By Jack O’Connor, Forum News Service
A bipartisan group of Minnesota lawmakers is introducing a bill that would ban cellphones and smartwatches in schools for K-8 students and in classrooms for high school students.
Legislators last session passed a law requiring school districts to adopt a policy on student phone use and possession as an alternative to districts banning phones. This current bill, SF 508, introduced in late January, would give all school districts in Minnesota the same policy on phone use in school.
Supporters of school phone bans argue phones distract students from learning and harm their mental health.
Many school districts in Minnesota have already banned students from using cellphones. The St. Cloud Area School District 752 does not allow elementary or middle school students to use cellphones, the district’s superintendent said on the WJON radio show. Winona Area Public Schools applies its phone ban to all students, including those in high school, according to the district’s website.
School districts who took that opportunity to ban phones quickly saw the positive impacts it had on students, educators told bill co-author Sen. Alice Mann, DFL-Lakeville.
“Students were participating more in class. The learning environment in the classroom had less distractions. Kids were socializing more face to face,” Mann said. “We’ve heard a couple principals say the culture of the entire school changed when cellphones were put away.”
These reasons — as well as declining test scores across the state — are why Mann’s colleague on the other side of the aisle, Sen. Jordan Rasmusson, R-Fergus Falls, became a co-author on the bill.
“We have to recognize the negative effects that screen overuse and misuse can have on our students and the overall learning experience,” he said. “That’s why I’ve supported this effort to make sure that when kids are in school, they’re focused on the learning.”
How to enforce the ban and what the punishments will be for using a phone during school hours are left up to the school districts to decide, according to the bill’s language.
Students in schools with phone bans are generally allowed to bring phones to school as long as they are placed in a locker or other assigned storage areas. Parents wishing to contact their kids during school hours can contact the school office.
The bill provides exceptions for devices needed for medical use, devices included in an individualized education program for a student with a disability and other exceptions approved by a school principal.
If passed, the ban would take effect during the 2026-27 school year.
SF 508 is part of a national trend of lawmakers reexamining phone use at school. Similar legislation has passed in Florida and Indiana. Lawmakers in states like Iowa, Nebraska and North Dakota are also looking into ways to restrict phone use in schools.
Classroom phone bans have public support with around 68% of U.S. adults supporting such a ban, according to a 2024 Pew Research Center poll. Support for a ban throughout the school day is more limited with about 36% of U.S. adults in favor, according to the same poll.
The bill will have a hearing in the Senate Education Policy Committee at 12:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 10.