As the bell rings to start a new period at Green Hope High in Cary, students settle into Harrison Miller's earth science class. Hanging on the wall by the door is a set of small numbered pouches, most of them already holding a student's phone.
"Anyone who still hasn't put their cell phone up, please at this time, get it done," Miller reminds his students, and a few stragglers bring up their phones and place them in a pouch.
Principal Alison Cleveland says this is how every class has started here for more than a year, and the school is seeing the benefits.
"Teachers noted an increase in student engagement in their learning, which is what we want," Cleveland said. "If they're talking about (what they're) learning to each other, then they are going to learn."
Cleveland says her administrative team did research into brain science and how phones affect students' attention and mental health before initiating this policy school-wide last fall. She says consistency across all classrooms made it easier to enforce.
Now the school district and state are also making it standard. By January, a new state law will require school districts across North Carolina to restrict students’ cell phone use.
"It does make it easier for us to say, 'Nope, this is state law or this is board policy,'" Cleveland said. "But we were doing it anyway. And honestly, once the kids get into the routine, they just do it."
Students weigh in, after their school restricted cell phones all last year
Eleventh grader London Florence-Baker and 12th grader Ian Morris say students were initially resistant, occasionally arguing with teachers, or simply hiding their phones.
"Definitely, people were trying to find ways around the phone policy," Florence-Baker said.
"People would bring their old phones into school and then put their old phone in there, and then just keep their phone in their pocket," Morris explained.
They said teachers quickly caught on to these strategies and enforced more consequences. Florence-Baker and Morris agree it took about a semester for students to feel like it was normal to put their phones away. Then they started to see the benefits too.
"Everyone's just staying focused more, staying on task, collaborating with each other," Morris said.
"I've definitely met more people being off my phone and actually paid attention to who was around me and what was going on," Florence-Baker said.
Florence-Baker added, it's also making her less anxious at school than before.
"I was kind of just more worried about who was texting me, and responding to people who are in different schools where they're having their passing periods," Florence-Baker explained. "So now I'm not really worried about it, because I know everybody doesn't have their phone."
Wake County Schools tried to anticipate the law with new restrictions this fall, but will have to tweak its policy
Those are just some of the outcomes state lawmakers and school boards were hoping for. The new state law passed with bipartisan support in the legislature and a signature from Gov. Josh Stein.
The Wake County Board of Education was already discussing its own policy last year, trying to anticipate the bill as it moved toward becoming law. School board chair Chris Heagerty said they were looking at policies in other districts around the country.
"Some were complete bans. Others required the districts to use these signal canceling pouches for all of the students. There are a lot of different options," Heagerty said. "Ultimately the direction the state legislature took really pushed us in the direction that we did ultimately go in."
The district's nine member board had a range of opinions about how restrictive to be. But from talking to state lawmakers, it became apparent to the board that the state was leaning toward a more complete ban.
Heagerty said he was concerned about keeping exceptions for students who need devices for personal reasons, like students learning English who might use translation apps or students who track their blood sugar. The law builds in exceptions like those as well as for emergencies.
But Heagerty said there's one big difference between the new state law and the policy Wake County Schools passed for this year.
"Our board had decided to simply have devices put away, and the law requires these devices to be turned off," Heagerty said.
The Wake County school board chose to require students to keep their phones on silent, after parents gave feedback that they wanted to be able to message their child or track their location.
But by January, Wake County Schools will have to abide by the state law, along with other districts. Heagerty noted that districts in other states with complete cell phone bans have seen positive outcomes, but some board members had concerns about the tradeoffs.
"I don't know that we have much of a choice," Heagerty said.
Students say the law's requirement to turn phones off could cause unintended consequences
Students London Florence-Baker and Ian Morris said they think their school's current policy is better than the new law.
"I like what we have now, but I just don't think turning the phone off the whole day would be beneficial," Morris said.
"Umm, that's a little bit much in my opinion, because when you turn your phone off, your notifications are not going through," Florence-Baker said.
She said students might rush to turn their phones on between classes if they're allowed. If students have to turn their phones off all school day, she said students may have trouble reaching their parents to coordinate changes to after-school activities. That distinction isn't clear in state law, which says students' phones must be turned off during instructional time — how that gets interpreted might come down to decisions by school boards.
But the one thing the students do like about the law is that they think their classmates will be more likely to follow it.
"Rather than just, 'Oh, my teacher said put it up,' like they might not take that seriously, it's the law. You have to put your phone away," Morris said.
