When Nathaniel Greene Middle School in Providence started using special pouches to lock students’ cellphones during the school day, teachers noticed a dramatic change.
“The difference was almost immediate and pretty significant,” said Maribeth Calabro, president of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals who used to teach at Nathaniel Greene.
She noticed less fighting and cyberbullying among students. Teachers also spent less time disciplining students who were distracted by their cellphones during class.
“There was a big back and forth between teachers and students,” Calabro said. “When the level of engagement increases, it just makes the school day run that much more smoothly.”
Nathaniel Greene permanently instituted the use of Yondr pouches in 2023, requiring students to put their phones into individual locked bags in the morning. The pouches are unlocked as they leave the school in the afternoon.
More Rhode Island schools soon may be taking the same approach now that a new state law is requiring school districts to create policies to ban the use of cellphones by students during the school day. The law will go into effect on Aug. 1, 2026.
The idea of a cellphone ban in schools isn’t completely supported by the public, according to the results of a recent Pew Research Center survey.
While most U.S. adults agree with banning middle and high school students from using cellphones during class (74%), far fewer (44%) back a ban that lasts the entire school day, the survey found.
The legislation’s lead sponsor, Rep. Julie A. Casimiro, D-North Kingstown – a substitute teacher – says she has seen firsthand how cellphones can disrupt classrooms and the education process.
One day, Casimiro says she took a student’s cellphone away because he was using it when they were supposed to be focused on classwork. Less than a minute later, another student, sitting next to him, had taken out their phone, too.
Ideally, districts would enforce a “bell to bell” ban on cellphones for the entire school day, Casimiro says. In fact, she believes Yondr pouches are the best approach but including their use in the legislation would have resulted in an “unfunded mandate,” additional costs for cash-strapped schools that would not be covered by the state.
Instead, individual districts can create their own policy. And while there was no opposition to the bill, Casimiro is concerned about some districts complying with the law.
“Some districts are not going to take this very seriously,” Casimiro said.
Case in point: she says when a data dashboard was made available for educators that tracks foster children in their district. When the state conducted a survey of superintendents on their use of the database, only 15 responded.
The law allows for some exceptions to an outright cellphone ban, for instance, in cases of medical needs or in compliance with an individualized student plan.
Victor Morente, a spokesperson for the R.I. Department of Education, said state education officials are tracking the current cellphone policies of the state’s 34 public school districts and more than 30 charter schools and state-operated schools. And while the policies vary, RIDE says it will work with districts to ensure compliance with the law once it goes into effect.
While each district has a cellphone policy, some haven’t been updated in nearly a decade, according to RIDE. Several school districts did not respond to Providence Business News’ questions about how they may update their cellphone policies.
At Classical High School in Providence, cellphones haven’t caused significant problems in classrooms, according to Principal Scott Barr. Usually, staff and teachers simply ask students to put their phones away during class time, and it rarely becomes an issue.
Barr supports the new law but stresses that policies must be consistent across districts. Barr also urges district leaders, state lawmakers, parents, teachers, students and RIDE to work together to determine the best cellphone policy together.
So far, he hasn’t heard from teachers or parents about which policy would be most effective, but he plans to gather more feedback this fall. Barr says he does not support a “bell to bell” cellphone ban; any policy, he says, should recognize that parents may want to reach their children immediately and that some students need to handle work-related calls between classes.
“We want to avoid this faceoff between families and the school staff over a phone, over accessibility,” Barr said.
When Nathaniel Greene began using Yondr pouches, there was pushback from parents and students. Some parents moved their children to a different school, Calabro says.
While the pushback has diminished, it hasn’t disappeared. For that reason, the middle school spent a lot of time communicating with families about the cellphone policy through online and in-person meetings, as well as memos sent home with students.
And this kind of communication is crucial for all districts to have with parents, students and staff when considering changing their cellphone policies, she said.
While other educators support Yondr pouches, Barr has opted not to use them, mainly because of the costs.
“My dollars are better spent on teaching and learning,” he said.
