As students are picking up school supplies and packing their backpacks to return to school this September, some are wondering whether or not they’ll be returning to school with their cellphones in hand. The answer is NYC schools won’t be implementing any cellphone bans…yet.
New York City schools Chancellor David Banks hinted at a cellphone ban back in June, and though it was originally thought that the plan would be in place by the start of the school year next week, Mayor Eric Adams stated at his most recent news conference that it’s actually been delayed. Adams mentioned that officials need more time to perfect the plan, such as where the cellphones would go and what they would do if students didn’t cooperate. “If you don’t do it right, you won’t get it right,” he stated.
Though details of the plan are still being worked through, the delay doesn’t mean the plan won’t eventually be implemented at all. Officials state that the number one distraction is phones, and their desire is to not have any distractions in schools.
Adams stated:
Right now, there are some schools that already have bans. But once you use the conversation or the terminology that it is a full ban…there’s a lot of things that will kick into play…What are the best practices? How could it be done? There will be some action in the upcoming school year. But the extent of a full ban, we’re not there yet.
Adams also noted that they want to take parents’ opinions into consideration and make sure they’re on board with the plan. “When you talk about the hurdles, a lot of parents are concerned about not being able to be in contact with their children…We want to get there with everyone together,” he stated.
This wouldn’t be the first time cellphones were banned in NYC schools either–they were banned under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, though former Mayor Bill de Blasio then lifted the ban. Bloomberg has since announced his support of the current ban, stating, “Two decades ago, our administration banned mobile phones in all public schools…The ban was one of many policy changes that allowed us to transform the school system in ways that dramatically raised student achievement levels.”
Students are set to return to classrooms on Thursday, September 5th, and will be allowed to have their cellphones in hand–or, well, put away in their bags–but who knows how long that’ll last. In the meantime, each school has its own cellphone policy that students are expected to follow.