Seven public middle schools in Virginia will try a new program to ban student cellphones during the school day. Starting in the 2024-25 school year, students in certain Fairfax County schools will use a special pouch called a Yondr pouch to store their phones.
Each morning at school, students will lock their phones in these magnetic pouches and keep them in their backpacks until the end of the day. At the end of the day, they will use a special unlocking station to get their phones back.
Teachers will not use cellphones for class activities. If parents need to contact their child in an emergency, they can call the front office. If students forget their pouches, they must leave their phones in the front office during the school day.
The goal of this program is to create a learning environment without distractions from phones and social media. Studies show that students using phones during class learn less and get lower grades.
Fairfax County Public Schools said that while there are already rules against using phones in class, enforcing them takes time away from teaching. Locking phones away will allow teachers to focus more on teaching.
The schools involved are Frost Middle School, Irving Middle School, Jackson Middle School, Poe Middle School, Robinson Secondary School, Thoreau Middle School, and Twain Middle School.
This program follows an executive order by Governor Glenn Youngkin to create “cellphone-free education” in Virginia public K-12 schools. This action is partly due to concerns about youth mental health issues linked to social media and cellphone use.
Schools across the country have also tried using Yondr pouches to limit phone use in classrooms. Over the past eight years, school districts in 41 states have spent $2.5 million on these pouches, according to NBC News.