Students at Caldwell Parish High School pick their phones up at the end of the school day on Friday, October 4, 2024.

While planning a field trip to a student-athlete leadership conference in September, Kassie Binkley doubted that her high schoolers could make it through the day without their cellphones, as their school district now requires.

So she was stunned when the teens not only survived the phone-less trip -- they seemed to love it.

"My kids played games while the rest of the kids picked up their phones during breaks," the Caldwell Parish High School physical education teacher said. "They were just more engaged the whole time."

Other educators -- and even some students -- are reporting similar positive experiences since a new state law took effect this school year requiring students to stow their phones away during the school day. Louisiana joins several other states that have recently restricted students' cellphone use, citing growing research on its negative impact on kids' brain development and mental health.

When Louisiana's law passed in May, some families and lawmakers were concerned the ban would make it harder for parents to reach their children during emergencies, and districts scrambled to figure out how to enforce the new restriction.

But a few months into the semester,

"Kids are paying attention in class," said Nicki McCann, superintendent of Caldwell Parish Schools. "They're talking to each other."

Emerging research suggests that too much screen time can harm developing brains, making kids more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety, shortening their attention spans and making them more impulsive.

Despite this, smartphone use among teens and tweens has skyrocketed in the last decade, with more than half of U.S. children getting the devices by age 11, according to a 2022 survey.

Now, educators say the phone restriction is helping some students flourish in the classroom.

"I'm seeing things that I have not seen in my 25 years teaching," said Tristen Guillory, an Ascension Parish algebra teacher. "Just the level at which these kids are learning."

An overall improvement

For many educators, getting rid of phones has made their jobs easier.

Under the previous state law, students could have cellphones in school, just not use them. Teachers had to try to catch kids furtively using their phones -- which wasn't easy.

Students were "taking them to the bathrooms, cheating in class, texting parents to come get them," said McCann, the Caldwell superintendent. "It was just crazy."

The new law says phones and other electronic devices must be "properly stowed away" or "prohibited from being turned on" during school. Districts must decide how to enact the law, including whether students can keep their turned-off phones in their backpacks or must turn them in to school staff.

In Caldwell, high schoolers now must keep their phones in their cars or hand them over to the front office before heading to class. The phones are stored in clear bags during the day and handed back before dismissal.

Binkley, the phys ed teacher, said the new policy has created consistency across classrooms and made it easier for staff to enforce.

"It used to be an argument," she said. The new rule "gets rid of all the discrepancy."

Ascension Parish requires kids to keep their phones off and in their bags during the day. Guillory, the algebra teacher, said she's seen a marked change under the new policy -- particularly in the lunchroom, where she had expected to catch the most infractions.

"I figured it was going to be a hot mess," she said, but instead students are following the new rules and seem to have embraced the ban. "Although they were resistant at first to the idea, I think a lot of them are relieved now."

In East Baton Rouge, one of the state's largest school systems, spokesman Perry Robinson said the district initially experienced a spike in infractions under the new policy this fall, though the number of students suspended for breaking the rules multiple times has remained roughly the same.

Like Ascension, the district requires students to keep their phones off and in their bags for the duration of the school day.

"Once parents heard about the law, a lot of them had conversations about it with their kids," Robinson said. Now, "everybody is complying."

Members of the Teachers' Advisory Council, a group of educators who advise the state education department on policy issues, also praised the ban at a recent meeting.

Students "no longer can text mom, 'Hey, I forgot my gym clothes,'" said Regena Beard, a teacher at Copper Mill Elementary in Zachary, adding that the change will force students to "become more responsible."

Allison McLellan, an English teacher at Belle Chasse High School, said getting rid of phones has helped kids' social skills.

"They need to know how to be people," she said. "They need to know how to make eye contact, how to have conversations."

Students embrace going phone-less

Some students are also on board with the ban.

Sophomore Charlotte DeClouet, who has experienced multiple bomb threats at her Lafayette high school, was initially worried she wouldn't be able to contact her parents during an emergency. But her fears were eased after the school allowed kids to keep their phones on them as long as they're off and in their bags.

"At the beginning, it was kind of weird and everyone wanted their phones back," she said, but now the ban is helping students stay on task. "It created a more productive learning environment."

Anna Kate Shaw, a senior at Caldwell High School, said she's finished three books since the start of the school year -- something she didn't think she would have done before phones were banned.

"A lot of my classmates and I were really upset" about the ban, she said. "But now, we've all noticed we're a lot more focused in class."

Still a work in progress

Still, there have been some hiccups as districts figure out what works.

Bernita Dunbar, an educator in Concordia Parish, said her district has struggled to enforce the ban, which she attributed to schools not adequately informing students about the new policy.

"In one class, I actually told the kids, 'You all know this is Louisiana law, right?'" she said during the teacher council meeting. "And they were like, 'No, we didn't know.'"

Shaw said the front office at her school sometimes misplaces students' phones, adding that some of her friends have had to wait a day or more before the school is able to locate their phones.

"I don't really like how our school system executes" the ban, she said.

And, of course, not all students are thrilled about having to relinquish their phones.

"It's always mixed reviews with kids," said Guillory, the Ascension Parish teacher. "Some people will say, 'Oh, it's dumb.'"

But Binkley said the only complaint she's heard is from students who relied on their phones to keep track of the time. Thankfully, she said, that problem was an easy fix.

"I was like, 'Oh my goodness, we really don't have a lot of functioning clocks,'" she said. "Most teachers have gotten clocks for their rooms now. But it was kind of funny."