Maria Gonzalez has been a school psychologist for Rochester City Schools for more than two decades. She’s seen first-hand the damaging impact of cellphones. “I was there way before the pandemic, and I saw the incredible shift in the social skills of students,” said Gonzalez, Rochester Teachers Association. “The level of impulsivity now that I see, was not seen before. It’s just constantly reacting, reacting, reacting, with no pause for anything.”
Gonzalez was one of a host of educators and administrators who met last month to discuss potential policy solutions to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposal to restrict student cellphones. The event, Disconnected, was the first of six regional conferences devoted to tackling the issue of cellphones in New York schools.
The issue was brought to the forefront in January when Hochul proposed $13.5 million for school districts to implement bell-to-bell cellphone restrictions as part of her executive budget. The proposal includes cellphones and other smart devices but would allow for exceptions for health or instructional purposes. According to the proposal, each school district would come up with their own policy.
At the Rochester event, NYSUT President Melinda Person explained that the governor’s call for cellphone restrictions was the result of a years-long journey, informed in part by educators who worried that students were sacrificing entirely too much to phones. The resulting policy proposal represents a watershed moment. “For many, I believe this is truly going to give students a bit of their childhoods back,” said NYSUT President Melinda Person.
During the first panel discussion, educators and health professionals discussed the causal relationship between social media and the booming mental health crisis among students, as well as how social media and cellphone usage contribute to behavior issues in schools.
Dr. Dennis Kuo, a pediatrician who serves as Chief of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at the University of Rochester says the number of doctor visits related to social media is unprecedented.
“I have been in practice 25 years, and this is a big issue in the field of pediatrics. The shift in what we do in the pediatrics field has been immense,” Kuo said. “We’re talking about the level of prescriptions, counseling and programs we now provide in pediatrics.” He added that prior to the advent of cellphones, he rarely had to write a prescription for anti-depressants or anti-psychotics for his patients. Now, it’s a matter of routine. “The amount of what we are being asked to do is just astounding,” said Kuo.
During the second panel, educators and administrators debated the merits of different approaches to cellphone policies.
At Greece Central School District, cellphones have been banned in grades 6-12 since 2022 due to concerns about student mental health, increasing behavior issues related to phone use, and growing frustration over students’ inability to focus on schoolwork. “We want to protect everybody,” said Brian Ebertz, president of the Greece TA. “Ultimately this was the best thing that we knew we could do to eliminate additional distractions, eliminate the bullying and really protect our students so they can have the best educationally sound learning environment.”
Brighton Central School District implemented a new cellphone policy at the high school this year, where phones must now be stored in lockers during class. The result? Students’ focus is back on school. “It has made a world of difference,” said Brighton TA President Jamie Porta. “It has been night and day.”
When it comes to advising other school districts how to implement similarly successful policies, administrators and educators alike agreed that the two keys were listening to stakeholders and making provisions for consistent enforcement.
“Where we’ve seen real success with this program is when we have really strong administrators who have put in place really clear protocols for what to do when the student doesn’t follow that policy,” said Marc Fleming, deputy superintendent at Greece CSD. At Greece, all cellphone violations are referred directly to the campus safety team, who are dispatched to the classroom as soon as a cellphone is spotted. Safety staff then take students into the hallway to confiscate the phone, so class isn’t disrupted.