Cellphones in Long Island schools: More restrictions, added concerns for students

Several Long Island school districts are starting the new academic year with tight restrictions — if not bans — on cellphone use, as educators grapple with the worsening problem of students' inability to unplug from their digital devices.

The distractions, bullying and cheating associated with cellphones have become a top disciplinary problem in schools, undermining class lessons while forcing teachers to police their classes for students sneaking a peek, Island educators said.

While experts say it's unclear how much phones contribute to rising rates of anxiety and depression, studies increasingly associate their overuse with emotional problems, diminished social skills and academic decline.

Teachers say students continually checking their phones for messages and notifications has gone from being a nuisance to a major classroom management issue.

"I don't want to use the word 'addiction,' but the kids are very much attached to their phones," said Jared Duchin, a seventh-grade social studies teacher at  Howitt  Middle School in Farmingdale. "Some students seem more focused on their phones — checking for text messages and social media — than what's happening in the classroom."

The new and revised policies in districts such as Brentwood, Three Village, Hempstead and West Islip highlight the growing awareness of cellphone abuse in schools. 

Many Island schools have general restrictions on cellphones during class, but policies and rules vary. Some districts leave the issue in the hands of individual teachers; others enact a formal policy, including disciplinary measures. Many extend the bans to other digital devices, such as smartwatches. Some specify exactly where and when phones are off-limits, such as in classes, hallways, recess and lunchtime.

"There's a lot of things being tried. A lot of practices have been changed, revoked and then put back," said Nicole Galante, Stony Brook University's director of educational partnerships and innovation. "We're trying to figure out a way."

In Hempstead, the new policy prohibits the use of cellphones from the time a student arrives at school to the end of the school day. The devices must be turned off and stored out of sight. In cases of misuse, staff will confiscate the phone until the end of the school day, the policy said.

"Cellphones have become a major distraction and impediment to teaching and learning," Hempstead Superintendent Regina Armstrong said. "Having access to a cellphone during learning times takes away from the person’s ability to focus, consequently reducing productivity. Once focus is lost, it can take a person over 20 minutes to refocus."

In Brentwood, the Island's largest district with some 18,000 students, the policy, adopted in March, prohibits cellphone use throughout the day in grades kindergarten through eight. Students in grades 9-12 cannot use their phones during class unless a teacher approves it for instruction. 

High school students, however, can use their phones during lunch period, but taking photos and recording video or conversations is off-limits without the permission of all involved. All students may use their phones on buses but not in locker rooms, restrooms or hallways between classes, Brentwood Superintendent Wanda Ortiz-Rivera said.

The Brentwood policy grew out of a pilot program last school year where school officials had students at South Middle School silence and store their cellphones in their backpacks, she said.

"It was amazing. Students spoke more to each other in the cafeteria, not just looking at their phones," Ortiz-Rivera said.

Opinions of parents, educators differ

It's unclear how many of Long Island's 124 school districts have enacted formal cellphone restrictions, but it has not been a tidal wave, said Robert Vecchio, executive director of the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association. Administrators are carefully examining restrictions even as they engage the public in discussions, knowing that new rules come with challenges of enforcement and discipline, he said.

"It's not widespread," Vecchio said of the move by schools to implement smartphone policies. "With something as sensitive as this, school officials want to have thoughtful conversations before adopting new policies."

Some school officials fear pushback from parents who want to be able to communicate with their kids in an emergency, said Bruce Torff, a Hofstra University professor of educational psychology.

"They want to maintain that digital umbilical cord. Parents have gotten used to it," Torff said. "Educators and parents are not on the same page."

The prospect of more restrictions draws varying opinions across the education community.

When the new school year starts, Christina Haubeil said her concerns about cellphones flare, so she makes sure to check in with her daughter Corinne, 13.

"I ask her what she's doing on the phone. I ask her if there's anything she's encountered. And if it's anything bad, she should show me and her father," said Haubeil, of Wantagh.

Haubeil has mixed feelings about school cellphone bans. She said she wants her daughter, who begins eighth grade at Wantagh Middle School on Tuesday, to have her cellphone during school. The phone has a tracking app, so if Corinne stays late or goes to a friend's after school, her mother can see where she is on the app, she said.

She also likes the ability to reach her daughter quickly in case of an emergency. At the same time, prohibiting their use during class makes sense to cut down on interruptions, she said.

"I want her to have a phone, but I agree they shouldn't use them in class. They're very distracting," she said.

Some students say they oppose outright bans, especially any that have them handing over their phones at the beginning of the school day and retrieving them at the end.

"People aren't able to contact their families and arrange things,” said Ellen Li, 17, a Jericho High School senior. “And people are always going to find ways to access the internet or text other people.”

Riddhi Das, a senior at Half Hollow Hills High School West in Dix Hills, said she doesn't see many students pulling out their phones during class for personal use.

"You need to focus to know what's going on," said Das, 17.

She does see students using them at lunchtime and in the hallways between classes, and she sees more young students with them.

"I didn't get a phone until seventh grade, but now they're getting them in elementary school," she said. 

Some teachers, but not many, have students store them in cubbyholes at the start of class, she said. She said she understands the problems of some students "getting addicted to scrolling on TikTok and Instagram for hours," she said, but feels it's important to have the phone with her during the school day to contact her parents.

Meanwhile, a survey of school board members by the New York State School Boards Association revealed diverse opinions. Some 43% said the group should support efforts to prohibit the student use of cellphones during the school day. Twenty percent said the group should oppose such efforts, and 37% preferred the group to be neutral on the matter, according to the survey of 564 board members statewide in March.

Gov. Kathy Hochul has expressed interest in creating statewide restrictions on phones in schools. She has been traveling around New York to hear school officials, parents and teachers, and her staff said she plans on announcing a plan in time for the state legislative session in January.

NYSSBA executive director Robert Schneider said his group wants some decisions left to local school systems.

"While we welcome state guidance on the topic, ultimately, we believe that policies regarding student cellphone use best reside at the local decision-making level where school boards can include the input of students, families and communities," Schneider said.

Hochul met with Island education officials and teachers in July, Vecchio said.

"One thing we stressed to her was that, whatever proposal she comes up with, there has to be some local control and local flexibility," Vecchio said.

Wait-and-see stance

School officials introducing cellphone limits say they are starting the academic year with a wait-and-see attitude. Most Island schools begin school Tuesday.

"The next couple of weeks will be telling," said Three Village Superintendent Kevin Scanlon, adding that cellphones and social media have become the district's top disciplinary problem. "We're trying to get ahead of this. ... This is consuming time, resources and money to address the incidents."

Scanlon said he sees the rampant student cellphone use as an aftereffect of the COVID pandemic, when young people were isolated and out of school with only their phones to communicate with friends. The phone became their lifeline to the outside world, and the habit not only stuck when they returned to school, it's gotten worse, Scanlon said.

He was among several Island educators who said the problem is worsening.

In Three Village, cellphone use was already prohibited in the elementary level, Scanlon said.

"What does a 5-year-old need with a cellphone? There's not too much good that can come of that," he said. 

The new rules extend the prohibition of cellphone use to middle and high school, allowing it during lunch period in high school, and the second half of lunch period in middle school. Teachers also have the discretion to allow them when needed for lessons, he said.

Numerous school districts and state lawmakers across the country have passed restrictions on cellphones in schools. The Los Angeles district, which is the second-largest in the nation behind New York City, banned cellphone use in June. State lawmakers in Louisiana, Florida and South Carolina have passed bills limiting school cellphone use.

Meanwhile, studies underline the urgency of the issue.

Teens receive 237 or more notifications per day, according to a nationwide 2023 survey of 200 11- to-17-year-olds by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization that provides information on issues related to children and families. Over two-thirds of participants said they "sometimes" or "often" find it difficult to stop using technology.

In addition, about two-thirds of U.S. students reported that they get distracted by using digital devices, according to a 2022 Program for International Student Assessment. Moreover, the report found about 54% of students said they get distracted by other students using them.

Problems are especially prevalent in high school, where about 7 out of 10 teachers (72%) say students being distracted by cellphones is a major problem in their classroom, according to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey. 

Some 44% of teens say not having their phone makes them anxious, according to a 2023 report by the Pew Research Center.

Some educators worry about schools cracking down too hard on cellphones. Galante said the devices have become a coping tool for anxiety in young people, and that students' attachment to them can be as strong as an addiction.

"With any other addiction, we provide help and support to deal with withdrawal," Galante said. "But not with social media."

Situational guidelines in some schools

Some school systems have no formal, written policy on cellphones.

At Jericho High School, the issue is left to teachers’ discretion, interim co-principal Brian Cummings said.

On Wednesday, the first day of school there, Cummings said he was walking the halls and saw a teacher asking students to put their phones away. But in a classroom nearby, another teacher was asking students to find a photo on their phone from their summer as an icebreaker activity.

“It’s situational,” Cummings said. “Some teachers like using cellphones. Some [don’t]. And everything in between.”

The success or failure of cellphone restrictions will depend on getting the school community on board, and teachers to enforce it, educators said.

West Islip school officials began reaching out to the community last school year, forming a cellphone policy committee and sending out surveys to students, parents and teachers, said Dawn Morrison, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

Parents were sent a copy of the policy in June. It bars the use of cellphones in the elementary and middle schools. At the high school, cellphone use is allowed only in the classroom when approved by a teacher. They cannot be used in locker rooms, bathrooms, testing environments and the auditorium. In the cafeteria and hallways, students can use the devices "in a respectful, responsible and nondisruptive" manner but cannot post to any social media sites, the policy said.

School begins Wednesday, and every West Islip school principal will hold an assembly in the first week to discuss the new rules, Morrison said. Each high school classroom will have a designated "housing station" for the phones, she said.

Duchin, the Farmingdale social studies teacher, said he will set the tone early with his students regarding cellphones. 

"The expectation is that they won't use them. I'm not going to see them out on their desks," he said.

In Farmingdale, students are not allowed to use cellphones in elementary and middle grades. They are allowed in the high school, but they need to be put away during instruction unless they're part of a lesson, officials said.

Duchin said he has caught students using the phones in class and had them put the phone on his desk until class was over. But he's yet to take away a student's phone for the day, he said.

"If I have to take it away, who's responsible for the phone? I am," he said. "What if something happens to it? It just becomes more of an issue."

With Dandan Zou

By Craig Schneider

craig.schneider@newsday.comScraigo

Craig Schneider is a Long Island native and Stony Brook University alumnus. He joined Newsday as a general assignment reporter in January 2018 after 20 years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.