Three Pennsylvania senators are planning to introduce legislation called “Phone-Free Schools,” aiming to ban the use of cell phones in schools across the state during school hours.
On July 28, 2025, Pennsylvania senators Devlin Robinson from Pittsburgh (Republican), Vincent Hughes from Philadelphia (Democrat), and Steven Santarsiero from Doylestown (Democrat) jointly issued a memorandum to all Pennsylvania senators stating that “increasing research shows the negative impact of smartphones on children’s development,” and “we can immediately improve children’s health and academic performance by learning undisturbed during school hours.”
Citing multiple research reports, the senators highlighted the harms smartphones bring to adolescents.
“Between 2010 and 2019, children’s mental health deteriorated sharply, with a 50% increase in depression and anxiety rates, a 48% increase in suicide rates among 10-19 year-olds, and a staggering 131% increase in suicide rates among 10-14 year-old girls,” the memorandum stated, adding, “Just last week, a new study published in The Journal of Human Development and Capabilities found that children under 13 who own smartphones are significantly more likely to experience severe mental health issues in early adulthood, including aggressiveness, emotional instability, and suicidal thoughts.”
Furthermore, they expressed concern that children and adolescents are starting to use smartphones at increasingly younger ages and are overusing them.
“The average age at which Pennsylvania children own smartphones is 10.5 years, and this number seems to be decreasing every year,” the memorandum said. “Between 2010 and 2015, the ownership rate of smartphones among American youths rose from 23% to 73%, with a quarter of them admitting to being ‘almost always’ online. Now, teenagers spend nearly 8 hours a day on their phones, equivalent to a full-time job, receiving an average of 237 phone notifications daily.”
The senators also emphasized how smartphones directly impact students’ academic performance.
“These addictive devices have an undeniable impact on schools. As smartphone usage rises, academic performance declines. In 2012, math and reading scores dropped for the first time in 25 years, leading to an ongoing downward trend,” the memorandum explained, “Smartphones not only distract users but also disrupt the entire classroom with continuous ringing, buzzing, and checking noises. This not only hampers student learning but also troubles teachers trying to maintain classroom focus and order.”
Additionally, the senators elaborated on teachers’ concerns about smartphones.
A study by the PEW Research Center found that “72% of American high school teachers consider smartphone interference a major problem in classroom instruction.” A 2024 survey by the National Education Association showed that “90% of teachers support banning cellphone use during instructional time, with 75% supporting a ‘bell-to-bell’ ban, prohibiting cellphone use from the start of the first class to the end of the last class.”
The memorandum particularly stressed that while the federal government has been providing financial resources to assist students in need of mental health services, the widespread use of smartphones and social media apps is one of the fundamental causes of children’s mental distress.
The memorandum also mentioned that “students who require personal communication devices for medical conditions or individualized education plans are exempt.”
Currently, 27 states in the U.S. have enacted legislation restricting cellphone use in schools, including New York, Virginia, and Florida.
In New York, Governor Kathy Hochul signed “The Distraction-Free Schools Law,” requiring all K-12 school districts in the state to implement smartphone usage restrictions from bell to bell starting from the fall of this year, for the 2025-2026 school year. This law prohibits kindergarten to 12th-grade students from using smartphones and other internet-accessible personal devices on campus without permission, throughout the day (from the start to the end of school hours), including class time, lunch, and study periods among others. Schools are allowed to establish plans to store smartphones during the day and must provide ways for parents to contact their children when necessary.
The three senators urge their fellow senators to support this legislation, stating that “our students should have the opportunity to learn without the distraction of smartphones” and calling for the restriction of these addictive devices in schools.