Make your student's school day phone‑free.
79% of Colorado parents already want phone‑free schools. Your board just needs to hear from you. The vote is June 16.
Three reasons why bell to bell is better.
Kids can't focus when phones are around.
Even off and out of sight, a phone in the room pulls attention. Students remember less, think slower, and check it dozens of times a day.
110×Median phone glances per school day, Common Sense Media, 2023
Phones are designed to be addictive.
Apps use the same reward mechanics as slot machines — variable rewards, infinite scroll, notifications calibrated to trigger dopamine. We're handing it to 12-year-olds and asking them to manage it during class. The school day is the one place we can still draw the line.
46%Of US teens say they're online “almost constantly,” Pew Research, 2024
When phones are away all day, kids start talking again between classes.
Half-measures don't work. Hallways and lunch are where kids actually find each other. Bell-to-bell is the only policy that lets that come back.
72%Of teachers say phones are a major problem in class, Pew Research, 2024
If we want children to be present, learn well, make friends, and feel like they belong at school, we should keep smartphones and social media out.
Half-measures get
none of the benefit.
Bell-to-bell, away all day is the only phone-free policy that actually works for kids. The phone is off and physically locked up — pouch, locker, or caddy — from first bell to last. Anything less is an open door for distraction to creep back in.
Same student. Same day. Four policies. Watch how much of the day each one actually protects — and what each weaker version costs.
Pickup, drop‑off, and emergencies.
01
When do kids get their phones back?
Right when school ends. Phones come back as kids leave the building, so you and your kid can text or call about pickup, carpool, sports, or anything else exactly the way you do now. “Bell‑to‑bell” means during the school day. Not before. Not after.
02
What about lockdowns and emergencies?
In a real emergency, the school staff are the ones moving kids to safety. School Resource Officers across Colorado have said the same thing on the record: in a lockdown, the safest thing a kid can do is listen to the adult next to them, not their phone. A buzzing pocket or lit screen during a silent lockdown gives away hiding positions.
Phone‑free policies all include carve‑outs for genuine emergencies. During a real crisis, staff unlock devices or hand kids a school phone if needed. The policy applies during a normal school day, not during an active emergency.
Sources: National Association of SROs; I Love U Guys Foundation protocols
03
How do I reach my kid during the day?
Call the front office. That’s how parents have done it for decades, and the office actually knows where your kid is, which a text message doesn’t. Most schools deliver urgent messages within ten minutes. For routine schedule changes, most adopted districts now have a parent app or text‑confirmation system that lives outside the kid’s pocket.
If your kid takes the bus or has complex pickup logistics, this works the way it always has. Buses run after the last bell, so your kid has their phone back. Standing pickup arrangements work fine. If something changes mid‑day, you call the office.
Sources: Colorado Phone-Free Schools Coalition district survey, 2025; Healthier Colorado implementation guide
Grades, focus, and what the research shows.
04
Do phones actually hurt grades?
Yes, and the experiment that proves it is wild. Researchers had college students take memory and thinking tests. Some had their phone on the desk. Some had it in their pocket. Some had it in another room. The students whose phone was in another room scored highest. The students with the phone on the desk scored lowest. The phone wasn’t ringing. It wasn’t lighting up. Just being near it was enough to drag the brain down.
That study used college students. It hits younger kids harder.
Source: Ward et al., “Brain Drain,” Journal of Consumer Research, 2017
05
Why doesn’t a “no phones in class” rule work?
Because the school day isn’t just class. Kids check phones at lunch and between classes, even when phones are banned during instruction. And once the brain takes that hit (the scroll, the notification, the streak), it takes about 23 minutes to fully refocus. So a kid who scrolls Snapchat over lunch walks into 5th period already in distraction mode for the first 20 minutes.
Add up the hits across a full day, every day, every year. Kids who use phones a lot literally lose the ability to focus for long stretches. The research is clear on that.
A class‑time‑only rule doesn’t break the cycle. Bell‑to‑bell does.
Sources: Mark et al., UC Irvine; Aru & Rozgonjuk, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2022
06
What about kids who actually need tech for school?
Schools provide Chromebooks, iPads, and classroom computers for the kind of tech kids actually need for school. Bell‑to‑bell doesn’t mean “no technology in schools.” It means personal phones (which are designed for social media and notifications) stay out of the school day. Educational tech stays.
Districts that went phone‑free actually report MORE focused use of approved tech, because the personal phone isn’t competing for attention from the same pocket.
Sources: Garfield RE-2 “Less Tech, More Talk”; Boulder Valley bell-to-bell (Nov 2024)
07
What does the research show overall?
The evidence points the same direction from every angle:
- Just having a phone near you drags down thinking and memory (Brain Drain study, Ward et al., 2017)
- Heavy phone use causes kids to lose the ability to focus for long stretches (Aru & Rozgonjuk, 2022)
- 72% of high‑school teachers say phone distraction is a major problem in class (Pew Research, 2024)
- Kids glance at their phones a median of 110 times per school day (Common Sense Media, 2023)
- The U.S. Surgeon General issued a 2023 advisory naming social media a profound risk to youth mental health
- A Norwegian study of 400+ middle schools that went phone‑free found bullying dropped sharply (especially for girls), GPAs rose (especially for low‑income students), and kids reported feeling better. Schools that did partial bans saw none of those gains. (Abrahamsson, Norwegian School of Economics, 2024)
Different studies, different countries, different methods. Same direction.
Sources: Ward et al., 2017 · Aru & Rozgonjuk, 2022 · Pew Research, 2024 · Common Sense Media, 2023 · U.S. Surgeon General Advisory, 2023 · Abrahamsson, 2024
Trust, kids, and what they think.
08
Shouldn’t teens learn to manage their own phones?
We’re asking teens to do something adults can’t do. The companies that build these apps hire engineers and behavioral scientists to make them as hard to put down as possible. They’ve said this out loud. The infinite scroll, the streaks, the notifications — they’re built to keep your kid hooked.
A 12‑year‑old with a fully developed brain still couldn’t win this fight. And 12‑year‑olds don’t have a fully developed brain. That’s not them being weak. That’s biology.
Phone‑free isn’t about distrusting kids. It’s about not handing kids a fight they can’t win. Real responsibility comes from removing the trap, not pretending it isn’t there.
Sources: Haidt, The Anxious Generation; U.S. Surgeon General Advisory, 2023
09
Doesn’t this just push the problem to home?
Yes. Phone‑free schools can’t fix phones at home. Bell‑to‑bell only solves the school‑day piece. The reason the school day is the right piece to solve first is that it’s the one block of time parents don’t directly control, and it’s the time when kids should be focused on learning anyway.
After‑school phone use is a parent‑and‑family question. It’s a real one. Many adopted districts pair the school policy with parent resources for home: Wait Until 8th, family device contracts, charging stations outside bedrooms. Schools can’t do that part. Parents can.
Sources: Wait Until 8th; Healthier Colorado parent resources
10
How do students themselves feel about it?
Mixed at first. Strongly positive after about a month. Every adopted‑district student survey shows the same arc: real pushback in weeks one and two, then a shift. Kids report relief at not having to keep up with the group chat during class. They say the cafeteria is louder. They say they’re sleeping better.
A San Mateo High School student summed up her year on the policy: It was distracting before. Now I actually talk to people.
The pushback is real, but it’s short. The change sticks. Districts that adopted bell‑to‑bell are now in their second and third years and have not rolled the policies back. They’ve doubled down.
Sources: San Mateo High School student survey; Garfield RE-2 “Less Tech, More Talk” implementation feedback
Organized by Colorado parents, educators, and health-focused nonprofits across the state.
Here's what you can do to support the phone-free schools movement.
A note from one parent shifts the room. A note from twenty changes the vote. The board reads everything that crosses its desk.