Good morning. It’s Thursday. It’s the first day of school for public schools in New York City. We’ll find out why there’s more than the usual anxiety. We’ll also get details on the possibility of a job in the Trump administration for Mayor Eric Adams.
The doors will open this morning at Brooklyn Technical High School. Cruz English, a junior, is worried about tomorrow, the second day of school. He expects to miss at least one class, just standing in line, waiting to get in.
His concern is the new statewide policy effectively banning smartphones from the moment students walk into a school until the moment they hear the final bell.
“We’ll see how it goes” once the school has given each student a pouch to put his or her phone in, he said — a formidable logistical assignment at the largest public school in the city, with nearly 6,000 students.
A Department of Education spokeswoman said that lines wouldn’t be an issue at Brooklyn Tech. But the new smartphone policy has brought more than the usual anxiety to the first day of school in New York City.
It comes amid more than the usual uncertainty as schools reopen. That is because many administrators — and parents — are waiting to see who is elected mayor in November.
The possibility of a new mayor in January means there could also be a new schools chancellor and a shift in educational policies. Several top officials in the Education Department under Mayor Eric Adams have already announced plans to move on. Dan Weisberg, who as the first deputy chancellor was outranked only by Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos, left last month.
Polls have shown that Adams, who is running as an independent, is trailing Zohran Mamdani, who has remained the front-runner since winning the Democratic primary in June; former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who lost to Mamdani and is now running as a third-party candidate; and Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee.
For now, the smartphone ban is dominating the conversation at schools. The ban, and the idea that school days should be free of distractions like social media and text messages, was pushed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has made the phrase “learning and growing, not clicking and scrolling” almost a mantra. She signed a law that prohibits the “unsanctioned” use of smartphones for the entire school day, which she calls “bell to bell.”
A state law left it to each school to develop its own policy, but in broad terms, the Department of Education said that smartphones would have to be “stored” in pouches or “school-assigned personal or shared lockers.”
“Backpacks alone are not considered a sufficient storage option,” according to the FAQ section on the department’s webpage, unless the backpacks are left “in a closet or cubby that cannot be accessed by students without permission.”
Some schools have already imposed smartphone bans and found them effective. Dr. Curtis Palmore, the chief executive of United Charter High Schools, said the seven-school network had done so last year, his second in the job.
In his first year, he stopped by a student lounge. “They had their heads glued to their phones,” he said. “I decided it would be best if we focused all our students on having as much instructional time by not having any focus on their cellphones.” Some students asked if they could have their phones back at lunch or recess. “We opted not to provide that,” he said.
At Brooklyn Tech, the school will provide each student with a pouch. (Replacing a lost pouch will cost $10 at the school store.) The Department of Education spokeswoman said the pouches would be handed out once students were in the building today, reducing congestion at the entrances.
Cruz does not have a smartphone to put in a pouch. His mother, Toria English, got him a flip phone that is not connected to the internet, which means he will not have to stow it — and could use it to call her in an emergency. She got the flip phone through US Mobile, a New York-based company that leases mobile network access from major cellular carriers.
Its chief executive, Ahmed Khattak, said that he had children in schools where smartphones had already been banned, so “I’ve experienced this whole thing around devices firsthand.”
“Devices can be extremely counterproductive in school,” he said, even as he acknowledged that smartphone bans had boosted sales.
“Regardless of that,” he said, “I’m super supportive of kids being able to focus in school and not be able to text or watch social media in school.”
Weather
Expect a sunny day with a high of 82, and possible showers and thunderstorms tonight. Anticipate a low around 67.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect until Sept. 23-Sept. 24 (Rosh Hashana)
The latest New York news
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The wobbly state of the city’s economy: Hiring is down or has slowed substantially in 2025 amid rising prices linked to tariffs. But the city’s economy appears stronger than those on the West Coast.
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Mamdani’s policy shifts: Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor who previously called for defunding the police and decriminalizing prostitution, abandoned some of his most provocative views before he announced his bid for mayor last year.
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Not just another frog: A frog that lives next to a cluster of Amazon and IKEA warehouses on Staten Island was added to the state’s endangered species list several months ago. The designation, coming as the federal Environmental Protection Agency seeks to weaken habitat protections nationwide, has spurred efforts to protect the marshy area the frog calls home.
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To boost Cuomo, Trump advisers have discussed a job for Adams
Is there a place in the Trump administration for Mayor Eric Adams? The president’s advisers have discussed giving him a job — if he drops his bid for a second term.
People with knowledge of the discussions also tell four of my colleagues — Dana Rubinstein, Nicholas Fandos, Maggie Haberman and William K. Rashbaum — that talks in President Trump’s orbit have involved finding a place in the administration for Curtis Sliwa, the Republican candidate for mayor.
The goal is to thin out the field, giving former Gov. Andrew Cuomo a better chance of beating Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee and front-runner in the race for mayor. Cuomo is running as a third-party candidate after losing to Mamdani in the Democratic primary in June. Adams has been polling fourth, behind Sliwa.
It is unclear whether the discussions will lead to anything. But some real estate executives and allies of Cuomo — a moderate Democrat who has known Trump for years — want to stop Mamdani, a democratic socialist who they fear will cloud the city’s business climate. They have discussed possibly offering the mayor a public- or private-sector job to encourage him to drop out of the race.
John Catsimatidis, a billionaire grocery and oil magnate in New York, said that he had spoken with Trump about the race on Sunday and that he expected the shape of the contest could change in the coming days. “He’s very concerned,” Mr. Catsimatidis said of the president. “How do they say it? This is for all the tea in China. This is serious.”
METROPOLITAN diary
Pig ears
Dear Diary:
It was a summer day, and my partner and I were on the N train doing crossword puzzles when I heard a man ask two women next to him what they were snacking on.
Pig ears! they said. They’re really good!
“Wow, really?” the man said. “What do they taste like?”
Like bacon, they explained, but it’s almost all cartilage, no meat.
The man asked a bit more about the pig ears, including what sort of seasoning they typically had, what the texture was like and whether they went well with beer.
After answering his questions enthusiastically, one of the women held out the bag.
“Want to try one?” she asked.
“Oh, no thanks,” the man said. “I’m actually a vegetarian.”
— Kat Li
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B.
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
Troy Closson, Ama Sarpomaa and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
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James Barron writes the New York Today newsletter, a morning roundup of what’s happening in the city.
The post Today’s the First Day of No Smartphones in Schools appeared first on New York Times.
