Study finds school phone bans raise student well-being but not test scores

Public support for all-day school phone bans climbs to 48 percent

The Stanford- and NBER-affiliated study examined schools that lock student phones in Yondr pouches. It found the share of students using phones in class for personal reasons dropped from 61% to 13% — despite reports of students cutting through pouches or putting in decoy phones. Those workarounds amounted to only a small percentage of cases.

The policy’s effect on students themselves took time to materialize. The first year of a ban typically produced disruption as students adjusted, according to the study. Decreased disciplinary problems and increased student well-being — measured by survey questions about students’ feelings of happiness, excitement, sadness and frustration — emerged only in the second year.

Academic effects were more limited. After three years — the longest stretch in the study — schools saw close to no change in test scores, the researchers found. There was also little effect on self-reported classroom attention; students may have shifted the attention they once paid to their phones to interacting with friends, daydreaming, or watching YouTube on their school laptops, the researchers suggested. The study found little evidence of impact on school attendance, chronic absenteeism, or online bullying.

“The latest findings show a disconnect between the hype behind school phone bans and the reality,” said Jason Baron, an assistant professor of economics at Duke University and one of the study authors.

“Test scores are a difficult outcome to move because they’re a function of many things both inside and outside of school,” Baron said. “If your goal is to increase student well-being, you might be encouraged by this. But if you care about test scores, you might be disappointed that three years out we’re not seeing gains.”

Earlier findings had been more encouraging. Initial data from a large Florida school district pointed to small gains in test scores and a drop in disciplinary actions linked to phone bans. But as more states adopted bans and more time passed, a clearer picture emerged.

Public support has kept pace with the legislation. A 2025 Pew survey found a majority of adults believed all-day bans would improve students’ grades, social skills and classroom behavior — expectations the new study suggests have not been borne out for academic outcomes. The Pew Research Center survey released this summer found 48% of American adults now favor all-day bans, up from 36% two years ago.