It’s a new law that will impact K-12 students across the Empire State - internet-enabled devices won’t be allowed in schools from bell to bell. School districts are required to have a new written policy posted on their website by August 1.

“I think it's both bold and overdue,” said Matthew Mulvaney, chair of the department of human development and family science at Syracuse University.

Earlier this year, Gov. Kathy Hochul instituted the new law for K-12 schools everywhere in the state.

“Individual intervention on kids and phones is really hard to do because it is so embedded within teen culture, youth culture. And so, if a school does it as a whole, then you can at least get this significant period of time when they know, presumably as long as the ban’s being effective, that other interesting social things aren't happening online at that particular point,” said Mulvaney.

What You Need To Know

  • Earlier this year, Gov. Kathy Hochul instituted a new law for K-12 schools everywhere in the state: no internet enabled devices are allowed from bell to bell, including cell phones and smart watches

  • Academic experts say this is a good move for students

  • One superintendent shares frustrations that his school already went through the rocess of creating a phone policy that works for their district, and incudes phone use

He says it’s difficult for adolescents to prevent themselves from making bad choices.

“And I think we're hitting that cusp of where we're starting to say, it's just enough is enough. And we can't continue with the status quo in terms of what our kids are doing. It's harming them. It's keeping them from doing well at school,” said Mulvaney.

Sabrina Butler, an assistant teaching professor with Syracuse University’s counseling and human services unit, said she sees benefits to this change.

“There's this chronic stream of stimulation happening. So then when we get into a classroom, and we don't have that, 'yeah, we're bored.' And then we're not paying attention and we're thinking about other things or we're getting anxious and we might pull out our phone,” said Butler. “And we also know that multitasking isn't a real thing as much as we all like to think so. So, it really impacts concentration, attention span and our impulse control.”

Central Square School District created its own cell phone policy before the law was passed.

“Cell phone policy forum in our cafeteria was huge. We had hundreds of people there. We had students, we had parents, we had staff members, we had community members,” said Central Square Superintendent Tom Colabufo.

The Central Square policy allows phones outside of classrooms, like lunch, study hall and passing time. And the superintendent says since the policy went into effect in February, it’s been working with few suspensions.

“Needed to be out of classrooms. They were a distraction," Colabufo said. "I commend [the governor] for that, but it almost feels like we're being punished because we did all of those things she asked us to do. We had the forum, we had the surveys. We took that feedback. Our board was ahead of the game, and we literally adopted a policy and we put it in place. So now that's going to basically have to be scrapped."

The new state law says schools can’t suspend students for violating the phone ban. Colabufo is concerned about the cost of enforcement.

There are exceptions to the device restriction, like if it’s necessary in an emergency, for translation or for health care. Districts are also required under the new law to post a report on their website by Sept. 1, 2026, outlining any disciplinary actions taken against students in relation to the cell phone policy, including demographics.