Youngkin signs Virginia law limiting 'bell-to-bell' cellphone use in public schools

Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a bill into law Friday limiting cellphone use for all Virginia public elementary, middle and high school students. 

Youngkin, who built his political career championing parents' rights in education, ceremoniously signed two versions of the bill, HB1961 and SB738, at the Carter G. Woodson Middle School in Hopewell, Virginia. Youngkin said it was a fitting location for a day filled with such "hope."

"When we come together — elected officials, administrators, teachers, parents and all of you — we can move mountains, and we can change something that needs to be changed, and that is to find freedom, freedom from cellphones," said Youngkin, who was flanked by his wife, Virginia first lady Suzanne S. Youngkin; public school students; education advocates; and local politicians. 

"We come together in order to move a mountain," Youngkin said, as he highlighted the negative effect of cellphones in schools on mental illness, conduct in class, academic performance and interpersonal relationships. 

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Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a law limiting cellphone use in schools.  (iStock; Getty Images)

The bill strictly limits the use of phones in classrooms to reduce distractions and disruptions, codifying Youngkin's executive order signed last year "to protect the health and safety of students in Virginia’s K-12 public schools by issuing guidance on the establishment of cellphone-free education policies and procedures."

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"We are building on the foundation laid by Executive Order 33 to make Virginia the national leader in restoring focus, academic excellence in the classroom and restoring health and safety in our schools. This legislation ensures that every school division adopts a full bell-to-bell policy and removes cellphones from classrooms, creating a distraction-free learning environment," Youngkin said as he signed the bill into law. 

Research indicates using cellphones in the classroom can have a negative effect on students' grades, social skills, emotional development and mental health. 

In a 2024 Pew Research Center study, more than 70% of high school teachers said cellphones distracting students in the classroom is a major problem. 

"This wasn't just an issue. It's a crisis. And when we have a crisis, we have a unified call for action, and that's what this gathering is all about, this unified call for action," Youngkin said Friday. 

A teenager scrolls her phone. (iStock)

Hopewell City Public Schools adopted a "pouch system" in its secondary schools at the start of the 2022-2023 school year, which has been used as a case study and potential model for the Virginia Department of Education's cellphone-free education rollout. 

"I want to add my appreciation for Hopewell's leadership because it was your leadership that inspired the executive order that I wrote last summer," Youngkin said. 

The statewide legislation requires school boards to develop and public schools to enact policies to restrict student cellphone use during the school day. The law includes exceptions for students with individualized education plans, Section 504 plans or health conditions, so cellphones can be used when medically necessary. 

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin speaks during the Faith & Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority Policy Conference at the Washington Hilton June 22, 2024, in Washington. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

The law also prohibits schools from suspending, expelling or removing students from class for violating cellphone policies. 

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Florida became the first state to pass a law regulating cellphone use in schools in 2023. More than half of all states now have similar laws in place.