Smart to ban smartphones in schools: New York Daily News

“Every student will be required to disconnect from their devices during school hours, bell to bell,” quoth the governor, adding: “Our kids will finally be freed from the endless disruptions of social media and all the mental health pressures that come from it.”

Amen, and amen again. Smartphones and social media have their value for kids. But when they’re a constant hovering presence in an educational setting, they are a huge burden for teachers to manage, and can have a corrosive effect on learning and on the school community more broadly.

Even at lunchtime, it’s healthy to encourage kids to look each other in the eye rather than scrolling through the latest nonsense on TikTok or whatever might replace it if the on-again-off-again ban winds up back in effect.

Under New York's edict — assuming it gets through the state budget, in which it is embedded — local districts will have flexibility about how to implement a prohibition, provided they do the basic job of locking up devices during the day. Phones that aren’t connected to the internet, like traditional flip phones, aren’t subject to the ban.

As allies of the policy who were disappointed when an imminent New York City-wide ban wound up shelved because Mayor Eric Adams had second thoughts, there are always the details.

One is how student exemptions will be defined. The state says kids with disabilities and others who rely on digital devices for basic medical or translation purposes will be carved out from the prohibition.

More than 20% of K-12 public school students have disabilities — so which ones qualify and which don’t, and on what grounds? It would be ironic indeed if youngsters whose disability is ADHD, meaning that they struggle to pay attention, were allowed to carry a device that’s designed to distract.

Then there are the logistics. Should the city’s department of education — in which about 350 schools already have bans in place, with 500 more planning to implement them this school year — opt for pouches or lockers, they’ll need elaborate systems to keep track of devices. That’ll be a special challenge in huge schools such as Brooklyn Tech.

Also, which devices qualify and don’t? It’s easy enough to say “no internet-connected devices,” but what about watches, which can access the internet but have small screens and very few apps? Many parents use these gadgets to see at a glance where their children are and enable them to call key contacts. Though they sit right there on kids’ wrists throughout the day, we’d allow them.

And though it’s easy to say dumb flip phones are fine while the latest iPhone or Android smartphones are not, tech companies are churning out all kinds of low-distraction devices that do the basics, including connecting to the internet, but don’t suck users in. Are those in or out?

Cellphone bans aren’t perfect. We understand parental anxiety to stay in touch with kids during the day, especially in this era of constantly shifting schedules and security scares. But bans do one very important thing exceedingly well: They send a message that when kids are at school, it’s their job to focus as human beings on their schooling, their teachers and one another.