Phone-Free Schools in Illinois

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The Data & Research

Cell phone bans in schools are becoming increasingly prominent across the country. As a compelling and growing body of research stacks up, a majority of U.S. states have enacted laws addressing cell phones in schools.

Research has increasingly pointed to the benefits of limiting student cell phone use in school:

Teens are spending an average of 8.5 hours a day using screen-based media. During the school day, they are spending an average of 1.5 hours on smartphones (1).
Of the time students spend on their cell phones during school hours, social media apps were the most common use at 32% of the time (2).
Research shows that high or increasing trajectories of addictive use of social media, mobile phones, or video games were common in early adolescents (5).
Excessive screen time is linked to poor educational and health outcomes in school-aged children. In teenagers, there are additional mental health and behavioral concerns, particularly related to social media use (3).
A study of Florida cell phone bans in schools found that there were significant improvements in student test scores during the second year of the ban after an initial adjustment period (6).

Download our new one-pager for a summary of research and data on the benefits of phone-free schools

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Addressing the concerns

Illinois residents have valid concerns about the realistic impact of school cell phone laws. It’s important to remember that each state has the ability and power to create an equitable phone-free school policy that prioritizes student health, well-being, and educational success.

We know this is a major concern for some parents and students. As parents who care deeply about protecting all children, we were surprised to learn that school safety experts recommend that students not have phones during a school emergency. Their attention should be squarely on the adult in charge and what is occurring in real time.

The law leaves many implementation decisions to local schools. Some storage options, like cell phone lockers and magnetic pouches, cost money. Others, like storage in student lockers or in envelopes, are low- to no-cost.

Several exceptions are granted in the bill, including for students with a medical professional’s order, to fulfill an IEP, for translation needs, or if a student caregiver is determined to need access to their phone.

Disciplinary issues can arise with any new regulation, so the Illinois law proactively addresses potential concerns with disparities. No student may be suspended, expelled, fined, or referred to law enforcement for violating the cell phone policy. Bell-to-bell policies, which minimize opportunities for violations to occur, are in place for elementary and middle schoolers and are the default for high schools.

This law addresses personal devices (phones, tablets, watches, glasses, etc.). We have heard growing concern that students use school-issued devices to continue the same distractions they access on their cell phones, and this is likely to be another frontier we need to work on.

SB2427 – IL’s Phone-Free School lAW

Illinois is in a unique place because our phone-free school law (SB2427) has been adjusted to address some of the most pressing concerns for Illinoisans. After years of edits and changes, this new bill will:

Proactively minimize disciplinary disparities due to cell phone enforcement
Ban cell phones from the first bell of the day to the last bell of the day for elementary and middle school students, and impose this model as a default for high schools (which individual high schools may modify to allow phone use during passing periods).
Allow exceptions for students with doctors’ orders, to fulfill an IEP, who need translation support, or are caregivers.