Overview:
- Michigan enacted a statewide ban on phones in schools during instructional time this year.
- Demetrius Lancaster, executive director of the Joy Education Foundation, says schools should teach responsible phone use rather than ban devices entirely.
- Research from the London School of Economics suggests that guided smartphone use for learning can improve student performance and outweigh distraction-related drawbacks.
by Amyah Thomas
Emma Lee is a Salem High School senior in Canton. She’s one of many teens who feels they may be spending too much time on their phone, and she’s tried “a bunch of times” to limit her phone use.
“I’ve tried putting my phone in grayscale,” Lee said, referring to a setting that removes color from a phone’s display to make it less stimulating. “I tried using different apps, and none of those worked. I would always go back to scrolling. There’s multiple times I realized, ‘Hey, my screen time is kind of high.’”
She is not alone. Her experience reflects a growing trend among teenagers.
According to a 2023 report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, up to 95% of 13 to 17 year olds use a social media platform, and one-third report using social media “almost constantly.”
A recent advisory from the U.S. Surgeon General stated that by the time a child becomes a teenager, they spend an average of four or more hours in front of a screen per day.
How schools confront phone use
This increase in phone usage within the last decade has created an environment where teachers now feel they are in a competition with phones for students’ attention.
Schools across the U.S. have been trying various approaches to counter excessive phone use. This year, Michigan enacted a statewide ban on phones in schools during instructional time.
Twenty-two states and Washington, D.C. ban cell phone usage during the school day, according to the Harvard Kennedy School. Nineteen more states have laws that allow school district bans, but are not statewide mandates.
A 2024 survey of nearly 2,900 National Education Association members found that 90% of educators support policies enacted at the school district level prohibiting cellphone use during instructional time, and 83% support banning phones throughout the entire school day.
Using smartphones ‘responsibly, critically and productively’
Not everyone believes banning phones is the best solution. At least one longtime educator says schools could benefit from considering alternatives that center young people’s needs.
Demetrius Lancaster, executive director of the Joy Education Foundation, said schools should spend less time focusing on keeping phones out of students’ hands, and more time teaching students how to use them responsibly.
Joy Education is a tutoring nonprofit that provides online reading support for students. Before leading the organization, Lancaster said he worked as a reading teacher, dean of students, and assistant principal, giving him firsthand experience with students both before and after smartphones became nearly universal.
Instead of “gatekeeping the use of phones,” educators should look at “whatever is binge-worthy or addictive about the technology itself and how we can use that in a positive light,” Lancaster said.
Phones give kids access to information for which they would otherwise rely on somebody else to provide, he said.
“What we’re seeing right now is a lack of intentionality about connecting the device they’re already connected to with the learning that’s happening in school.”
Research suggests Lancaster may be right. When teachers actively encourage smartphone use for instructional purposes, student performance increases, according to a 2025 report from the London School of Economics.
“These results suggest that smartphone bans may overlook potential learning benefits as positive educational outcomes from guided use may outweigh distraction-related drawbacks,” the report said.
As a former teacher, Lancaster said he knows phones can be distracting in classrooms. The issue extends beyond classroom distractions, he said:. Social media platforms and other digital tools are intentionally designed to capture users’ attention, making adult guidance even more important for young people who are still developing critical thinking skills.
“If kids and adults are not working together to make sense of that stuff, I think that’s a real harm,” he said. “Technology has the potential to be incredibly helpful, but it also has the potential to shape young people in really negative ways.”
While educators continue debating cellphone bans, Lancaster said he believes the larger question is whether schools should prepare students for a world where technology is unavoidable.
“Rather than asking whether phones belong in classrooms,” he said, “educators should ask how they can teach students to use the technology in their pockets responsibly, critically and productively.”
This piece is part of the Detroit Journalism Summer Camp, run by The Detroit Writing Room in partnership with Planet Detroit.
Amyah is an incoming freshman at Clark Atlanta University. She has always enjoyed writing and thinks it is an important tool for telling stories that would otherwise not be told. Apart from writing, Amyah enjoys yoga and listening to a variety of different music. Amyah chose to attend this journalism camp because she will be majoring in mass media arts with a concentration in journalism, and she thought this camp would be a great way for her to hone her skills and become a better writer.
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