{"id":315177,"date":"2026-10-27T08:44:30","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T08:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/315177\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T08:44:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T08:44:30","slug":"pa-gov-shapiro-signs-statewide-school-phone-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/315177\/","title":{"rendered":"PA Gov. Shapiro signs statewide school phone ban"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? <a href=\"#Section1\">Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>Gov. Josh Shapiro has officially banned all personal mobile devices in Pennsylvania schools, joining 26 other states in adopting a bell-to-bell restriction statewide.\n<\/p>\n<p>Shapiro signed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.palegis.us\/legislation\/bills\/2025\/sb1014\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Senate Bill 1014<\/a> into law Monday morning at Lenape Middle School in Bucks County, where such a policy has already been in place for several years.\n<\/p>\n<p>The law comes amid growing concern over young people\u2019s mental health, as rates of anxiety, depression and even suicide are on the rise, even among elementary-age children.\n  <\/p>\n<p>When phones, kids and schools combine, challenges often follow. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/short-reads\/2024\/06\/12\/72-percent-of-us-high-school-teachers-say-cellphone-distraction-is-a-major-problem-in-the-classroom\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pew Research<\/a> study found that 72% of high school teachers and 33% of middle school teachers said cell phones in class were a \u201cmajor problem\u201d and that enforcing building policies was a challenge.\n<\/p>\n<p>At the bill signing, Shapiro\u2019s podium had a sign that read, \u201cGetting Distractions Out of the Classroom.\u201d He said the ban will impact all public, private, charter and cybercharter schools statewide, and each district must adopt a specific means of enforcing the ban before the 2027-28 school year begins next fall.\n<\/p>\n<p>He framed the law as a \u201ccommon sense\u201d way to improve student well-being and academic performance. Though some may be upset about the change, they tend to adjust quickly, he said at the press conference.\n<\/p>\n<p>The governor\u2019s two youngest children, who are in tenth and twelfth grade, were initially dismayed by his plan to ban phones and \u201cgave me a hard time for months,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n<p>But when their school implemented the policy, they got used to it within about a week, Shapiro said.\n<\/p>\n<p>He said the bell-to-bell ban will improve students\u2019 academic performance, as well as their social skills, mental health and ability to enjoy their school years. Even lunch periods and minutes between classes are a \u201creally critical developmental time,\u201d Shapiro said.\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8579,28,223,30,29,108215],"class_list":["post-315177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-cell-phones","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-education","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-smartphones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}