A bell-to-bell ban on cellphones in schools was signed into law by Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Monday.
“Our administration did a survey back in 2025 and found that a quarter of students reported using their phones to check on social media for four hours a day during the school day. That’s not OK. It’s distracting, and that’s not going to promote learning and growing when they are out scrolling,” Shapiro said as he signed the bill at a school in Bucks County.
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The mobile device policy puts into law that schools must make a policy disallowing phone use during the school day by the 2027-28 school year. Exceptions are carved out in the bill for several groups of students.
Those exceptions would be made for:
Students or immediate family members who have a medical condition that requires use of a phoneStudents with an individualized education program and a phone is part of the accommodationsStudents who use phones for translation purposesPrincipals who make special exceptions
The bill was approved by the state Legislature last week. State Sen. Devlin Robinson, who represents District 37 in Allegheny County, was the prime sponsor.
Hear more from Gov. Shapiro and Pennsylvania state lawmakers tonight on Pittsburgh’s Action News 4, starting at 4 p.m.
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