{"id":427175,"date":"2026-08-08T06:54:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/427175\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T06:54:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:54:23","slug":"california-phone-free-schools-act-bay-area-schools-are-enforcing-cellphone-bans-on-campus-amid-new-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/427175\/","title":{"rendered":"California Phone-Free Schools Act: Bay Area schools are enforcing cellphone bans on campus amid new law"},"content":{"rendered":"

As students return to school, public school districts across California are implementing new policies limiting cellphone use under a state law that took effect this summer.<\/p>\n

The California Phone-Free Schools Act requires public schools to either ban or restrict the use of smartphones and other smart devices on campus.<\/p>\n

School districts across the Bay Area have adopted varying approaches as the new rules take effect.<\/p>\n

Oakland Unified School District has adopted one of the strictest policies, requiring students to lock up their phones for the entire school day.<\/p>\n

“We just want to make sure that the kids are focused in classroom. They’re focused on their studies. They’re interacting with their peers. They’re talking and engaging with their staff, teachers, etc. So, we just want to make sure that we’re getting rid of the distractions and keeping kids really on task,” Oakland Unified Communications Director John Sasaki said.<\/p>\n

MORE: ‘Get off your phones’: Surgeon general advisory calls on kids to cut screen time<\/a><\/p>\n

San Jose Unified School District implemented its cellphone policy last year, before the statewide requirement took effect. The district enforces a bell-to-bell ban on smartphones, smartwatches and smart glasses on its campuses, including Lincoln High School.<\/p>\n

Under the policy, students are not required to lock up their phones. However, devices must be turned off and stored in backpacks before arriving on campus or they may be confiscated.<\/p>\n

District officials said student input helped shape the policy. Principal Aaron Lilly said the results have been encouraging.<\/p>\n

“When I first heard about this, I’m like, ‘OK, this is going to be tough. Are we able to do this?’ Now, we see more students being able to focus more in class and then when they’re out during brunch, lunch passing period, we’ve seen behavioral issues drop quite a bit,” Lilly said.<\/p>\n

MORE: Petaluma school district considers universal phone ban, but students not convinced it will work<\/a><\/p>\n

Not everyone supports the restrictions.<\/p>\n

One mother said the policy creates safety concerns after her daughter was unable to contact her following an anxiety attack.<\/p>\n

“Give them some kind of consequence, put them on contract, you know, things like that. But to take it away from them entirely, there’s a lot of safety concerns that arise,” Jeannette Munguia said.<\/p>\n

San Francisco Unified School District has adopted a policy similar to San Jose Unified’s.<\/p>\n

As schools adjust to the new requirements, students, parents and educators alike are adapting to new limits on technology use during the school day.<\/p>\n

\"Now<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As students return to school, public school districts across California are implementing new policies limiting cellphone use under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[170175,7,9,8],"class_list":["post-427175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-170175","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}