ATLANTA — Next fall, every public elementary and middle school in Georgia will have to swim against the cultural tide by banishing cellphones.

It will be a major undertaking: nearly every teen in America has one, and they have grown up with addictive social media flashing across their screens.

Despite the size of the task, some schools have already checked it off their to-do list, and their experience can serve as an example for the rest of the state.

“It is going surprisingly better than we expected,” said John Pace, III, superintendent of the Henry County School District, which prohibited cellphone use in all schools when students returned from summer break a few weeks ago.

Pace’s district of 40,000 students south of Atlanta is a year ahead of the deadline set by a state law passed t

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