As students return to school, the leaders of Colorado’s K-12 districts are considering how they might limit cellphone use in schools — including whether to ban the devices outright — to meet a 2026 deadline set by a newly enacted state law .

Such restrictions have grown in popularity nationwide as more research shows phones and social media negatively affect students’ mental health and academic outcomes.

But Denver-area districts have been slow to ban phones from the classroom, with educators saying they can be both a distraction and an educational tool depending on how they’re used.

“There are a lot of ways (a ban) can go right and there are a lot of ways it can go wrong,” Denver Public Schools Deputy Superintendent Tony Smith said. “…We want to use technology, but also we have to

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