Texas School District Cell Phone Bans
Early Indicators of Improved Academic Outcomes Research Question: Do recently released TEA ratings for the 2024-25 school year show any improvement for districts who implemented cell phone bans prior to that period? Earlier this summer, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law House Bill 1481 1 , requiring “all school systems to adopt and implement a policy prohibiting the use of personal communication devices by students on school property during the school day,” 2 to take effect on September 1st of this year. This makes Texas the 9th state in the nation to do so 3 ; some 31 others have similar measures under consideration. There has been increasing popular support for such legislation. In Texas districts which implemented such measures prior to this year, initial feedback from stakeholders is overwhelmingly positive. In Houston, for example, district officials cite a 20.9% decline in disciplinary incidents for the 2024-25 school year, which they attribute largely to the ban on stu...