School phone bans are working in Toronto elementary schools—and failing in high schools

This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Concerns that phones and social media are harming student learning and youth mental health have pushed school systems across Canada and the United States to restrict student phone use. Are the restrictions working?

We asked elementary and secondary teachers in Canada's largest school district, in collaborative research conducted with Elementary Teachers of Toronto and Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation Toronto. This isn't the first or even second time the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has attempted to ban phones. In 2007, to combat student texting, the TDSB banned phones from schools.

Research at the time found the policy was inconsistently implemented, as teachers who attempted to enforce it received little support from parents and school administrators. The ban was dropped in 2011. In 2019, the TDSB and its provincial counterparts tried again.

The outcome was the same: inconsistent enforcement, unsupported teachers and no real classroom change. In 2024, the TDSB recommitted to a ban, stating cell phone use is not beneficial to learning and "appears to be creating significant harm to children and teens, in terms of mental health, well-being and academic success." Under the new TDSB policy, students in Grade 6 and earlier grades must not access their phones for the entire school day. Approaches to handling this varied by school and classroom.

For students in Grades 7 to 12, access is restricted during instructional time. Students who break the rules are supposed to hand in their device, with failure to comply resulting in a visit to the principal's office. So how has it gone this time?

To find out, we surveyed 350 secondary and 892 elementary teachers from across the TDSB. Our results, which have been submitted for presentation at academic conferences and will be submitted for publication later this year, revealed a sharp divide between elementary and secondary schools. More than 70% of elementary teachers reported that rules were consistently enforced at their school; only 44% of secondary teachers said the same.