A National Study of the Effects of School Cell Phone Bans on Achievement

• In Event: No Cells for You: The Impacts of Cellphone Bans on Student Outcomes in the U.S.

Abstract

Cellphone bans at the school, district, and state levels are becoming the norm in the United States. At least 37 states have passed laws requiring districts to restrict the use of cellphones in schools for the whole school day or during core instruction time (Education Week, April 2026). However, many policies do not dictate how districts or schools are to restrict the use of phones, only that they do. As a result, implementation varies across districts and schools, with some requiring students to keep phones in their bags or lockers, lock phones in the classroom, or disallow them from campus. One way that schools have been halting cellphone use is through a locking pouch closed at the door of the school and opened upon exit. Since these pouches, purchased from Yondr, have been in use for some time before the increase in state-wide bans, analyzing the effects these have had on student outcomes can inform future implementation of cellphone restrictions.

There is limited prior research on the effects of cellphone bans on student achievement (Campbell et al., 2024). The few small and descriptive studies that have been conducted have found positive (Beland & Murphy, 2016; Beneito & Vicente-Chirivella, 2022) or null effects (Kessel et al., 2020) of bans on student achievement in the international context. In the United States, one study on a large urban school district in Florida found significant improvements in student test scores the second year after a cellphone ban was in place (Figlio & Özek, 2025).

Our study aims to fill this gap in the research by looking at the impact of cellphone bans on student achievement nationwide leveraging the use of Yondr pouches. Using a staggard difference-in-differences approach, we estimate the impact of a school implementing the use of Yondr pouches from 2021-2025 on student-level achievement on NWEA’s MAP Growth assessment compared to schools with similar characteristics but did not implement Yondr pouches. We match each school using Yondr pouches to other schools in the United States based on the demographics of the student population, prior achievement, grade levels offered, and enrollment. We estimate the effects of Yondr pouches on 11.2 million student-year spring math and ELA NWEA MAP Growth scores in the first year of implementation and the second year instrumenting for students’ prior year NWEA MAP score. Additionally, we control for student-level characteristics and testing dates, include year-by-grade and school-by-grade fixed effects, and weight the final analysis by the propensity that a school participated in the NWEA MAP assessment.

Overall, we contribute novel insights into the effects that banning cellphones in schools can have on student achievement at a time when states, districts, and schools will be implementing these bans for the first time.

Author

• Samantha A Cullum, Harvard Graduate School of Education
  Presenting Author