Lawco.News

When the first bell rings this fall, students across Indiana schools will lose access to personal phones, smartwatches, and similar devices for the entire school day. The devices must remain in lockers or locked storage until dismissal. This marks a clear expansion of earlier classroom restrictions.

Governor Mike Braun signed Senate Enrolled Act 78 earlier this year. The law requires schools to ban personal wireless devices throughout the instructional day, including lunch and passing periods. Districts may choose between a full no-device policy or secure storage systems. Limited exceptions exist for medical needs, IEPs, 504 plans, and emergencies. The state education department will issue model policies, but local schools will handle day-to-day enforcement.

The measure forms part of wider state efforts to counter the documented effects of constant device use on young people. Research consistently links heavy smartphone and social media use to higher rates of anxiety, depression, attention difficulties, and sleep problems. Many apps are built to hold attention through notifications, rewards, and social comparison, often crowding out focus and direct interaction. Indiana is one of more than two dozen states moving in this direction.

Indiana has also recorded multiple cases in which school bullying, spread or intensified through phones and social media, ended in tragedy. In Greenfield, 10-year-old Sammy Teusch faced repeated mockery and physical assaults at school and on the bus. Threats continued through Snapchat. His parents contacted the school about 20 times. He died by suicide. In Jennings County, 11-year-old Brooklyn Cook endured bullying and sexual harassment from classmates over two school years. Classmates sent her messages telling her to kill herself. Reports from her, her friends, and staff produced little effective response, according to a lawsuit filed by her family. She died by suicide in February 2025. Similar patterns appear in other districts, where digital sharing turned ordinary conflicts into constant, visible harassment that followed students home and back to school the next day.

Parents in these cases and others have pressed schools for stronger action to improve school culture and ensure consistent protection and accountability for every student. The bell-to-bell ban raises a direct question: Will removing personal devices during school hours reduce the real-time digital tools that have made bullying faster, more public, and harder for adults to contain?

The loudest objections have not come from students. They have come from some parents, including those who otherwise support limits on screens at home. Concerns center on emergencies, after-school coordination, and loss of immediate contact. Grandparents raising grandchildren have voiced similar worries. In many cases the resistance reflects habit more than evidence. Families have grown used to constant check-ins and location tracking. The policy removes that option during school hours.

Beyond the school day, the change could influence longer-term trends in attention and competitiveness. Rates of attention difficulties have risen sharply in recent generations at the same time as near-universal, early exposure to personal devices. Tech companies designed platforms and algorithms primarily to maximize user engagement and time on screen, with limited testing or restraint around effects on developing brains. Many Millennials and Gen Z adults now enter adulthood with measurable challenges in sustained focus, deep work, and face-to-face social navigation. These patterns affect workplace performance and social confidence. A reliable daily break from personal devices during school years could help protect and rebuild the capacity for attention in the next generation.

A central effect of the policy is the pressure it places on after-school time. Without the ability to text or monitor children throughout the day, parents will need to rely more on direct conversations and presence in the evening. For households accustomed to digital mediation, this shift can create discomfort. The device often served as both a safety net and a buffer against fuller engagement.

The policy does not end bullying or fix every problem in school culture. Much of the harm occurs outside school hours. Yet it removes a major accelerator that operates inside the building. Phones have allowed threats, videos, and group attacks to spread instantly among peers while adults are responsible for the environment. Earlier rules proved difficult to enforce. Stricter policies in other places have shown gains in student focus and fewer behavioral incidents during the day.

Parents do not need to fear the adjustment. Children adapted to constant connectivity; they can adapt to its absence during school hours. The change gives them space to develop focus and relationships without constant digital interruption. Let the child breathe.