How our school went phone-free – and got our kids back

I’m the principal of a small public charter school with a STEM focus, so technology is a big part of our work. But emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, my teachers and I started to feel that technology had completely overwhelmed teaching and learning. 

We were one-to-one with Chromebooks with an “off and away phone policy,”, but phone use became unhealthy and almost unmanageable. I’d walk into classrooms, and students would be using their phones and laptops, whether or not they were part of the lesson. I gave up pushing teachers to police phone use, because our teachers are amazing, and they felt like they were being forced to choose between constantly redirecting students or continuing their lessons. If they focused on the phones, it would be at the expense of everything else. 

By the 2023-2024 school year, about 80% of our discipline issues were technology-related: cyberbullying, online videos, social media drama. That’s when I came across The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. I shared the book with our board and said, “We need to look at this.”

We felt like tech had taken over our lives and our kids – and we knew something had to change. This school year, we went completely phone-free. I’ve heard from a lot of school leaders who are considering something similar, so I wanted to share the approach that worked for us.

Laying the groundwork with families, conversation by conversation

One of the first things I tell people who want to make the shift is this: get way out ahead of this. Don’t spring it on your school community. 

The whole 2023-2024 school year, we didn’t change a thing. We just started the conversation – and we listened. I surveyed families, shared research and data in my weekly newsletter, held listening sessions and sent home links and articles. I wanted to hear every concern. I discovered that most students’ caregivers weren’t unsupportive, just cautious because they had genuine concerns. Concerns like, “My child has severe allergies; what if they need to reach me?” or “What if there’s a school shooting?” I took time to research my responses, held open listening sessions, and talked with families one-on-one. 

For families who were hesitant to get on board, the shifts happened one conversation at a time. We also messaged the policy for the families of incoming sixth graders.

Front-loading planning with staff

Staff were 100% on board – it did not take a lot to sell them on the idea. However, they had a lot of important questions about the rollout, and that’s why front-loading the planning was so important. I realized quickly this could not be another task for teachers to manage, that it had to be done centrally and school-wide. 

This wasn’t just about phones. We also worked as a staff on what I called focused and intentional use of technology. We talked all year long about what that actually means. I told teachers: “When you’re using Chromebooks, say so. When that part of the lesson is done, say, ‘Let’s close our Chromebooks,’ and wait for them to actually be closed before moving on.” We’re re-training habits that became automatic during remote learning. Staff and I were able to work through every challenge we could anticipate, so when we launched the policy, we were all aligned and ready. 

By the end of the year, our board passed the new policy. I ordered Yondr pouches, and we were ready to start the 2024-2025 school year with a bell-to-bell, phone-free policy.

Rolling out the new policy

The policy comes down to this: Your phone cannot be on your person. That’s the critical piece. Lots of schools say “phones off and away,” but if a phone is in your pocket, you’ll take it out. Adults do that. Of course kids are going to do that. For most of our students, that meant putting phones into a Yondr pouch, but I gave eighth graders the option of turning the phones in to me instead because they had spent two years with our previous policy.  

Because of our many conversations – through advisory sessions, announcements and newsletters – everyone arrived in the fall understanding how it was going to work. There were no surprises.  

And to be honest? The biggest surprise was how little pushback we got. Staff were 100% on board. Students adapted faster than I expected. Families thanked us for setting parameters around their students’ tech use. Everyone kind of let out a big sigh of relief.

Troubleshooting

We continue to consider elements of the policy – for example, how to handle smartwatches. I left smartwatches off the policy at first. We’re a small school – only about 200 kids – so I handled the watches case-by-case. But by the end of the year, we saw more students using them like phones, especially in sixth grade. So, we’ll likely add them to the policy.

During our first year, the only real hiccup came down to communication. We had a little revolt in the eighth grade – but it wasn’t for the reason I would have expected. Since our eighth graders had had two years under a different policy, I’d given them the option to turn in their phones to my office rather than using Yondr pouches. However, I didn’t communicate this alternative clearly enough across the leadership team. I heard there were difficulties enforcing the policy with eighth graders, so I held a meeting with the students, expecting to hear pushback on the policy. It was a pleasant surprise to learn that they just wanted to be heard and validated.

They weren’t saying, “We hate this, we need our phones on us.” In fact, during that meeting, they repeatedly expressed relief. They said it felt good not to be constantly checking messages and feeling the need to respond. Offering this group alternatives to the Yondr pouches was a healthy solution.

Embracing the change 

The difference has been amazing. Discipline is down. Cyberbullying is way down. I walk into classrooms now, and I don’t see phones under desks. I don’t see kids zoned out. I see students listening, engaged. I see teachers teaching. This wasn’t a top-down change. It was a community shift: slow, intentional and built on trust. And it worked. It feels like we got our kids back.