Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed a ban on smartphones in Michigan classrooms into law Tuesday.
State Representative Mark Tisdel (R-Rochester Hills) co-sponsored the legislation. He said phones have gotten in the way of learning and have caused more distractions in schools.
“They’re intentionally addictive. The algorithms driving the social media sites are meant to bring you back and keep you on, and they’re monetizing our kids’ attention and turning them into valuable data points that they can sell,” Tisdel told reporters Tuesday after a bill-signing event.
The law creates a base-level statewide policy for districts to follow when it comes to handling phones in schools. It only applies to instructional time in public and charter K-12 schools, but districts can pass their own stricter bans if they’d like.
Some school systems already have.
Carcia Young is a math teacher at Waverly High School near Lansing. She said keeping phones out of school has made a big difference for her classroom.
“When students are fully present, they participate more, retain more, and achieve more. This is not about punishment or taking something away, it’s about protecting the learning environment so students can focus on what matters most,” Young said.
The law provides exceptions for basic phones, medical devices, and the use of smartphones and tablets when lessons call for them.
The bills passed in the state Legislature with wide bipartisan support after previously struggling to get across the finish line. Part of the reignited effort came after Whitmer called for lawmakers to ban phones in school during her State of the State address last year.
Like Tisdel, State Senator Dayna Polehanki (D-Livonia) said she wanted to answer the call. She said phones have been a hard-to-ignore distraction for both students and teachers.
“It disrupts everyone’s flow, it disrupts the educational process. And so now we have the weight of a state law behind what I think everyone can agree upon, which is that cell phones don’t belong in the classroom during instruction,” Polehanki said.
Several other states, including Florida and New York, have already restricted or banned phone use in schools.
