Massachusetts lags behind other states on student cellphone use restrictions

By Sam Drysdale

As other states race ahead with new restrictions, Gov. Maura Healey is citing mental health concerns in calling for student cellphone use in Massachusetts schools to be restricted and Senate President Karen Spilka says it’s time for the Legislature to “take action.”

“I think we need to rein in the use of cellphones during the school day,” Healey told reporters during a scrum on May 7. “I think it has a really negative effect on kids’ mental health. It’s distracting and it takes away from the important learning process and actual socialization process.” 

As of April, 21 states had enacted laws limiting student use of cellphones in classrooms, according to Ballotpedia, and Healey said she’s been talking to governors about actions they’re taking in their states.

Three states advanced cellphone restrictions just in the past week.

New York implemented a bell-to-bell ban for the 2025-2026 school year. The Alabama Legislature passed a bell-to-bell ban, and Gov. Kay Ivey supports the bill. And in Oklahoma last week, Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a law requiring a one-year ban on student cellphone use in public schools during the 2025-2026 school year.

Bell-to-bell bans prohibit students from using cellphones at all during the school day, from walking in the doors until they leave.

“Bell-to-bell bans, for example, doesn’t mean that your parents won’t have a way to reach their children — that’s important. Parents got to be able to reach their kids throughout the day. But it’s also the case that I think we need to rein in the use of cellphones during the school day,” Healey said.

New York included $13.5 million in its fiscal year 2026 budget to help districts purchase supplies to help implement the cellphone ban, such as small, lockable pouches that kids could be required to put their phones in. It’ll be up to the districts to decide how they want to implement the bell-to-bell restriction.

“Our kids are overwhelmed by the addiction, the addictive algorithms and endless distractions,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a press conference last week, the New York Focus reported. “Ninety-five percent of teenagers have smartphones. They receive 250 notifications a day on average. They can’t possibly focus on anything else. They’re so afraid of missing something.”

Spilka last week indicated that she supports making Massachusetts classrooms cellphone-free in an effort to eliminate distractions. She seemed to step up her rhetoric when asked about the issue on WCVB’s “On the Record,” which aired Sunday.

“My son is a public school teacher, 11th grade, so the kids are a little older. Half of his classroom time is spent saying, ‘Put your phones down, put your phones away.’ And it’s a struggle,” Spilka said on the program. “Cellphones are not only a distraction — they’re detrimental to the student’s health. There is an increased chance of cheating and cyberbullying, and there’s really no reason for students to have a cellphone.”

Ed Harding, host of “On the Record,” interjected, “Except parents want to get a hold of their child.”

One of the main concerns with phone restrictions is that parents may not be able to communicate as easily with their children throughout the school day, especially in case of emergency either at home or at the school.

A survey from the National Parents Union found that 78% of parents polled wanted their child to have cellphone access during the school day in case of an emergency, K-12 Dive reported in September.

Spilka responded to Harding, “So what we will do, like any other bill — there are several bills that have been filed on this topic — we’ll have hearings. We’ll meet with parent groups. We’ll meet with advocates. This is part of the legislative process. We’ll look at what other states have done. We’ll figure out something.”

Attorney General Andrea Campbell filed a bill (S 335 / H 666) with Sen. Julian Cyr and Reps. Alice Peisch and Kate Lipper-Garabedian that would ban cellphones and other personal electronic devices, like smartwatches, from when a student arrives at school until the end of the school day. 

That bill is before the Joint Committee on Education, and has not yet been scheduled for a hearing.

Rep. Carole Fiola also has a bill (H 574) to ban cellphones and smartwatches during the school day; and Sen. John Velis filed a bill (S 463) by request for a constituent, Kirstin Beatty, that would put time limits on screen time for each grade. Both are before the Education Committee, and have not yet received a hearing.

Campbell’s office earlier this year also released a “toolkit” to districts with guidance on regulating student phone use in the classroom.

Some Board of Elementary and Secondary Education members have raised concerns over a top-down ban coming from the state, worrying that it would be an overreach of local control.