Suffolk Closeup: Phone Free Schools

For a little more than a year, the New York State law commonly referred to as the Distraction-Free Schools Law and also the Phone-Free Schools Law has been in force—and appears to be generally successful. The law’s restrictions began with the start of the school year in September 2025.

The statewide prohibition followed restrictions in several school districts in Suffolk County.

It was a major initiative of Governor Kathy Hochul. Indeed, in political TV commercials in her re-election campaign, she cited it as the first on her list of claimed accomplishments.

The law, with its passage by the State Legislature and signing by Hochul, became part of the Education Law of New York. It bans the use by students during the school day of “any smartphone, tablet, smartwatch, or other device capable of connecting to the internet and enabling the user to access content on the internet, including social media applications.”

The term “school day” is defined as “every instructional day … during all instructional time and non-instructional time, including, but not limited to homeroom periods, lunch, recess, study halls” and in buildings or on land “within the real property boundary line” of a school.

There are exceptions, including permission by a teacher or principal to use such a device “for a specific educational purpose”; an emergency; and for translation services.

Reaction to it?

“Distraction-free schools law brings more focus, student engagement to Riverhead classroom” was the headline of a story by editor Denise Civiletti on RiverheadLOCAL.

“Cellphone use was already banned in classrooms here, but enforcement of the ban in the high school remained inconsistent, school officials say,” said the piece.

“Since the bell-to-bell ban was implemented by law in September, administrators and teachers are seeing many of the same benefits extolled by the government, though some staff and students question whether an all-day, everywhere ban goes too far.”

Smartphones were not a problem in teaching when I started out as a professor at SUNY at Old Westbury in 1978. But a few decades later, they arrived, and I needed to include in the syllabi for my classes the statement: “Smartphones and similar electronic devices, because they divert a student’s attention, are not to be used during class. Please put your smartphone or similar device away and forget about texting or checking on email during class.”

I explained to my students that my issue with smartphones being used in class wasn’t personal. Having one of these devices with me was, I said, indispensable, and every once in a while, when I couldn’t find mine, panic broke out. But, I continued, I believed using a smartphone in class and multitasking was impossible, that it would interfere with learning.

The state law applies to all K-12 public schools, charter schools, and Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) schools—not colleges or universities.