Cell Phones in Schools Are a Complicated Issue, New Poll Finds
In July, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order to put boundaries on cell phone use in public schools. Youngkin cited research connecting high cell phone use among adolescents to poor mental health and negative academic outcomes. Whether cell phones belong in schools is a question that has been hotly debated for some time now. Virginia has made their stance clear, joining a growing list of states, including Florida and Indiana, that have established restrictions on cell phone use in schools.
The distinction between allowing cell phones in school versus the classroom might be the biggest challenge for states and school districts to tackle. Safety issues within schools have made it nonnegotiable that parents must be able to reach their children while at school. At the same time, cell phones inside the classroom are assuredly not going to aid in the ongoing effort to help students rebound from learning loss suffered during the pandemic. This complex issue will likely require a complex solution.
In this month’s poll, we re-introduced several previously asked questions about cell phones and social media. Time will tell whether more states will take action to restrict cell phone use in schools. In the meantime, getting a better understanding of how parents feel about the issue is critical. To paint a more complete picture, we’ve also posed these types of questions to teachers and teenagers earlier in the year. You can find both surveys, along with the rest of the surveys we’ve released in the last 12 months, here.
In partnership with Morning Consult, EdChoice surveyed a nationally representative sample of American adults 18 and older (N=2,258) from July 9–12, 2024. With additional sampling, we obtained responses from 1,311 parents of children currently in K–12 education. Check out the full report to read more about how parents are feeling heading into the 2024–25 school year.
While 66% of parents feel that students should be allowed to have cell phones in school, only 30% of parents say cell phones should be allowed in the classroom. This large gap in support for the use of cell phones in school versus the classroom has existed since we began asking this question in the fall of 2023.
Certain groups of parents are more supportive of cell phones being allowed in school than others, however. Nearly three in four Black parents (73%) support their children accessing their cell phones in school, seven points higher than parents on average. Furthermore, Hispanic parents are 11 points more likely than the average parent to support their child accessing their cell phone in the classroom. Perhaps less surprising, older respondents (55+) were far less supportive (-13 points) of cell phones in school than age 18–34 respondents.
When asked about how often their children use cell phones, 49% of parents said their child uses their cell phone “extremely” or “very” often. For parents of children in high school, that number increases to 65%.
Parents have mixed opinions on the effect of cell phone use on their children. Interestingly, the majority of parents feel cell phones have a positive impact on their child’s relationships with classmates (64%), relationships with family (59%), as well as their self-confidence (51%). On the other hand, parents are less likely to feel cell phones are positively impacting their child’s physical health, mental health, and academic performance.
We also asked parents questions about their feelings on a closely related topic, social media. More than one-third (37%) of parents say their child uses social media “extremely” or “very” often. For parents of children in high school, that figure jumps 15 points to 52%. Examining how social media impacts their child’s life, only 43% say it has a positive impact on their child’s self-confidence. Parents are even less likely to say social media use is positively affecting their child’s academic performance (39%), mental health (37%), and physical health (34%).
Lastly, we asked parents if they are concerned about social media’s effects on their child’s mental health. Interestingly, only 39% of parents of high school students said they are “extremely” or “very” worried about the effect of social media use on their child’s mental health. This is especially noteworthy because parents of high schoolers were disproportionately more likely (+15) than school parents on average to say their children use social media at least very often. Concern is highest amongst parents of children in grades K–4 (53%) and parents of children in grades 5–8 (51%).
Visit the EdChoice Public Opinion Tracker site to access past reports, crosstabs, questionnaires, and our national and state dashboards. All are updated monthly. We also provide a more in-depth description of our research and survey methods.
Our K–12 education polls archive is updated on a rolling basis, roughly a few times each month. Please don’t hesitate to let us know if we are missing any surveys, or if there are accidental errors.
