MCPS is behind the curve on establishing phone-free schools

April 23, 2025 – By a group of MCPS parents advocating for phone-free schools

MCPS is behind the curve on establishing phone-free schools

We, a group of parents with Montgomery County Public Schools, are deeply concerned about the negative impacts of excessive smartphone use on our children’s safety, mental health, intellectual development, attendance rates, academic performance, relationships, ability to focus, and the ability to read and think critically. We believe schools should be a space where students are free from the constant distractions posed by smartphones and other personal mobile devices. 

The research is clear – smartphones negatively impact every aspect of a child’s development. Increased use of smartphones is associated with negative well-being, especially among youth whose brains are still developing, and especially for students between the ages of 9-15. Studies also show that having a smartphone within sight or within easy reach reduces a person’s ability to focus and perform tasks, weakens relationships, and increases risk of anxiety and depression, especially among girls. An entire generation that grew up with devices now struggle to read books in college. Social media in particular has been called out as particularly unsafe; the Surgeon General has called for a warning label to be placed on social media platforms, stating that “the mental health crisis among young people is an emergency — and social media has emerged as an important contributor.” According to the Pew Research Center, up to 95% of teenagers surveyed (ages 13 to 17) reported using social media, and more than a third of them use it “almost constantly” with use most frequently for YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram. 

The evidence of negative impacts bears out in trend lines across a number of different categories. Specifically with respect to academics, the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP)’s long-term data shows the staggering and unprecedented learning loss reflected in math and reading scores. For most of the last five decades we see improvements in scores, until we reach 2012, where most of the gains up until that point are lost over the next decade. This coincides with the period from 2010-2015, which author Jonathan Haidt dubs “The Great Rewiring”, because that’s when teens traded their flip phones for smartphones.

Source: NAEP Long-Term Trend Assessment Results: Reading and Mathematics

Alarmed by these trends, on March 5, 2025, a group of parents with Montgomery County Public Schools, many of us active within our local and county-level PTAs, launched a signature campaign on a letter to Superintendent Taylor, MCPS Central Office staff, and the Board of Education, urging them to support a consistent “Away All Day” smartphone policy from K-12. Under an Away All Day policy, smartphones (and other personal mobile devices such as earpods and smartwatches) may not be used during the entire school day, including lunch and transition periods. The letter has already garnered almost 2000 signatures to date.

We urge other parents, teachers, staff, and community members in the county to join us and sign the letter this month, while MCPS deliberates on revisions to its current personal mobile device policy. The current policy – which allows smartphone use during certain times in middle and high schools at the principal’s discretion – is confusing, inconsistent across schools, and likely unenforced at many schools, to the detriment of our students. Principals who participated in an Away All Day pilot this year unequivocally stated that MCPS needs to adopt a clear, consistent policy to ensure better enforcement.

Instructional time only bans don’t work – we must move towards fully phone-free schools. When schools allow phone-use during the school-day, enforcement also falls to teachers or doesn’t happen at all, and phones continue to be a source of distraction during the phone day. That said, we do not dismiss concerns some parents have about the need for certain students to have access to their smartphones: students with special education needs; students with special family circumstances; etc. Waivers for these exceptions can and should be made to accommodate these scenarios. 

We also do not dismiss the safety concerns that parents have, especially in the wake of school lockdowns, but cell phones – though reassuring to parents – can actually make students less safe during emergencies.

MCPS is already behind on creating an Away All Day policy. An increasing number of jurisdictions have enacted fully phone-free school policies at all levels of governance, from Governors and legislatures through school districts and individual schools. Locally, Howard County’s Board of Education voted to prohibit the use of cell phones during the school day for students at all grade levels starting March 3. Stafford County, Virginia’s School Board approved an Away All Policy in June of 2024. Governor Hochul in New York proposed legislation that would restrict smartphone use throughout the entire school day for K-12. Schools that have implemented Away All Day policies are seeing significant improvement in key areas, including school attendance.

As adults, we are responsible for providing a safe and nurturing learning environment for students to thrive, and smartphones and smart devices – already a distraction to students outside of school – have no place during the school day. Please join us in urging MCPS to move towards regulations that require a consistent, Away All Day policy for smartphones and other mobile devices, with clear recommendations that ensure enforcement does not fall on the shoulders of individual teachers. 

---