Texas A&M Health reports that Texas’ new limits on cell phones for students during the school day are allowing teachers to “reclaim lost attention.”
Lawmakers passed House Bill 1481 in 2025 which requires “all school systems to adopt and implement a policy prohibiting the use of personal communication devices by students on school property during the school day.”
According to A&M’s research, despite initial anxiety from teachers, parents, and students about the new statewide requirement, concerns quickly abated leaving teachers more energy to focus on educating students.
“There was this palpable anxiety on campus for weeks leading up to the school cellphone ban about how we were going to enforce it, but by the end of day one, it was just a total breath of fresh air,” said Rachel Bailey, an 11th-grade history teacher for College Station Independent School District.
Bailey reported noticing students beginning to interact with each other more after the start of the ban. She said students began utilizing card games, Sudoku printouts, and coloring sheets during down time, where previously they would be on their phones.
School psychologist Israel Arevalo, a research assistant at the Texas A&M Health Telehealth Institute, reported “baseline anxiety” among teachers, students, and parents and suggested that in students this could be attributed to “digital withdrawal.”
Arevalo also explained that “research has shown that increased screen time is associated with a greater likelihood of children developing socioemotional difficulties as well as decreased social skills.”
This is an issue Bailey says has occurred in her classroom, where she has often had to remind her high school students of “classroom expectations and how to maintain respect.”
“It’s like the basics of classroom interaction called for a kind of brain reset,” Bailey said. “They forgot how to interact in a classroom appropriately because they hadn’t really been doing it.”
Bailey reported that she and her U.S. history teaching team have noticed better scores since the ban, as well as less drama in the hallways, fewer physical fights, and that those “who diligently put their phones away are just visibly brighter, happier and less worn down.”
Arevalo says that parental oversight regarding screen time outside of school hours plays a key role in students’ adjustment, warning that excessive screen time in the after-school hours may diminish positive results.
Texas A&M noted that because the law is relatively new, there is not yet long-term data available, but highlights that one of the immediate benefits is “opportunities to reclaim lost attention.”
Earlier this month, Gov. Greg Abbott proposed to further limit the use of 1-on-1 devices such as laptops and tablets in the classroom, and instead “put greater emphasis on physical materials, handwriting, and direct teacher instruction.”
