Dialing Back Phones in Schools: Should We or Shouldn’t We? 🎥

Kate Dias’ and Keri Rodrigues’ advice on how schools should approach regulating cell phones to keep parents and students happy. 

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Michael Preston, Executive Director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, sat down with Kate Dias, President of the Connecticut Education Association, and Keri Rodrigues, Co-Founder and President of the National Parents Union at our NYC Digital Parenthood Summit to offer schools, parents, and students guidance on regulating on-campus cell phone use. It’s commonly debated whether phones in schools are a distraction, impede academic performance, and increase bullying. While teachers may lean towards banning devices completely, parents and students are not convinced—so how can schools make everyone happy?

Here’s 5 key takeaways from our panelists

1. In schools, decision-making must be inclusive
   • Teachers, parents, and students must all understand why a decision is being made, what practices make sense, and recognize that different grades require different age-appropriate solutions. In cell phone situations, kids are rarely ever consulted, but it’s important to bring both parents and students into the conversation.
2. The “all-or-nothing” approach to phones in schools doesn’t work
   • What works for a kindergartener will not work for a middle schooler and what works for a middle schooler will not work for a twelfth grader. Families also don’t look like they did 50 years ago and some students may hold more household responsibilities than others. Schools must recognize these factors and ask students how they can support their unique circumstances. 
3. Successful policies take time
   • Dias’ middle school did not just drop a policy on day one and hope for the best. They took time to work with families and kids to get answers for what they were doing, why they were doing it, and the problem they were trying to solve. Kids acknowledged that they were having challenges, getting aggressive, and not communicating well. Since the school maintained open conversations, families understood what was going to happen when the program finally did begin.
4. The key concern is about safety
   • According to the National Parents Union, 89% of American families are supportive of devices in schools in order to maintain these connections. Many parents view cell phones as communication tools to find out where their children are, what they’re doing, and to be able to contact them at any time. The harsh American reality is that school shootings are an ongoing danger, so parents cannot just be expected to be comfortable putting these communication tools aside. By maintaining open conversations, schools, parents, and students can find solutions that give everyone peace of mind.
5. Devices in classrooms can lead to more productive methods of education
   • Over the last 190 years of US education, Americans have become comfortable with the “antiquated model” of delivering education: 1 teacher lecturing 20-30 kids at once. According to a Stanford report, although educators were originally worried that students would cheat using AI tools like ChatGBT, some schools have come to endorse policies around educational use of AI. As a result, schools have opened a realm of opportunities, like generating reading assignments or coaching students in writing. As technology continues to evolve, we should consider how it can innovate and improve education, rather than just focusing on the negative.

Watch the full panel here

Parents, want to learn more about raising a connected generation? Check out Dr. Becky’s advice on parenting in the digital age.