Legislation to ban the use of cell phones from bell-to-bell at public and private schools in Pennsylvania statewide will become law after the Senate passed the bill on Wednesday.
The House passed the bill on Monday, and Gov. Josh Shapiro put out a statement Wednesday that said he will sign the bill into law.
“I called for this in my Budget Address and repeatedly urged the legislature to act — and now, we’ve brought Democrats and Republicans together to get this done for our students and our educators,” Shapiro said. “It’s time to get back to the basics in school and let our kids be kids.”
The legislation, introduced at Senate Bill 1014, would prohibit the use of cell phones on school property at educational institutions state wide, starting with the 2027-28 school year.
In a statement on the legislation, lawmakers said the move is intended to reduce the use of smartphones in schools as, studies have shown, a rise in depression and anxiety in children due to smartphone use and “the suicide rate for adolescents ages 10-19 rose 48%, while the suicide rate for girls ages 10-14 rose and astonishing 131%.”
“We also know children and teens are using their smartphones excessively,” reads a statement on the legislation. “Between 2010-2015, US teens with smartphones rose from 23% to 73%, with a quarter admitting to being online ‘almost constantly‘. Now, teens spend an average of nearly eight hours a day on their phones, equivalent to a full-time job, and receive an average of 237 notifications on their phone a day.”
However, through this proposal, students would be prohibited from using cellphone throughout the day on school property and there would be guidelines put in place for student possession of cellphones.
There would be exceptions in the bill for students with medical issues, needs the cellphone to assist with learning instruction or has specific permission to possess the phone during the school day.
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