UFT Could Support Citywide
School Cell Phone Ban

UFT President Michael Mulgrew said city educators could support a citywide ban on student cell phones provided four key safeguards are part of any new city policy:

• Educators are not the first or sole line of enforcement.
• The NYC Department of Education's central bureaucracy pays for the cost, not individual schools.
• Enforcement is consistent, fair, and uniform.
• Schools have emergency contact lines set up for parents. 

"Teachers know first-hand that cell phones waste classroom time and threaten students' mental and physical health,” Mulgrew said. 

“We don't want a ban that wastes more instructional time by having individual educators asked to collect every class's cell phones, or has school communities having to choose between buying new lab equipment or cell phone pouches and lockers," Mulgrew said.

“Parents need to be brought into the discussions, so they feel comfortable with any changes," he said. 

Mulgrew will be sharing the UFT's position this Friday at a statewide conference on the impact of cell phones on students organized by the union's state affiliate, NYSUT.

The United Federation of Teachers conducted a snapshot cell phone survey of teachers and other members in July and early August 2024 and received 3,685 responses from 1,175 schools.

• 63% supported a citywide ban;
• 31% were opposed;
• % neutral.

• 49% of the schools already had a ban of some sort in place

• Among UFT members whose schools had bans,
• 38% called the ban a success;
• 40% said it was a failure.

• 70% of educators in schools that already have a ban said they would support a citywide prohibition.

Educators who called their own school's cell phone ban a failure blamed a lack of planning and organization.

For elementary schools, keeping phones in backpacks and turned off worked best, according to the survey results.

For middle and high schools, collecting phones as students walked into the school building worked the best.  Cell phone lockers drew the most support. Cell phone pouches drew mixed reviews because students figured out how to open early models, and were still carrying them around the school building.

Educators recommended school communities be allowed to figure out a process that works best, but said early and clear communication with parents, students, and staff was the only way to make a new policy work.

Mulgrew said the union's position was that any citywide policy needed to incorporate what was found to have worked among the individual schools that created their own policy.