Governor supports new bill banning student cellphone use in Ohio schools
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine gives the State of the State address in the Ohio House chambers at the Ohio Statehouse on Wednesday, March 12, 2025 in Columbus, Ohio. (Pool photo by Samantha Madar, Columbus Dispatch.)
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is throwing his support behind a new bill that would require schools to create a policy banning students from using cellphones during the school day.
State Sen. Jane Timken, R-Jackson Township, recently introduced Ohio Senate Bill 158, which would ban cellphones in schools. The bill had sponsor testimony Tuesday in the Ohio Senate Education Committee.
'We need to be sure that our classrooms, frankly, are now cellphone free,' DeWine said. 'We all know that screen time is very, very addictive. Just having a phone nearby means students are receiving constant notifications all day long.'
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Ohio law currently requires all districts to have a policy for student cellphone use in schools by July 1. Some schools already ban cellphone use, while other schools restrict cellphone use to only certain times of the day. Timken's bill would take the law a step forward by outright banning the use of cellphones.
'This legislation is a common sense approach to unplug our children from the constant distractions that they have in the classroom,' Timken said. 'It will reduce those distractions and allow instructors to facilitate the building of interpersonal relationships that are so vital to human development by eliminating cellphone use in our classrooms.'
A 2024 Pew Research study found that 72% of U.S. high school teachers say cellphone distraction is a major problem in classrooms. Students receive nearly 200 alerts per day on their cellphones, according to Statista.
'Those notifications make it nearly impossible for students to focus and to learn,' DeWine said.
He said he has heard positive things from parents, superintendents, principals, and teachers in districts where they have already banned cellphones during the school day.
'Their kids are focused in the classroom, the lunch room is noisy,' he said. 'Once again, kids are actually talking to each other. The kids are actually talking instead of burying their heads and their phones. Grades are better. Socialization is improving and becoming more positive. The number of students being disciplined is down. … The result has been, I think, overwhelmingly indicating that our children in Ohio are better off with no cellphones during the day.'
Timken said the hope is to pass the bill and potentially add it as an amendment to the budget. The Ohio House is expected to vote on the two-year budget Wednesday, sending it over to the Ohio Senate. Under S.B. 158, school districts would have to ban cellphone use by Sept. 1.
One objection to banning cellphone use is a concern that students won't be able to reach their parents during an active shooter situation, but Dublin City School District Superintendent John Marschhausen said that would only slow students down from escaping danger.
'If students are given directions and where to go, them looking down at their phones, it only slows the process as to what we're trying to do, what we've practiced when it comes to evacuating, when it comes to lockdown, when it comes to shelter in place,' he said.
At least 23 states have laws or policies that ban or limit students' cellphone use in schools, according to Education Week.
Follow Capital Journal Reporter Megan Henry on Bluesky.
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