Less than a year after Utah lawmakers passed a law restricting cellphones in schools, Gov. Spencer Cox wants them to take another bite of the apple and go all the way.
He wants K-12 students to be banned from using their devices for the entire school day. That’s known as a bell-to-bell ban.
“I lament that we did not get this done earlier,” Gov. Spencer Cox said, standing in the Gold Room of the Utah State Capitol to announce the proposed policy. “But we have an opportunity to fix what we got wrong last time and do it right this time.”
Last year’s legislation created a default ban on phones during instructional time, meaning students could still pull out their devices in the hallway and at lunch. While some school districts chose to be more restrictive, most went with the class-time prohibition.
“I am convinced more than ever that a bell-to-bell cellphone ban is the single most important thing that we can do for our students in our schools today,” Cox said.
The governor has been wanting this for a while. When he signed last year’s bill into law, Cox said the policy didn’t go far enough.
Cox and Republican bill sponsor Sen. Lincoln Fillmore said the response to last year’s law — from students, parents and teachers — has been overwhelmingly positive.
Emily Bell McCormick, president of The Policy Project, the group that ran a campaign in support of Fillmore’s bill last year, said Utah is ready for this next step because educators now have had a taste of phone-free classrooms.
“And students gained confidence that there really is life on the other side of a screen, and it's good,” McCormick said.
Avery Gonzales was a senior in Cache County last year and supported the law, which didn’t make her popular with her peers. After it was implemented, she said students and parents later came back and thanked her. They didn’t realize, she said, how much their screens were affecting them.
“Students have told me they feel less lonely, more connected and more like themselves,” Gonzales said. “Instead of scrolling alone, they are talking, laughing and finally, building real friendships.”
She added that passing a bell-to-bell ban gives students an even better space to focus, feel a sense of belonging and grow, both academically and socially.
Cox, Fillmore and McCormick all shared positive stories they’ve heard from schools that already have this full-day ban: more library books are checked out, fewer physical altercations, test scores are up, there’s more socialization during lunchtime and better attendance.
Like last year, this ban would also apply to smart watches. Exceptions to the prohibition are allowed, such as in an emergency. Schools can also allow for phones to be used for specific academic reasons.
The more expansive ban is needed, Cox said, because school is not just about what happens in the classroom. There’s also social learning that happens when students are at lunch or on the playground, looking each other in the eye and talking.
“This is how we develop the human brain, but also how we develop as human beings,” Cox said. “We need that development now more than ever, especially with the advent of artificial intelligence.”
Part of Cox’s urgency is his worry about what AI chatbots will do to people and their focus. He thinks it’ll be worse than social media.
Cox understands the pull students feel to their phones because he feels it too. The governor said he recently deleted social media from his phone and is trying to use his device less. He said he had an addiction to Twitter.
“What I didn't realize until I went through this exercise was how much of my focus had been stolen away.”
If it's a challenging fight for adults, Cox said, imagine how hard it is for kids. A bell-to-bell ban, he said, gives kids a break at least for the school day.
“We're not taking something away from our kids, we're giving them something,” Cox said. “We're giving them an education. We're giving them their focus, and we're giving them their childhood back.”
A phone ban, he noted, could also help with the state’s push to improve early literacy.
This isn’t the first time Utah has discussed a full-day phone ban. When Rep. Trevor Lee pitched the idea in 2023, he was met with pushback from his Republican majority colleagues and the bill died in committee.
Back then, if Utah had passed that bill, it would’ve been a trailblazer compared to other states. Now, 20 states, including D.C. and the Virgin Islands, have bell-to-bell bans, and Cox thinks Utah has fallen behind. Since 2023, the narrative around restricting cellphones in schools has shifted significantly.
The 2026 legislative session begins Jan. 20.
