Gov. Hochul’s NY School Cellphone Ban Gets a Warm Reception in Albany

Students’ days of fiddling with their smartphones at school could be numbered in New York state.

Gov. Kathy Hochul wants to prohibit students from using internet-enabled phones, watches and tablets during school hours — and she wants to do it soon. Her proposed ban, which she included in her $252 billion state budget proposal on Tuesday, would take effect Aug. 1, just in time for the 2025-26 school year.

And so far, the state’s legislative leaders, who will spend the next two months negotiating with the governor on a final budget, seem to be open to it.

“I do think the cellphones can be very distracting in schools,” said Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, a Democrat from the Bronx. “And I think we need to make sure that children are there to learn, not to be distracted.”

Hochul’s proposal would make New York one of a handful of states with restrictions on cellphones in schools.

It would require each of the state’s more than 700 school districts, including New York City, to develop a policy that prohibits the use of smartphones, smartwatches and tablets on school grounds during the school day from “bell to bell,” as Hochul put it.

The local districts would have flexibility to decide how to implement the ban. But they would be required to have a way to lock the devices up during the day — whether it’s in the students’ lockers or in some other equipment, such as a lockable pouch the student carries with them.

“Our kids will finally be freed from the endless disruptions of social media and all the mental health pressures that come from it,” Hochul said in her budget address at the state Capitol.

Each policy would be required to have exceptions, such as if a student uses a phone to monitor their insulin or if they speak English as a second language and need the device to help translate. The districts would also have to set policies allowing use of the devices in an emergency or if a teacher is using them as an educational tool.

Phones that aren’t connected to the internet — such as traditional flip phones — would not be subject to the ban.

New York City Department of Education spokesperson Jenna Lyle said feedback from its school communities “has been clear: access to cellphones in the classroom distracts from learning, divides attention, and significantly impacts our students’ mental health.”

Lyle continued, “Following our engagement with parent leadership groups last spring, in partnership with the health department, we’ve been working on an evaluation to better understand both how schools are implementing policies to restrict cellphones, and lessons learned from those implementations.”

The United Federation of Teachers, the union representing city teachers, reacted to Hochul’s proposal positively.

Michael Mulgrew, the union’s president, said UFT “supports a statewide cellphone ban, with safeguards, because educators see the negative impact of cellphones in their classroom every day.” The union does have concerns, however, about ensuring enforcing the ban doesn’t fall exclusively on teachers.

“We believe Gov. Hochul understands these concerns and we look forward to working with her and the legislature to make this happen,” he said in a statement.

State Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat who chairs the Senate’s New York City education committee, said “too many kids are fixated on their phones” while in school.

“I think this is heading in the right direction,” Liu said of Hochul’s proposal. “We’ll have to figure out the details and see what kinds of exemptions there are for kids who actually need them, and possibly for kids who actually are more productive with their cellphones.”

Republicans said they also understand the need for cellphone restrictions.

Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, a western New York Republican, said he “hate[s]” cellphones. (“I wish we could take them away from adults,” he said.) But he criticized a move he sees as Hochul’s way of providing cover to school leaders.

“Either you’re in charge or you’re not in charge,” Ortt said of school superintendents. “You don’t get to sort of choose today you’re in charge of your district and tomorrow you’re not. So I don’t love the state just saying there’s going to be no cellphone use.”

Hochul’s budget proposal includes $13.5 million for local schools to purchase lockers, pouches or other equipment to store phones and other internet-enabled devices during the day.

That’s a win for companies like Yondr, which sell pouches that magnetically seal and prevent students from using their phones until they’re unlocked. Yondr has been lobbying state and city officials for school phone restrictions, and said more than a third of public secondary schools in New York state are currently using its product.

Hochul had been teasing her new proposal for months. But its proposed funding is not as much as some ban advocates had hoped. A Yondr pouch, for example, costs $30 per student; Hochul’s grants are the equivalent of $10 a student, according to her budget director. The state law doesn’t specify any particular vendor to provide the pouches, leaving it up to individual districts to decide.

Yondr founder Graham Dugoni told Gothamist on Friday that Hochul should be commended.

“That’s what we hear from teachers all the time — that the change, even after three or four weeks in a school day, they notice a change in the posture of their students and the eye contact,” he said.

Ortt criticized Hochul’s plan to help subsidize the cost of locking up phones, noting that many districts throughout the state already do it without extra state funding. All school districts would see an increase in state aid regardless under Hochul’s budget proposal.

State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Yonkers Democrat, said she recognizes that cellphones are major distractions for students in a learning environment. She expressed confidence that legislative leaders will be able to strike a deal with the governor.

“I think that we will probably get there,” she said.

The budget is due before the next fiscal year, which begins April 1.

Story by Jon Campbell
Jon Campbell covers the New York State Capitol for WNYC, Gothamist, and New York Public News Network.
Jimmy Vielkind and Jessica Gould contributed reporting.

Image: January 21, 2025 — Albany, NY — Governor Kathy Hochul presents the Fiscal Year 2026 Executive Budget in the Red Room at the State Capitol. (Credit: Mike Groll/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)