Schools that banned phones saw surprising results beyond fewer distractions

When one Florida school district banned cellphones, disciplinary issues initially spiked as schools worked to enforce the new rule. By the second year, however, suspension rates returned to normal and test scores rose significantly, according to a new study published this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research. According to the researchers, student scores in the school district notably increased by "about 2-3 percentiles" in the second year of ban compared to year before the ban. The rise in test scores followed what researchers described as "a significant jump in student disciplinary incidents and suspensions" immediately after "the transition period in the first year of the ban when the district started referring students for disciplinary action due to cellphone use infraction