Minnesota schools' cellphone bans getting closer scrutiny, including from students

MINNEAPOLIS — State Sen. Alice Mann, DFL-Edina, suggested recently to a group of St. Paul high school students that limits on cellphones at school could ensure “you get the education you’re here to get.”

The kids weren’t buying it.

TikTok, one student said, has educational videos created by people her age. Social media, another argued, can be positive if used in a positive way. And a third said flatly of any bans: “I feel like it’s just too late.”

Welcome to the community engagement portion of the state’s cellphones-in-schools debate — now playing out in a district near you.

The Legislature has required every district and charter school to establish cellphone policies by March 15, 2025. After an initial flurry of schools dictating that the devices be put away for the day, surveys and discussions are underway elsewhere to determine the best steps forward at the local level.

Mann has organized roundtables across the state with students, parents and educators to help guide any legislative moves that may be needed next year, she said.

The recent gathering at St. Paul’s Como Park High coincided with the state’s second-largest district laying the groundwork for its own rules.

Mounds View Public Schools formed a cellphone advisory committee, released a survey that drew 3,000 responses and held two community conversations with more than 200 people before expected board action on its policy in January.

And in Stillwater, the school district is running an online “thought exchange” through Dec. 20 as it considers a phone-free policy for its schools.

The robust engagement efforts have revealed nuances to the crackdowns, and so, too, has a recent Pew Research Center survey.

The survey showed that while 68% of U.S. adults support a ban on middle and high school students using phones in classrooms, only about one-third support bans during the entire day. The chief reason to oppose bans: Parents believe they should be able to reach their child when needed, the results show.

Mounds View currently bans phones in classrooms at all of its schools — with limited exceptions — but it does allow middle and high school students to use them between classes and at breakfast and lunch.

Mona Elabbady, a parent of a Mounds View High School student, served on the district’s advisory committee. She said that she was impressed with the school system’s outreach efforts, and she thought it was essential to be able to talk through what any restrictions might look like as a committee member.

“Most of the people are in agreement that cellphones during instructional time are a detriment to a student’s education,” Elabbady said. “However, how you regulate that is the challenge.”

The panel will present its recommendations to the school board on Dec. 10.

St. Paul plans to introduce its policy proposal on Dec. 17 and then continue to take public comments during board meetings before its adoption in February.

At Como Park High, Jodi Danielson, the district’s director of schools and learning, talked to students about a now-familiar list of problems associated with phone use, among them damage to mental health, student achievement and effective teaching.

“I have heard from a couple of parents that when their students use cellphones less, their grades go up,” Danielson told the students.

But what was intended to be a Q&A period ended with just two questions being asked and students challenging their hosts about why bans are being explored — and with a vow by one to defy any new cellphone rules.

“I’m still going to keep my phone,” the student said. “Our generation needs our phones.”

He also asked organizers how they would feel if they were students now facing such restrictions.

Said Mann, “We’re all addicted to our phones.”

But as an emergency room physician, she added, she cannot have one out next to her at work. It’d be a violation of hospital rules, Mann said. Sure, it can make her anxious, she said, but it also goes to show that being forced to put a phone away is not unique to schools.

“Perhaps we can look at it as a skill that we need to learn,” she said.