The buzz of notifications in a back pocket. A text sent below the desk. A snap. A like.
All these daily interruptions from cellphones will soon disappear for Vermont K-12 students when the state’s bell-to-bell ban on the devices takes effect in the 2026-27 school year.
And some students are unhappy about it.
“You’re coming in right out of the gate, and you’re expecting that we won’t be able to self-regulate,” said Isa Harrington, a rising 11th grader at South Burlington High School.
For kids, phones are an integral part of life that keeps them connected, Harrington said. “It’s just a part of culture. Everyone has one.”
A few school districts have already instituted phone policies. But with Act 72, which Gov. Phil Scott signed in June, Vermont has become the 29th state to ban or restrict cellphone use in schools.
Advocates for the ban argue that it’s precisely the ubiquitous presence of the technology that makes the rules necessary. They cite the damaging effects of excessive social media use on teens and the value of giving them a break from what has become a constant distraction.
Rep. Angela Arsenault (D-Williston), a member of the Vermont Coalition for Phone and Social Media-Free Schools, pushed for the legislation. She said it will compel “what is, for some, a very difficult separation from a product that they have, unfortunately and by design, become addicted to.”
Starting in fall 2026, all schools are required to implement an arrival-to-dismissal policy for personal electronic devices. Policies can make exceptions for cellphone use outlined in a student’s health care plan, individualized education plan or 504 plan, or to comply with federal guidelines for homeless students. The new Vermont law also prohibits schools from communicating directly with students through social media, starting immediately.
In 2024, Harwood Union High School in Duxbury was one of the first Vermont schools to go phone-free. The policy, which requires students to slide their phones in special pouches with magnetic locks during schooltime, created a change in the social climate, administrators and students said.
“I was hanging out with people that I wouldn’t normally” after the ban, said Eliana Buckingham, a 2025 Harwood graduate, who noticed more student interaction across the school. “In the cafeteria, it was louder, more rowdy.”
Some students at Thetford Academy saw similar changes when the Upper Valley independent school went phone-free in the 2024-25 school year, using the same magnetic pouches. “People spent a lot more time talking or finding more wholesome ways to spend their time,” said Isaac Yukica, a 2025 graduate.
The new state legislation will largely standardize cellphone policies across Vermont. Current rules vary widely, not just from school to school but also from classroom to classroom.
At Burlington High School, students are supposed to store their phones in caddies hanging on a door during class time.
“Some teachers don’t care at all,” 10th grader Tegan Bushey said. “Others are very, very strict about it.”
Burlington isn’t alone in its patchwork practices, according to students and teachers at other schools. In South Burlington, high school classrooms have storage boxes called “phone homes” for students to place their devices in during lessons, but Harrington, the South Burlington junior, said the practice wasn’t strictly enforced last school year.
Essex High School takes a more relaxed approach. Cellphones go into phone caddies only during class time. Even then, some teachers allow them to remain in backpacks.
Essex High School principal Donald Van Nostrand said students can use phones for educational activities in the classroom. He said he wants students to learn to use them as an educational tool when appropriate.
Some educators, though, said uneven enforcement is problematic. Erin Kranichfeld, an Essex High School teacher, has heard some students express frustration with teachers’ varying practices.
“When there is no consistency across the building, it’s confusing for students,” Kranichfeld said. “There is a lot less emotional engagement with their peers” when students have their devices handy.
Champlain Valley Union High School is implementing a new cellphone ban this coming school year. Students will have to store their phones in envelopes during the school day. Principal Katherine Riley said she hopes to see the positive changes other schools have experienced. “There’s the opportunity to create a different social climate,” she said.
The Vermont Coalition for Phone and Social Media-Free Schools includes educators, students, parents, health care providers, legislators and community members. A representative from the coalition, as well as reps for the Vermont School Boards Association and the Vermont Independent Schools Association, will work with the secretary of education to develop a model policy by January 1. School boards can set their own policies as long as they are at least as strict as the state’s.
Arsenault, the state representative who supported the ban, was clear about the approach she’d like to see schools take: “Phones should be stored away and inaccessible to students.”
For some students, that level of restriction causes concern. Aidyn Peters-Smith, a South Burlington junior, said she uses her phone to figure out how she and her younger sister will get home after school.
“I don’t like not being able to communicate with other people,” she said.
Peters-Smith added that students should learn to control themselves when it comes to screen use, rather than have controls imposed on them.
“If they have the chance to use their phone and they decide not to do it, I think that’s better than just constantly being forced not to,” she said.
To Yukica, the Thetford policy provides a needed intervention to help students build healthy social media habits.
“People who don’t have their phone throughout the day or for extended periods of time are so much better at regulating their use because they learn not to be dependent on it,” he said. “Social media is an extremely addictive thing, and it’s not reasonable to expect us to be able to manage that on our own.”
The original print version of this article was headlined “Phone Free-for-All | Students sound off on new statewide cellphone ban”
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This article appears in Kids VT, Back to School 2025.
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