Students at Brighton High, Olympus High and Skyline High started the 2026-27 school year without cellphones under Utah's new bell-to-bell ban.

The law prohibits student cellphone use at all times during school hours, including passing periods and lunch. It replaced the 2025 law under Senate Bill 178, which still allowed phones between classes.

Districts can opt out, but they must act deliberately. State Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, who sponsored the legislation, told the Deseret News that districts wanting to overrule the ban must do so proactively. Fillmore also helped pass a companion bill requiring districts to track student usage on state-provided devices.

Neither Canyons nor Granite district has opted out.

What the research shows

A Sept. 8 Deseret News feature compiled peer-reviewed findings on screen time and learning. A 2025 study by Australian researchers in the journal Psychological Bulletin found short-form video exposure was linked to poorer cognition in attention, language and memory. Research in the journal Dialogues of Clinical Neuroscience identified potential harms including heightened attention-deficit symptoms, technology addiction and disrupted sleep.

The findings do not all cut one way. A 2026 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found students using Khan Academy for about 30 minutes per week improved their math abilities by more than eight percentile points.

Rich Nye, senior education adviser to Gov. Spencer Cox, told the Deseret News the challenge is one of balance, calling technology powerful when used appropriately and equally devastating when misused.

Local results and policy moves

Granite School District already has early data. Granger High School adopted a bell-to-bell ban using Yondr locking pouches before the state mandate. In its first year, the school recorded its lowest student failure rates in five years and a 50% decrease in campus fights, according to the Holladay Journal.

On Aug. 4, the Granite School District Board of Education voted 6-0, with one member absent, on a first reading updating its electronic devices policy to conform to state law. The updated policy requires each school to designate an area where devices may be used during non-instructional time.

Julie Jackson, the Granite board member representing Holladay and Millcreek, said in a May interview with the Holladay Journal that enforcement is the real test. "We've had great success with taking cellphones out of our schools," Jackson said. "The key is to create a successful environment of enforcement for the school staff. It's one thing to pass a law, it's another thing to enforce it."

Jackson announced at the Aug. 4 meeting that she will resign her board seat effective Dec. 31 after winning a state House primary unopposed.

Students already pushing the message

Before the ban took effect, Hillcrest High School's HOSA chapter brought the screen-time message directly to Brighton High and Union Middle School in June. The student-led "Reboot Reality" team distributed more than 800 phone-holding bags, as we reported June 11.

Hillcrest sophomore Shreya Mehta described the shift she saw at her own school in that report, saying students who once walked the halls scrolling between classes were now off their phones and greeting each other.

Utah is part of a national wave. As of Aug. 5, 36 states had enacted measures banning or limiting cellphone use in K-12 schools, according to Newsweek, citing Ballotpedia data.

The Granite board's second reading of its updated electronic devices policy has not yet been scheduled.