that are hard to see

The intrusion of internet-enabled electronic devices, such as laptops, tablets and cellphones, has transformed the modern college lecture. Students now divide their attention between the lecture and their devices. Classroom studies reveal that when college students use an electronic device for a nonacademic purpose during class, .

When attention is divided between an electronic device and the classroom lecture, it does not reduce comprehension of the lecture 鈥� at least, not when measured by within-class quizzes. Instead, divided attention reduces long-term retention of the classroom lecture, which hurts performance on unit exams and final exams.

When some students open electronic devices, it also negatively affects the performance of all the . Research has shown that when electronic devices were permitted during classes that covered exam material versus when the devices were not.

Many students won鈥檛 think their divided attention is affecting their retention of new information. It may not be for the moment, but a couple of weeks later or down the line, , it does.

Louis-Philippe Beland: Bans help low-achieving students the most

Numerous studies indicate that low-achieving students stand to benefit the most from the implementation of mobile phone bans in schools.

In a 2015 study, my co-author, , and I in high schools, using data from England. By comparing schools with phone bans to similar schools without the bans, we isolated the effect of mobile phones on performance. Our study found that banning mobile phones significantly increased test scores among 16-year-old students. The effect is equivalent to adding five days to the school year or an extra hour per week. Low-achieving students benefited more, while high-achieving students remained unaffected.

Similar and using a similar approach demonstrated compelling evidence supporting the benefits of banning mobile phones. In Spain, grades improved and bullying incidents decreased. In Norway, the ban raised middle school students鈥� grade-point averages and their likelihood of attending academic high schools while reducing bullying. Evidence from suggests banning mobile phones can be beneficial for college student performance.

Psychological research sheds light on potential mechanisms behind the impact of mobile phones and technology on student performance. Multitasking, common with mobile phone use, has been found to hinder . Taking notes by hand has been shown to compared to typing on a computer.

In sum, banning mobile phones in schools can yield positive effects, improve academic performance and narrow the achievement gap between high- and low-achieving students. However, it is crucial to acknowledge that mobile phones and technology can also be valuable educational tools when used appropriately.

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