Another reason to keep cellphones out of classrooms

Schools have long declared themselves to be gun-free zones. It’s time to make them cellphone-free zones as well.

In October, the National Bureau of Economic Research released a paper on Florida’s cellphone ban in schools, which began two years ago. That allowed David Figlio, a University of Rochester economics professor, and Umut Özek, a senior economist with the RAND Corporation, to study its effects. Florida’s data is particularly useful. Unlike most states, Florida tests students three times a year and has information on daily discipline.

Initially, the ban produced a spike in suspensions. The authors found that the “suspension rate more than doubled in the month after disciplinary enforcement started compared to the month before and was 25 percent higher compared to the same month in