NC schools’ cellphone regulations mark a new era 

THE JOPWELL COLLECTION

North Carolina law limits cell phone use in public schools during instructional periods across all grade levels and gives schools flexibility to enforce the rules.

Though a new state law gives schools until Jan. 1, 2026, to set policies regulating students’ cellphone use, several North Carolina school systems began putting such rules in place over the past few years.

The law, House Bill 959, requires schools to regulate students’ wireless communication devices during instructional time across all grade levels. In the bill, a wireless communication device is defined as “any portable wireless device that has the capability to provide voice, messaging or other data communication between two or more parties.”

The bill gives public schools freedom to decide how they want to enforce the law, as its only requirement is that students are prohibited from “using, displaying, or having a wireless communication device turned on during instructional time.”

Across North Carolina, schools are taking different approaches to the new law, including full-day bans, locking devices in pouches and allowing limited use of different lunch and class transitions. While the phone ban is an attempt to limit the distraction of phones in the school environment, other perks such as increasing social connection and decreasing screen time have been noticed by teachers, parents and administration.

Mary Beth Roche, a parent of a Guy B. Phillips Middle School student and a digital wellness educator from Chapel Hill, said the ban should not be focused on what schools are taking away, but instead what they are giving back to the students.

“We’re giving them so much,” Roche said. “An opportunity to learn to love learning, an opportunity to make social connections that they never would have made, an opportunity to learn life skills like critical thinking and problem solving, what to do in awkward situations and how to make eye contact.”

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools 

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools district, which consists of 20 schools, restricts the use of smartwatches, cellphones and Bluetooth-enabled earbuds/headphones during instructional time, which includes class transition times.

Andy Jenks, the district’s chief communications officer, said the rules have seemed to be implemented smoothly and effectively. He said students understand why the rules are in place, and if students do break the rules, administration is using it as a “teachable moment.”

“We view it as teachable moments and that helps everyone have a common understanding of what these rules are, why they are in place statewide and ultimately, what they're meant to accomplish, which is that school should be a time for focused learning, engagement, personal growth and free from unnecessary distractions,” Jenks said.

In the CHCCS district, middle and elementary schoolers follow the “away for the day policy,” which means they can bring devices to school but must keep them in their lockers until school has dismissed. High schoolers are allowed to have their devices out during lunch.

Julie Werry, a parent of a ninth grader at East Chapel Hill High School and a sixth grader at Culbreth Middle School, said she supports the new district policies but disagrees with the lunch regulations.
“It bums me out imagining them all sitting during the social time of day and getting their quick fix with the phone,” Werry said. “Maybe you talk to someone in line next to you because you’re bored and then all of a sudden that person becomes your bestie.”

She said one of the most important parts of school is learning how to be human, and that if everyone is sitting on their phones, they can never learn how to make social connections.
Roche added that although phone-free instructional time is important, the social benefits of school cannot be ignored. She said schools are discounting this by having the lunch period carved out.

“If a teen has their phone on them and they know they can use it at lunch, it’s almost like counting down the minutes until lunchtime,” Roche said. “It’s not giving them the true mental break and separation from the device to reap the benefits. They aren’t given the chance to truly be present.”

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools 

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg district, which holds 186 schools, has required students to put their phones into a designated cell phone box before class, and has limited personal electronic devices in addition to phones, such as headphones and Apple Watches.

At Myers Park High School, students are allowed to have their phones between classes and during lunch. They have to turn their phones in to their teachers during the first five minutes of class and get them back in the last five minutes.

There are lock boxes for every classroom with numbered slots that each student puts their phones into, according to James Tyson Jeffus, one of four assistant principals at Myers Park. The students are provided with Chromebooks, and Jeffus said they enable students to access whatever they need to without their phones.

“We’re not taking the classroom back to 2000,” he said.

There are seven-minute transitions between classes, allowing students to communicate with parents if needed. He said these policies benefit the students and does not see them getting any more restrictive.
Jeffus also noted that certain online access makes teachers’ jobs easier.

“There’s just so much time that’s spent having to grade papers and read handwriting and check if it’s AI generated or not,” Jeffus said. He said the hands-on experiments and projects give students an additional break from the screen.  

Granville County Public Schools 

On the other hand, Granville County is going old school with its implementation of “tech-free Tuesdays and Thursdays,” which started at the beginning of the academic year. It applies to all grades across the district and to every type of electronic device. 

Stan Winborne, the Granville County superintendent, said kids spend a large amount of time on screens daily and the district is trying to balance that out by having two screen-free days a week. He said teachers can still use technology and have the flexibility to decide how to implement the policy in the classroom.

Ariana Bond, a math teacher at Granville Early College, said the tech-free Tuesdays and Thursdays have not changed the way she runs her classroom, but implements the policy on Mondays and Wednesdays because it works better with her pacing.

“I try to do a more hybrid approach,” Bond said. “We do most of our thinking on paper, but then we do a lot of our applications using technology.”

Bond said the teachers and students were surveyed on their feelings toward the new policy. Winborne said the answers were mixed.

“Some of them felt strongly that it was a good thing,” Winborne said. “Others, it made them a little anxious to not have their devices out on those days. But one thing we did hear overwhelmingly was that it helped tremendously with eye strain and headaches.”

Mark Abdelmassih, a senior at Granville Early College, said tech-free Tuesdays and Thursdays limits review sessions.

“I have always loved using review websites, Kahoot! quizzes, Quizlet, all that stuff, but with the ban, it limits that to twice a week where you can’t use it in school,” Abdelmassih said.

He said starting with a phone limitation policy instead of a phone removal would have facilitated an easier transition due to the large role technology plays in his life but acknowledged more student engagement this year.

“People are more focused I guess, not looking at a screen all day, not being blinded by that light,” Abdelmassih said. “I’ve heard that it’s been better, the collaboration and the focusing.” 

Bond added that she has seen students talk to each other more through doing puzzles and playing board games together. She said enforcing the phone policies has not been a burden in the classroom and that her students are good at understanding rules and procedures.

“I’ve had to take one phone this entire year,” Bond said. It was during the first two weeks of school, and she said once students got used to the changes, it was not difficult to get them on board.

Bond said she thinks the new policies could be improved by being more nuanced, such as evaluating situations case by case or creating different rules based on grade level. She said lower levels have to take online assessments, and high school students in college classes need their phone for duo-factor authentication – both instances that tech-free Tuesdays and Thursdays make more difficult.

“These are all things we can revisit over time,” Bond said. She said she appreciates that the administration is being open to changes and seeing what they can do better in the future.

The Granville County phone policy is “bell-to-bell,” so the time students get to school until the time they leave, phones should be off, powered down and not visible. They are not allowed to have watches, earbuds or headphones in middle school and high school.

Future plans 

William Lassiter, the deputy secretary for the Department of Public Safety and the chair of the Governor’s Advisory Council for Student Safety and Well-Being, said the council has seen a pretty universal adoption of the policy, but will know more this month. 

“We're going to do a follow up report in December to the governor to report back to him about exactly where implementation is,” Lassiter said. “We're starting the process of putting together a survey that we're going to send out to every school district in the state to get a copy of their policy and how they've implemented the law.”

The council was created in April with the goal of promoting school safety and improving student physical, social and emotional well-being. Werry, the PTA president for CHCCS, is also a member.

Before the ban was introduced, Lassiter said the council met with students, parents and teachers, who all agreed that cellphones were a distraction in schools. He said students talked about how it caused rumors to easily spread due to social media.

Lassiter said the biggest concern from parents was how they can communicate with their children during a crisis. Jenks said that exceptions do apply to the rule, such as for medical reasons.

On the other hand, Werry said the policy is teaching her daughters how to handle real life on their own, instead of feeling reliant on texting her. She said she understands parents wanting to talk to their children during an emergency, but also acknowledged that the teachers, not the parents, are the ones trained for those situations.

“Schools are trained, administrators are trained, and at the end of the day, I want my kid to listen to what the teachers and the police officers at her school are saying, not what I am texting her,” Werry said.

Regardless of the differing opinions, there seem to be optimistic reactions to the phone free policies. Werry said that she has heard nothing but positive things and appreciation.

The parents are not only saying "thank you," but taking action as well. Roche has been working to raise awareness about the impacts of tech on kids and teens and to bring parents together to share their challenges and successes in raising kids in a tech-heavy world. She created the CHCCS Parents for Intentional Tech in February. The group advocates for intentional, age-appropriate tech use in schools that prioritizes the safety, well-being and learning of children.

Roche said removing phones is just the “tip of the iceberg” and that there is more to do. She said schools need to find ways to use technology as a tool in a purposeful way.

“I think that the movement is coming,” Roche said. “It’s the next wave.”

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