- California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed into law Assembly Bill 3216, a law to limit the use of smartphones in schools.
- California teacher Joelle Clark said phones are a distraction and policies on their use can be difficult to enforce.
- Clark predicts that students will sneak in device time if they’re allowed to have their phones on them — but if schools block the devices, parents may complain about security concerns.
This essay is based on a conversation with Joelle Clark, a 28-year-old public school teacher in California, about the new state law requiring schools to develop a policy that limits the use of the smartphone through July 1, 2026. This essay has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider verified her identity and employment.
I am a 6-year teacher and teach special needs middle school students with mild to moderate disabilities.
I have recently decided to take a travel lesson. So, I moved to California and entered a school where students are constantly on the phone. They tell us it’s the teacher’s discretion, so you go to a class and there’s a rule where you have to put your phone in your sleeve to get your attendance. But then in the next class, there are no rules.
I like to be a good boy in class. I don’t like being mean. I don’t like to be the one who says, “No, you can’t have your phones,” because, in real life, they have their phones.
Now that it’s an ongoing thing though, kids are fooling around and using their phones for so many things that are just not good for learning. They are also just moving on TikTok. I also like to move, so I understand. I go home and spend at least an hour every night moving. But getting up and moving and doing it every hour of the day is different.
It’s hard to hold kids to any kind of phone expectation because there are different expectations in every classroom they go to. Some kids are really good with it, but a lot of them even get calls from their parents and stuff like that.
They will say, “Mom is calling me.” What should I do as a teacher if you have your parents calling you?
The new law could change things by forcing schools to adopt a policy rather than leaving it up to teachers – but I’m not sure it will solve the issue.
Schools may have difficulty enforcing phone bans
When I first applied for jobs, I found this high school in Chicago where kids literally had to put their phones in lockers before going through security to enter the school. I ended up working there and my students did not have Airpods, Apple Watches, personal iPads, or personal laptops in the classroom. They could only have their school Chromebooks, which blocked what they could do outside of school stuff.
When the children were bored or finished with their tasks, they interacted with each other. Or, they would put their heads down or find a skill, whether it was drawing or journaling.
That’s one way to manage phones, but the new California law includes a provision that says students can’t be banned from using their phones in an emergency situation.
It would be complicated to return phones to students in those scenarios if the teacher keeps them behind the desk or if they are stored in lockers. If we take away that access, I can see parents standing outside schoolyards when there’s a lockout.
I saw it happen in Chicago when our students’ phones were in lockers and parents were out of school because all they wanted was their kids and we couldn’t get them because we were on lockdown.
I’m not sure the law will change things
I don’t see a way to regulate cell phone use throughout the student body if the phones are on them. If students have access to it, they will use it, whether in secret or in the open.
Many school districts already have a smartphone rule. I feel like every district that teaches kids knows full well that this is a problem. Schools don’t just ignore it, they try to enforce it, but just because it’s written into a law doesn’t mean it’s going to be followed.
This is the case with almost everything at school. We have a school-wide policy on what students can and cannot wear to school. I noticed the first two weeks of school I was doing it and then I realized no one else was, so I was like, okay, I’m not going to do it either.
I don’t know what the right solution is. Maybe we should teach students healthy habits with their phones, because that’s what the real world needs to do. Maybe we should have a class on phones to teach kids about healthy habits and the dangers of media.
I have kids who are on the phone almost every day at the end of class because they have worked for 30 minutes straight. I firmly believe that if you work for that long, you should get a reward in some way.
In 2024 we are heading towards a phone generation. We have our phones constantly in the workplace – and I think we need to learn to help kids manage their phones.