K-12 Phone Ban: Educators and Students Weigh In

Last May, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed a temporary bill banning phones in K-12 schools, otherwise known as the bell-to-bell bill.

The bill was for the 2025-26 school year and is now being considered for permanent status. While there is not enough data for one school year to see if this is a positive or negative change on an educational level, superintendents, teachers, and even students seem to be in favor of the ban becoming permanent.  

“In my experience, it’s been phenomenal,” says Frank Solomon, superintendent of Noble Public Schools. Solomon explained that the social behaviours alone have greatly improved with kids off their phones; they are more likely to be social and cooperative during class times.

In Noble High School, kids are allowed to have their phones out until the first bell rings and must put them up until the end of the school day, with exceptions for medical conditions. One example is a heart monitor for a student with a heart condition or another who has diabetes and has to check an app on their phone to help regulate it.

While the phone ban mainly affects middle and high school students, a new bill being put into effect in July of this year could impact screen use in PreK through 5th grade. House Bill 4358 would cut down screen time for all school subjects to one hour. With exceptions for state testing and special education, there is worry about test prep and school work in general, leaving very mixed reviews for educators.

When asked if he thinks that this will improve grades, Solomon said that he thinks that they haven’t had enough time to notice an academic change and doesn’t think we will for a while, because there are so many factors that go into the grading process. 

Solomon has been superintendent for the Noble school district since 2013, but even before he started teaching, he had seen the growth and effects of technology.

“When I started in education, we didn’t have phones… I think the same problems that existed when I started are the same ones we have now, but everything you did wasn’t recorded.” 

Although there are concerns about phones being needed for special ed, Lisl Shurman, a Special Education Algebra 1 teacher at Norman North High School, says that while there has been an impact, it is mild.

Her class consists of kids who have learning differences or have neurodivergent tendencies. For the students in her class, their phones were used as a way to avoid doing schoolwork, mostly to save the embarrassment of potentially failing.

Phones being put away during school hours helped students focus and be more present for the lesson. Being a bigger school, Norman North and other schools in the Norman area had to take a different approach than just trusting kids to put their phones away.

There was consideration regarding each kid to be given “yondr pouches,” a secure, magnetic-locking bag used to create phone-free spaces in schools. However, since they cost upwards of $40 each, the district opted to buy a small batch for each school.

The rules are simple: you get seen using your phone, and it gets put in the Yondr pouch. Students can carry the pouch around, but it has to be unlocked by a special device that school administrators unlock at the end of the day.

When asked about her phone usage during the school day, the only time that Shurman is on her phone is when she is texting administration to alert them about phone usage in her classroom. 

“Phone addiction doesn’t discriminate with any of the kids,” says Schurman, “athletes who want the good grades to play their sport or the ones who get pressure to excel academically at home, it affects them all”.

On the other side of it, some classes have had to adjust to older technology as a way to complete projects, such as student journalists using old recorders and digital cameras being used for photo assignments.

However, that is not all for educational purposes; one student went as far as to bring an old CD player to school so he could listen to music. Even parents of students seem to be susceptible to phone addiction by proxy, with some parents filling out an IEP form, which is a federal document saying that you have a disability,  just so their child can have access to their phone during the school day. 

Teachers in the district seem to be widely on board with the phone ban and are encouraging administrators to keep it in place even if it does not become a permanent law. 

With the ban in place, Elsie Matlock, a senior at Noble High School, has felt like she doesn’t need or really want to be on her phone because of the interactions she is having in class.

“I’ve made a lot of friends through not being on my phone; it’s also good for the younger students to hang up and hang out,” Matlock says.

Kids are being more conscious of the time they spend on their phones, even when they are not in school. Spending time away from it can help them complete tasks and be more productive. The average time that Matlock spent on her phone in the past week was about four hours, which is three hours short of the national average and also how much time she spent on her phone before the ban.

Being hopeful that the ban does become permanent, she is wary of how it will be enforced in the years to come, with some administrations becoming more lax with the ruling or the complete opposite, where the rules are stricter and more enforceable.

When asked if she plans to be off her phone more after graduation, she said: “While I can’t promise to stay off of my phone, I will be more conscious of how much time I spend on it.” 

Ten other states have implemented similar laws regarding phone usage in schools, and while the ban is permanent for all school districts for a year, some will have the option to lift the restriction in the 2026-27 school year if it becomes permanent.

The proposed permanent phone ban bill was proposed in January of this year and will continue to be debated in the 2026 legislative session that started in February.