Life without cellphones in school? How it’s working in West Ada — and why it might spread
Jack Stone, a senior and member of the student council at Rocky Mountain High School in Meridian, says he’s not much of a “phone guy.”
Like the rest of his classmates in the semester since the West Ada School District rolled out its new cellphone ban, when Stone goes to class, he powers off his phone and places it in a designated storage slot — called a “phone vault” — to signal his attendance. His phone waits there until class ends and he heads to his next one.
The 17-year-old, who described himself as “80 years old” at heart, said he’s trying to see the new rule prohibiting cellphone use in class “from all sides.” He understands it can help students focus better, but he’s not sure it’s the best way to prepare for the future.
“In life, you won’t be able to have things locked up, right?” Stone said. “Because you’ll be independent at some point, and you’ll have a phone, and you’ll be able to say, ‘Hey, can I set this next to me and be able to get the work done, and be able to go and do my job correctly?’ ”
As West Ada works out the kinks in its new policy, government officials are considering expanding something like it statewide. Students and teachers are still getting used to the rule.
“I really appreciate teachers who are respectful in the sense of saying, ‘Hey, you know, I trust you guys to get your work done,’ right?” Stone said. “Trust goes both ways.”
A ‘consistent’ approach
The new district-wide policy, which went into effect at the start of the school year, prohibits students from using or having cellphones on them during class time in any of West Ada’s 58 public schools.
The hope is that the ban will help students concentrate better and improve their interpersonal skills, according to Niki Scheppers, the school district’s chief of staff. And there’s early evidence that it could be doing just that.
Mountain View High School and Owyhee High School in Meridian have had cellphone restrictions in place since the 2022-23 school year, and both schools reported students had increased focus in the classroom, more meaningful engagement with classmates and fewer phone-related disciplinary issues, Scheppers told the Idaho Statesman via email.
The district-wide policy, unanimously adopted by the school district’s Board of Trustees on May 13, intended to build on that momentum and “ensure consistency,” Scheppers said.
Some aspects of the new rule are uniform across the district: namely, the use of cellphones during class is “strictly prohibited“ — with a few exceptions, such as for students with individualized education plans or medical needs.
Other aspects are left up to school administrators and teachers — for example, whether students can use their phones in between classes.
Students weigh in
In the first semester since phone vaults went up on each classroom wall at Rocky Mountain, some students, including Stone, say they are “in the middle,” with some craving more autonomy and others admitting the vaults are a helpful push in the right direction.
“I know it helps me get my work done,” said Gwynn Thompson, a sophomore who is also a member of the student council. “Because if I have my phone on — even if it’s not like I’m on it — if I get a message, I’ll think about it.”
“When I’ve needed to get stuff done, and I’ve had to put my phone in the vault, I’ve gotten stuff done more or faster than I expected,” said Jax Tanner, a junior and member of the football team.
Tanner encouraged his classmates to be open-minded, noting that “any idea you don’t buy into is not going to ultimately work for you.”
“You have to be willing to try,” Tanner said.
Other members of the student council said the policy has helped them interact more with their classmates. “You get to know your classmates more, and you have more time to communicate, and actually, like, kind of force yourself to communicate with them,” freshman Claire Cullison said.
‘We can’t put it all on teachers’: How the policy is being implemented so far
Dan Drlik, a calculus teacher and student council adviser who’s worked at Rocky Mountain since it opened in 2008, said the new policy has taken some adjustment.
Drlik said the policy adds an “extra thing to worry about” at the beginning of class, and that sometimes students push back against giving up their phones. Overall, he’s noticed “students are a lot more engaged in class.”
He said he also hopes students will continue to work on “learning to get away from those distractions themselves.”
Another challenge some students pointed out: Different classrooms have different rules. Some teachers let students retrieve their phones at the end of class if they’re done with work. Others don’t. Thompson said a teacher marked her absent because she had taken her phone from its slot five minutes before the end of a class.
“We can’t put it all on teachers,” Principal Dan Lunt said of navigating some of the challenges of implementation.
Lunt said Rocky Mountain has looked for ways to positively reinforce good cellphone behavior, instead of focusing solely on punishment. For example, sometimes teachers will randomly pick a number from the vault, and if a phone is in that slot, the owner gets a piece of candy.
Lunt also said some students have medical or other accommodations that allow them to use devices, including their phones, which is another consideration for carefully implementing the new policy. For example, students with diabetes can monitor their insulin levels on their phones; students learning English as a second language use their phones for translation.
Students with accommodations for disabilities, including individualized education plans and Section 504 plans, are also exempt from the phone restrictions — at Rocky Mountain and throughout the district.
Another early fear — how parents could get in touch with students in the case of an emergency — was soothed with the district’s clarity on “the policy’s flexibility for health-related and emergency situations,” Scheppers said.
Namely, parents can “contact front offices to relay urgent messages to their children,” Scheppers said.
Potential impacts: academic performance, classroom behavior?
It’s too early to tell whether the new policy has had an effect on grades at Rocky Mountain or in the district, Scheppers said.
Drlik said he expects Rocky Mountain and West Ada to look at measurable results such as grades in the future, but the focus is still on smoothing out any kinks. “They’re trying to get everybody on board and just trying to see how it’s being implemented,” he said.
With the first semester almost complete, Scheppers said, the district has seen “encouraging” results with “particularly noticeable improvements in focus and classroom dynamics” in middle and high schools. She said elementary schools, which tend to have more limited cellphone use, have had a “smoother transition” to the new policy.
Scheppers said the district is tracking results through “qualitative and quantitative methods,” including surveys of teachers, students and parents.
“Over time, we’ll continue evaluating data to determine long-term impacts on academic performance and overall school culture,” she said.
State leaders might follow suit
As teachers and students in West Ada have been adjusting to new classroom norms around phone use, state leaders are considering building on the district’s momentum.
On Oct. 31, Gov. Brad Little signed an executive order, called the Phone Free Learning Act, encouraging school districts to adopt a “comprehensive, district-wide” cellphone policy. The order instructs school districts to look to policy guidance from the Idaho State Board of Education and incentivizes districts to adopt a policy by the end of the school year, in order to be eligible for a onetime $5,000 grant.
The executive order was developed in conjunction with Debbie Critchfield, Idaho’s superintendent of public instruction.
Scott Graf, chief communications officer for the superintendent’s office, said 26 local education agencies have applied for the grant. The grant’s deadline is Jan. 15.
New Senate Majority Leader Lori Den Hartog, R-Meridian, told the Statesman via email that “there are a few of us who have been working together on draft legislation for this coming session” related to cellphone use in schools.
The draft legislation is “complementary” to the executive order and is aimed at “supporting” schools in developing cellphone policies, Den Hartog said.
But what happens when the bell rings and students are thrust back into a virtual world?
Thompson said that after not using her phone at school, she’ll often “catch up” on social media at the end of the day, which sometimes leads her to “doom-scroll.”
Charli Russell, a junior, said that sometimes, when a teacher allows students to retrieve their phones a few minutes before the end of class, “Everyone just goes dead silent.”
Still, Tanner said the policy has helped him outside of class. When he gets home from school or football practice, he can set his phone down and spend his time doing other things, like hanging out with his little brother.
“I don’t feel like I need my phone as much anymore,” Tanner said, “which is nice.”
