With the new school year, D.C. students, teachers and guardians alike are entering a major transition: a ban on student cellphone use during the school day across District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) and public charter schools.
While many adults are ready for the change, students are bracing for a rocky adjustment.
“Most parents and educators, for the most part, are okay with this,” said Dr. Jacque Patterson, president and at-large representative on the D.C. State Board of Education. “It’s the students who feel like they need their phones on a regular basis.”
This shift mirrors a growing national trend.
In recent years, districts across at least a dozen states, including Florida, California, Texas, Minnesota, and Virginia, have adopted restrictions on student phone use. These policies are often framed as efforts to reduce classroom distractions, combat bullying, and address student mental health concerns.
Some schools have reported improved focus, while critics argue that such bans fail to address deeper issues like curriculum engagement, digital equity, and student-teacher trust.
In D.C., the ban comes as part of a broader effort by school leaders and city officials to reduce distractions and refocus students’ attention. However, the policy rollout has sparked questions about how it will be enforced, whether schools have the resources to manage it, and whether it addresses the underlying causes of student disengagement.
“[Students] felt they used their phones for more than just social media,” Patterson told The Informer. “They felt that grown-ups couldn’t understand how they could be used as instructional tools.”
The Board of Education president admits the transition may be bumpy.
“I think this is going to be an uneasy transition period for everybody, the teachers, the educators, the parents, and the students,” he said. “There will be some hiccups, but I think we’ll get over those. And in the long run, students’ attention will be more turned toward school and not distracted by the potential distractions of a phone.”
‘There’s So Much Value in How to Leverage Your Phone as a Tool to Get Ahead‘
For some students like Atrayu Lee, a rising senior at Thurgood Marshall Public Charter High School, the ban won’t be a significant shift, as his current school already collects phones daily. However, he said his previous experience at Bard Early College High School, where students were allowed to keep their phones, helped shape his views.
“I feel like DCPS is banning phones because students aren’t paying attention,” Atrayu told The Informer. “But if the coursework were interesting, or we were being taught in a way that students want to pay attention to, I think the phones wouldn’t be a problem.”
The soon-to-be 12th grader feels the phone is just a symptom.
“If you look in the classrooms,” he added, “the teachers that students aren’t fond of, they’ll be on their phones more. But when it’s a teacher who teaches with passion… students naturally pay more attention.”
Brandon Best, Ward 6 representative on the State Board and one of the few who voted against the ban, is also concerned about the lack of cellphone usage in the classroom.
“We’re moving toward a society where there’s so much value in how to leverage your phone as a tool to get ahead,” Best said. “And I just believe we aren’t setting the right examples by trying to eliminate something because we may have seen some hiccups.”
Instead of banning phones outright, Best believes the district should have invested in professional development and support for teachers to learn how to use them meaningfully in instruction.
“Our school district hasn’t provided professional development or training on how to leverage cellphones to improve instruction,” he told The Informer. “That doesn’t make sense.”
Both Best and Atrayu said that banning phones won’t stop the behaviors administrators are trying to curb.
“The students told us straight up that everything they do on their phones, they can do on their school laptops,” Best said. “So what’s the real problem? It’s not the tool, it’s the behavior.”
Having been in an environment where phones are already confiscated, Atrayu confirmed that not much truly changes.
“If you look at your phone, it’s basically a small computer. So even if we ban phones, students can still message each other from their computers,” he said. “The behavior doesn’t go away just because you take the phone.”
Brace for Transition: ‘It’s Like They’re Stripping Away Contact‘
While Patterson supports the ban, he explained the logistical complications schools will face, particularly when it comes to enforcement and infrastructure.
“We’re talking about thousands of phones now,” he said. “I don’t think every single LEA [local education agency] has the bandwidth to safeguard those phones. If you lose a phone, you’re responsible for it. Most phones are very expensive, and the manpower just isn’t there in every school.”
Best also raised concerns, noting the demands the policy places on under-resourced schools.
“Last time I checked, this was an unfunded mandate,” he said. “Schools, especially smaller ones, don’t have the money or infrastructure to do what this ban requires, like installing phone lockers or hiring people to manage collection.”
For students and families, the change brings not only logistical concerns but emotional ones, especially around communication and safety.
“Phones are communication. That’s what they were built for,” Atrayu said. “And it’s like they’re stripping away contact from parents, from anybody important. Sometimes you just need to contact your parents. The main office can be inconsistent and not swift enough.”
At a youth concert event held at Stanton Recreation Center in Ward 8, as a loud band played in the background, Cleopatra Green-Clarke, a parent and teacher’s assistant at The Children’s Guild DC Public Charter School, stood with her two children and voiced her concern and neutral stance.
“The school my kids go to already uses the Yondr pouches, so they’re already accustomed to not having their phones on them at all times. But for them to be completely taken away, I don’t know how I feel about that,” she told The Informer. “I work at a school too, and we collect the kids’ phones. It helps with attention, because if they’re on their phones while we’re teaching, they’re distracted. I get it. However, I don’t think they should be completely locked away. If there’s an emergency, I can’t get to my kids. I have to wait for a staff member or administrator to call me and let me know something happened. So, a full phone ban? I’m not with that. But I understand.”
Despite concerns about contact, Patterson said schools will be required to develop emergency communication procedures.
“We want to reassure parents that in the case of an emergency, the school will have procedures to contact them in a timely manner,” he said.
Green-Clarke’s daughter, Heaven Woodson, a rising senior at Paul Public Charter School, said her school already has a phone policy in place and she said many of her peers are none too pleased.
“Honestly,” she said, “[the response has] been negative.”
Heaven feels that a ban is not necessary for all students.
“I support it for kids who can’t concentrate without their phones,” Heaven told The Informer. “But I know me and some other kids can, so it feels kind of unfair for people who haven’t really done anything. But it is what it is.”
Students Feel Ignored: ‘If We Want Real Change, We Have to Meet Students Where They Are‘
For many students, what concerns them most is the sense that adults are out of touch with how integral phones are to student life, not just socially, but educationally and emotionally.
Atrayu worries that decision-makers ignored the voices of those most affected.
“We had the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, now it’s the next revolution,” he said. “To forcefully ban phones, something so crucial to a teenager’s life, just because you think it’ll make them more engaged, it’s just not true. And it’s not worth the drama.”
The rising senior believes there is a better solution, one rooted in listening, not restricting. Rather than enforcing a top-down policy, he said school leaders should have worked with students to understand why phones are being used in the first place.
“The better solution would’ve been to use the summertime to host meetings, workshops, and roundups. Bring DCPS students in and ask: ‘Why aren’t you engaged?’” Atrayu said. “But instead, they enforced a rule with no input from any DCPS student. If DCPS genuinely cared, there would’ve been some sort of space where they’re directly contacting the students on a large scale.”
Best emphasized that unless schools confront deeper issues of engagement and trust, the long-term impact of the ban will fall short.
“These phones aren’t going away,” he said. “When students go off to college or enter the workforce, they’ll still need to know how to manage them. We’re missing the opportunity to teach discipline and responsibility by simply removing the tool.”
For Best, real progress means more than restriction.
“If we want real change, we have to meet students where they are,” he said, “not just take away the tools they’ve grown up using.”