(21 Aug 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Louisville, Kentucky — 15 August 2025
1. Doss High School exterior
2. Principal Julie Chancellor interacting with students
3. Students walking without cell phones
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4. SOUNDBITE (English) Julie Chancellor, Doss High School principal:
"So our school board, the Jefferson County Public school board, had voted that our policy in our district was going to be no phones from the beginning of school till the end of the school, not only in classrooms but also lunch and in the hallways."
5. Sign detailing cellphone at Doss
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6. SOUNDBITE (English) Julie Chancellor, Doss High School principal:
"We’ve had about 40 times where we’ve actually had to lock up a phone for the day, so it’s really been minimal and we realized that this is an addiction and kids are addicted. I’m addicted, our staff is addicted, so we are focusing this as a supportive way to make sure that kids are doing what they need to do.”
7. School office at Doss
8. Julie Chancellor demonstrates how phones are locked up when students don’t follow ban policy
9. School lockers at Doss
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10. SOUNDBITE (English) Jamel Bishop, Doss student:
"I kind of like it. I feel like it’s giving teachers a chance to be more direct with their class as a whole, which kind of allows for more individual student time, if that makes any sense, because I feel like in previous years at the school people would be so locked onto their phones and then when they were given work, they would all be like, ‘Oh I have a question about this, that or that,’ but if they just paid attention earlier then that wouldn’t have been an issue."
11. Low angle of students walking in a hallway
12. Motivational sign at Doss
13. Students hug in hallway
STORYLINE:
Students in 17 states and the District of Columbia start the school year with new restrictions on use of cellphones.
It brings the total to 33 states that have passed laws or rules to limit student use of phones and other electronic devices in school. The movement has been remarkably quick after Florida became the first state to pass a law in 2023.
Both Democrats and Republicans have taken up the cause, reflecting a growing consensus that phones are bad for kids’ mental health and focus on learning, even though some researchers say the issue is less clear-cut.
“Anytime you have a bill that’s passed in California and Florida, you know you’re probably onto something that’s pretty popular," Georgia state Rep. Scott Hilton, a Republican, told a forum examining the issue last week in Atlanta.
Of those that have acted, 18 states and the District of Columbia have enacted bans from the beginning until the end of the school day, although Georgia and Florida are only requiring such “bell-to-bell” bans for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Another seven states are banning the use of devices during class time, but not between classes or during lunch periods.
Other states, particularly those with traditions of local school control, are mandating only that schools adopt some kind of cellphone policy, believing districts will take the hint and sharply restrict phone access
For students, the rules are adding new rituals to the school day, like putting phones in magnetic pouches or special lockers.
“More students are willing to give up their phones and not get distracted,” she said.
Johnson says that phones could be distracting because students would use them to gossip, texting "their other friends in other classes to see what’s the tea and what’s going on around the building.”
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