The 2025 school year began with students all over New York City departing with an important, all-consuming device - their cellphones.
Governor Kathy Hochul in May signed an amendment to the state's Education Law 2803, which restricts the use of phones during the school day.
“New York was the first state to target addictive social media feeds — and now we’re the largest state to restrict smartphones in schools throughout the entire school day,” Hochul said at the time. “I know our young people succeed when they’re learning and growing, not clicking and scrolling — and that’s why New York continues to lead the nation on protecting our kids in the digital age.”
The ban on the digital distraction is implemented differently at each high school, but many schools in Brooklyn ask their students put their phones in a pouch, have it scanned, and give it to school staff.
Tarah Montalbano, the principal at William E. Grady CTE High School in Brighton Beach, said her staff was thrilled with the policy.
"We were already collecting phones and banning them in the classroom," she said. "The students were using them in class and that disrupted instruction, and there were safety concerns because the kids would plan fights."
Grecian Harrison, the principal of Boys and Girls High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant, said her school began collecting phones in 2016.
"We were creating an environment of responsible, social interaction," Harrison said. "The purpose of being in school is to be productive citizens and become critical thinkers. They were actually complying, and the students understood phones can be distracting."
Early this month, Hochul's office released a survey where 350 school administrators statewide responded to a questionnaire on how the ban was proceeding. Of the respondents, 92% said their schools easily became distraction-free learning places, while 83% reported that students paid more attention in class and interacted better with their classmates and teachers.
Many Brooklyn high school students echoed what the survey found.
"I'm more focused in class and my grades went up," said Yieng Yan, a sophomore at New Utrecht High School in Bensonhurst.
Amir Roberts, a junior at Millennium High School in Park Slope, said he now talks to people that he didn't last year. "I'm not on my phone and not isolated this year," he added.
However, Terrance Chew, a New Utrecht High School sophomore, had a less positive view.
"It's so boring," he said. "I mostly talk to friends and that's it. And I use my laptop to go online. The deans really don't care."
Students told BK Reader that some of their classmates have snuck around the ban by slipping in a second phone or a piece of cardboard in place of a phone in the pouch. And some noted their mixed feelings about the ban, such as not knowing about family emergencies unless their parents call the school.
Miguel Jackson, a junior at Millennium Brooklyn, is worried about not having a phone if there is a school shooting.
"I'm scared that I won't be able to contact my parents while the school is being shot up," he said.
Hope Rivera, a sophomore at Park Slope Collegiate, said she would rather talk to her family on the phone than staff about family issues. But one positive outcome is that fights during school hours are not recorded and shared.
"I was in a fight last year," Rivera said. "The video of it from people's phones spread online. Now fights aren't recorded, and no one knows as quickly."
