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New York Lawmakers Reach Deal On 'Bell-To-Bell' School Cellphone Ban (cbsnews.com) 180

Posted by BeauHD from the no-more-distractions dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBS News: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul says a $254 billion state budget deal has been reached, including a "bell-to-bell" school cellphone ban. [...] The distraction-free policy would take effect next school year, making New York the largest state in the country with a "bell-to-bell" cellphone ban. Hochul says the plan will help protect children from addictive technology and improve their mental health. The New York State United Teachers union also came out in support of the ban, saying "we are at a crisis point."

The governor previously outlined the proposal back in January, saying it would ban the use of smartphones and other internet-enabled devices on school grounds during the school day. That includes classroom time, lunch and study hall periods. "A bell-to-bell ban, morning until the day is over, is not going to hurt your kids. It's going to help them emerge with stronger mental health and resiliency," she told CBS News New York at the time.

Hochul said the ban would include smartphones and other personal "smart" devices, like smartwatches. Exemptions could be made if a student requires a device to manage a medical condition or for translation purposes. Cellphones that don't have internet capability and devices that are provided by the school for lesson plans would still be allowed. The proposal would let individual schools come up with their own ways to implement the ban and store the devices, and schools would be able to decide whether to have students leave them in things like pouches, lockers or cubbies. It would also require schools to make sure parents have a way to contact their children during the day, if needed. "Protecting our communities requires more than streets where people feel safe. We need classrooms where young minds can flourish, and that means eliminating once and for all the digital distractions that steal our kids' attention," the governor said, adding, "We protected our kids before from cigarettes, alcohol and drunk driving, and now, we're protecting them from addictive technology designed to hijack their attention."

New York Lawmakers Reach Deal On 'Bell-To-Bell' School Cellphone Ban More | Reply

New York Lawmakers Reach Deal On 'Bell-To-Bell' School Cellphone Ban

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  • The real lesson (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Big Hairy Gorilla ( 9839972 ) on Tuesday April 29, 2025 @07:47PM (#65341313)
    is that it is possible to have 4-6 hours of your life without constant distractions. It IS possible.

    That this idea is so divisive and evokes extreme reactions by everybody is crazy. Crazy like suggesing to an addict that being normal has advantages... like good heath and long life.
    • It doesn't help. It does not solve any of the underlying problems the kids are facing. It's a distraction because the people of the New York legislature and frankly the people of New York don't want to spend the time and money to help the kids for real.

      So we ban cell phones but we don't do anything about the kids not having any futures because they can't afford to go to college and no they can't all be plumbers and HVAC welders. We don't deal with the fact that a lot of those kids go hungry even in a we

      • It doesn't help. It does not solve any of the underlying problems the kids are facing. It's a distraction because the people of the New York legislature and frankly the people of New York don't want to spend the time and money to help the kids for real.

        I'll agree with that one.

        So we ban cell phones but we don't do anything about the kids not having any futures because they can't afford to go to college and no they can't all be plumbers and HVAC welders. We don't deal with the fact that a lot of those kids go hungry even in a wealthy State like New York. We don't give parents the support they need to raise kids because if you try to everyone has a fucking fit about oh don't you tell me how to raise my kid (I speak from bitter experience, my mom was a nut job and I could have used with someone intervening)

        So maybe I'm opening Pandora's Box here, but what would you suggest?

        • " what would you suggest?"

          Why not legalize drugs, right to camp, and suicide, for a start, so we have an out from your stupid idiotic coercive violent system?

          • " what would you suggest?"

            Why not legalize drugs, right to camp, and suicide, for a start, so we have an out from your stupid idiotic coercive violent system?

            Perhaps we don't do those things because school aged children haven't fully developed and therefore cannot make rational decisions like what you suggest. Perhaps.

      • Well, you didn't deny you were addicted, but you sure did change the subject.
        We are headed into a world where people must be connected to the internets like the Taelons were with the Commonality. It was wierdly disorienting for them, and for us apparently, to not be connected at all times. But people are different. A person needs time to be alone and/or quiet. That's why we have nap time in daycare.

        I would argue that applying a Stoic concept, a bit of self deprivation helps understand something with a grea
      • You have to start somewhere. This is a fantastic step. You can't teach distracted kids, period full stop. A friend used to teach HS and I was stunned at what went on. I used to joke with him all the time I'd last less than a day. I could not even walk a day in his shoes.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Sloppy ( 14984 )

        It does not solve any of the underlying problems the kids are facing. .. we don't do anything about the kids not having any futures because they can't afford to go to college

        That's an orthogonal issue. Suppose they did have a possible future: they'd still have the problem of classrooms being unviable because the kids are on their black mirrors instead of paying attention to class.

        If you want to fix the economy or education funding or whatever, fine. Go for it! But while you're in the middle of that Herculea

    • That this idea is so divisive and evokes extreme reactions by everybody is crazy. Crazy like suggesing to an addict that being normal has advantages... like good heath and long life.

      That's one of the things I definitely remember about pubic school. They have to hammer this idea into you that you must live your live your life exactly as you're been told, otherwise you'll end up a crackhead living in a cardboard box. You can't be trusted to use or do anything in a responsible manner, because that concept might give kids the impression that you're condoning such actions.

      And of course, once the bell rings at the end of the day, most of the kids do all those things you don't want them to

      • I don't think it's too much to ask. Afaik, you can't use a cell phone under water. So then what do athletes do when they train for who knows how many continuous hours in the pool. The idea that we can't do without phones for any amount of time is getting really creepy at this point. I guess it's just me, but I marvel at how people around me seem like addicts, willfully unaware and in denial of the harms that come with electronic devices. Jezus, the kids would have both hands free to smoke, the old fashioned

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by skam240 ( 789197 )

          Yeah, it strikes me as kind of crazy when people describe cell phone bans as some kind of hardship for the kids involved. If it is for any of them, that just highlights the problem that's schools are trying to address.

      • "They have to hammer this idea into you that you must live your live your life exactly as you're been told, otherwise you'll end up a crackhead living in a cardboard box"

        That was most definitely not my experience. I had wide freedoms, though I went to school in the 80s/90s. In elementary school, I spent most Fridays bused off to some education enrichment center where we did independent learning. On other days I had to shuffle myself between classes alone to go to some alternate class for reading. One of my

  • When I was in school, teachers used to love saying "you wouldnt walk around with a calculator in your pocket all the time, would you?"

    Teachers today: "NO, DON'T CARRY A GLOBALLY CONNECTED SUPER COMPUTER IN YOUR POCKET !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111111"

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by TWX ( 665546 )

      Learn how and why things work before turning to electronic aids to make performing the tasks easier.

      If you don't learn how and why, then you won't be able to actually choose the right operations to run on that electronic toy.

      • If you don't learn how and why, then you won't be able to actually choose the right operations to run on that electronic toy.

        Except the "how" is then proceeded by "now, demonstrate that you understand this concept by spending the rest of the period manually doing something that a machine could do instantly and with perfect precision".

        It's like being taught culinary arts by someone who asks you to bake a loaf of bread, but won't accept your work unless you grow the wheat and mill the flour by hand.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by TWX ( 665546 )

          I find your analogy flawed.

          If I was going to make a comparison with bread, it would be the difference between preparing the dough on the bench, putting it into the pan, and putting it into the oven, versus pouring the ingredients into the bread machine and hitting start.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      "you wouldnt walk around with a calculator in your pocket all the time, would you?"

      Slide rule.

    • When I was in school, teachers used to love saying "you wouldnt walk around with a calculator in your pocket all the time, would you?"

      Yeah, that teacher-ism aged like milk.

    • When I was in school, teachers used to love saying "you wouldnt walk around with a calculator in your pocket all the time, would you?"

      Ironically enough I wonder how many teachers suffer from the kinds of personal financial pitfalls easily avoided with the assistance of a certain calculating device being perhaps more readily available in their daily lives?

      (Bankruptcy Office) “Check out the math teacher walking in. And we thought psychics were ironic..”

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by zlives ( 2009072 )

        how would a calculator make them not be a teacher, at least in US teacher salaries seem indicate being a teacher is a financial pitfall.

  • What about Kindles and e-readers that are not connected to the schools WiFi?
    Are the kids allowed to read during their breaks?

    • TFA: "Cellphones that don't have internet capability and devices that are provided by the school for lesson plans would still be allowed."

  • Chromebooks are MANDATED at my kid's school (Score:3)

    by jelwell ( 2152 ) on Tuesday April 29, 2025 @08:31PM (#65341425)

    Who care about the cell phones when the school is the one handing every kid a Chromebook and then refusing to supervise their use when in classrooms. I hate when a teacher asks me to help keep my kid from being distracted on their Chromebook. I always just flatly say, take it away from them - I don't want them to have it in class anyways. This is 100% a problem of their making. Yes, they have net nannies, but their software doesn't adapt as quickly as these kids do.
    joe.

    • It may shock you and your privileged kid, but no every kid is not being handed a Chromebook in the class. Don't let general solutions to wide spread problems be influenced by your fancy school's policy as its applying to your fancy kids.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jelwell ( 2152 )

        It may shock you and your privileged kid, but no every kid is not being handed a Chromebook in the class.

        Every child, in the class I referred to, is indeed being handed a chrome book. Don't let your lack of knowledge about a specific class make you think you know that there are exceptions in that specific class. I caveated my comment, you did not.

    • Those Chromebooks are probably centrally managed. The schools can do things like block access to various hosts and such, so they can easily shutdown things like Facebook or OnlyFans or even Internet access entirely.

  • It works (Score:5, Interesting)

    by JoeRobe ( 207552 ) on Wednesday April 30, 2025 @07:28AM (#65341971) Homepage

    My wife is a high school teacher. Her school enacted a policy this year that has the kids put their phones into little cubbyholes upon entering the classroom, and they grab them on their way out. She's seen a huge difference in attention, even among the kids using laptops. The kids can still use their phones between classes and in an emergency they can get to them. Her biggest issue now is kids with smart watches that are still connected to the phones, and ones with a non-school-issued laptop, where she can't see what they're looking at.

    Lots of research shows this is beneficial from a learning perspective. Modern teachers would love to adapt and incorporate modern tech into their teaching approach, hence the enhanced use of graphing calculators when I was a kid and the current use of laptops loaded with learning apps. But cell phones are a double edged sword: they have a ton of potential for learning, but also a ton of distraction, moreso than laptops and TI-83's. Current high school students view the phone as primarily a social media device, not an educational resource that helps them learn.

    • Get some sort of faraday cage to put the phones in so watches can't be used to workaround the Internet access. A simple aluminum foil coating will probably suffice.

  • I live in NY. Why is cell phones in schools part of the budget bill ?

  • We should not ban cellphones from students until we have eliminated the ability of disaffected youth to bring guns into school to murder their classmates. Every child deserves to have the ability to call for help or to tell their parents they love them one last time. I am not a fan of this stupid plan.

    • If your kid is so concerned with school rules that they won't break the rules to call in case of a shooting, then your kid is not the one that is going to save people.

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