Should students have cellphones in class? Indiana said no 2 years ago. Now the law may get stricter.

Aleksandra Appleton, Chalkbeat Indiana

Since Indiana’s school cellphone ban went into effect in 2024, classroom distractions haven’t disappeared. But they have become a little more old school.

Students now pass notes and notebooks, doodle, write poetry, and talk to their neighbors, teachers say. But all of these diversions are less diverting than a phone.

“None of those things come with the FOMO of seeing another kid scrolling on their phone. There’s not a compulsion to write poetry because your neighbor is writing poetry,” said Jon Bernardi, a math teacher in Shortridge High School in Indianapolis. “Kids are talking to each other more, there are fewer distractions in the class, and my morale is better because I don’t have to gripe about the phones.”

As things stand now, the cell phone ban applies only to instructional time, and teachers are allowed to let students use their phones in class for learning.

But more restrictions could be on the way. GOP lawmakers have introduced new bills that would mandate that phones be securely stored at school or left at home during the whole school day.

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