The Problem: 

1. Youth Mental Health Crisis  - The causes of the current youth mental health crisis are multifaceted, but the weight of the evidence clearly shows a significant relationship with exposure to social media and other digital and online products. The U.S. Surgeon General has said that children need device-free spaces – including schools – and has called on Congress to require warning labels on social media. He stated  that, “the risk of not acting could be someone’s life.” https://edhub.ama-assn.org/jn-learning/video-player/18901909

2. Disruption to Academic and Social Skills - All children deserve a safe school environment to learn, and experience social growth  – free from cyberbullying and other harm. Unfortunately, the introduction of personal devices in school environments has had the opposite effect.

3. Teachers see the impact on student focus and learning. A National Education Association poll showed that 83% of teachers support an all-day phone ban. https://www.nea.org/resource-library/impact-social-media-and-personal-devices-mental-health

 

The Solution: 

Phone and social media free schools to improve academic focus, mental health, and social cohesion. This will lead to a safer school environment - a break from cyberbullying and other online harm - will improve children’s mental health and social development, and will allow school leaders/administrators/staff more time to focus on more important work. The Phone Free Schools Movement has developed this Administrator Toolkit to help schools to transition to phone-free.

1. All preK-12 schools (public & independent) implement a bell-to-bell phone-free policy. The policy would state that students may not access personal devices (e.g. cell phones, earbuds, smartwatches). Schools/districts may choose which method of personal device storage they use. Exceptions would be made for medical and special education needs.  

2. Schools and school districts would be prohibited from using social media to communicate directly with students (e.g. sports teams using Instagram or Snapchat to communicate about games and practices) and from allowing or requiring students to use social media for school-sponsored activities. This does not prevent a school from using social media for non-student community communication and school to parent/guardian communication.