HARRISBURG — A group of Pennsylvania state senators from both parties announced plans Monday to introduce legislation banning cell phone use in public schools statewide, citing new research linking early smartphone access to mental health problems in children.
The proposed bill would require all Pennsylvania school districts to prohibit student cell phone use during school hours, with exceptions for students with medical conditions or individualized education plans requiring phone access.
Senators Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, Steven Santarsiero, D-Bucks County, and Devlin Robinson, R-Allegheny County, released a joint memo outlining their proposal, which has not yet been formally introduced.
“While the Commonwealth has continued to provide financial resources to help students in need of mental health services, we must also target one of the root causes of our children’s mental distress,” the senators wrote in their memo.
The legislation comes after research released earlier this month found children who receive smartphones before age 13 are more likely to experience serious mental health issues. In Pennsylvania, children get their first phone at an average age of younger than 11, according to industry surveys.
The move follows a national trend of states restricting student phone use. Twenty-seven states have already implemented some form of school cell phone restrictions, according to legislative research.
More than two-thirds of public school officials said cell phone use negatively affects students’ mental health, while more than half reported negative impacts on academic performance, according to a recent National Center for Education Statistics survey.
Students receive an average of 237 notifications daily, with about one-quarter arriving during school hours, according to Common Sense Media, a nonprofit watchdog group.
Pennsylvania previously took a different approach to the issue. Last year’s budget included funding for schools to purchase lockable phone storage bags if local officials chose to implement bans, rather than mandating restrictions statewide.
A Michigan legislative review found Pennsylvania is one of only two states offering incentives for local phone bans instead of implementing statewide mandates.
However, research on the effectiveness of school phone bans remains mixed. A study published in April in The Lancet found no evidence that banning phones in schools substantially improved students’ mental health or academic performance.
Researchers surveyed students in 30 schools and found no differences in sleep quality, physical activity, academic achievement or classroom behavior between schools with phone restrictions and those allowing phone use.
“One potential explanation for this lack of observed difference is that restrictive school phone policies did not lower the overall time adolescents spent on their phones,” the researchers noted.
The senators have not announced when they plan to introduce the legislation.