Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York on Monday announced her intention to limit access to cellphones in schools for students in kindergarten through 12th grade as part of her latest push to address children’s reliance on the devices.
In a statement, which provided no other details, the governor said she would include the legislation in her proposal for next fiscal year’s budget. She billed the initiative as a follow-up to one of her key achievements last year, the passage of legislation designed to protect young people from addictive algorithms on social media. She cited a Pew Research poll that showed 72 percent of high school teachers described students being distracted by cellphones as a “major problem.”
“Young people succeed in the classroom when they’re learning and growing — not clicking and scrolling,” Governor Hochul said Monday. “My upcoming budget proposal will put forth a new statewide standard for distraction-free learning in schools across our state.”
Speaking to high school and college students at Hudson Valley Community College on Monday, the governor acknowledged that restricting cellphone use might make her “very unpopular.”
Los Angeles Unified became the largest school district in the United States to ban cellphones last year. Virginia, Ohio and Minnesota are among the states that have moved to crack down on the devices in schools.
In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams backed away from a plan to ban cellphones in schools in August, saying the city wasn’t “there yet.”
In September, New York State United Teachers, the state teachers’ union, called for a “bell-to-bell” policy that would restrict cellphone use from first period to dismissal. The union’s president, Melinda Person, has said that the union was working closely with the governor to craft a plan.
But the idea has its detractors as well. Some New York parents who were students during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have expressed reservations about losing the ability to contact their children in an emergency. Principals have questioned who would foot the bill for equipment to collect phones. And some teachers have wondered how they would be expected to discipline students who broke the rules.
In a statement on Monday, a spokeswoman for the United Federation of Teachers, New York City’s teachers’ union, said that the organization supported state and city restrictions on cellphones in public schools, as long as a number of conditions were met.
The union said teachers should not be responsible for enforcing the restrictions; school districts should shoulder the cost instead of individual schools; enforcement should be consistent from student to student; and schools should have emergency contact lines set up for parents.
Many of New York City’s more than 1,500 public schools already restrict cellphone use. Some middle schools require children to place their phones in cubbies along the walls of their classrooms. Many high schools hand out locked fabric pouches for phones that students carry in their bags throughout the school day.
Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a state senator who represents a large swath of the West Side of Manhattan, introduced a bill last week that would prohibit students from accessing their phones on school property. He said he saw his bill as a starting point for a conversation in the State Senate.
He said he hoped that the governor’s plan would include a way for students to safely and securely hand over their phones and then get them back at the end of the day.
“As a parent of a 14-year-old daughter, I understand how phones are an obstacle in the learning environment,” Senator Hoylman-Sigal said. “At the same time, I appreciate that parents want their children to have phones when they’re on the subway or on a bus. So I hope the governor’s proposal embraces both of those needs.”
Speaking at the community college on Monday, Governor Hochul described hearing from students who told her about how they struggled to put away their phones because they are feared they would “miss something.”
“There’s so much pressure on all of you, and I’ve got to help you with that,” she told the students. “That’s my job.”
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