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The Governor’s Advisory Council for Student Safety and Wellbeing published their first report on June 3, 2025. According to a press release, the Advisory Council “recommends that North Carolina school systems establish policies that eliminate the use of personal communication devices, including cell phones, from the start to the end of the school day.”
The report, entitled “Best Practices Guide for North Carolina Public School Units (PSUs) Establishing Personal Communication Device Policies,” outlines best practices school leaders can use to develop and implement these policies.
“The guide developed by our Advisory Council on Student Safety and Well-Being provides school systems with evidence-based tools to build more focused classrooms and healthier schools. It reflects our commitment to swift, thoughtful action — and I’m excited to see how local leaders will use it to make the right decisions for their students and communities,” said Advisory Council Co-Chair and Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch, D-Wake, in the press release.
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The purpose of the Advisory Council, established by Gov. Stein earlier this year in an executive order, is to “propose and further implement solutions to promote school safety and improve student physical, social, and emotional well-being.”
The recommendation draws on research showing how normalized student cellphone use has become. According to the report, 88-95% of students between 12 and 18 years old have a smartphone. The 2023 NC Youth Risk Behavior Survey reported that 81% of high school students access social media at least several times a day.
The Advisory Council explains in their report that alongside this increase in student cellphone use is a decline in their mental health. Nationally, the percent of students reporting feeling sad or hopeless increased by 40% between 2009 and 2019.
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The report’s best practices guide outlines five key steps school leaders can use to design and implement a policy limiting electronic device use.
First, they recommend school leaders clarify the need for the policy to families and educators, highlighting how cellphones impact students’ lives. Starting implementation with discussion, according to the report, “allows educational leaders, students, and families to understand how personal communication devices, including cell phones, are impacting student health and learning during the school day.”
After building consensus on the benefits of limited cellphone use, school leaders can identify stakeholders to seek input from and decide on how to successfully engage them. This could be through surveys, focus groups, or town hall processes. The Advisory Council specifically points out, for example, that students are an important stakeholder whose feedback should be included in the policy’s design.
Third, the report outlines a handful of specific considerations to think through when iterating the policy’s design. Some of them include asking questions like:
- What specific types of communication devices will the policy include?
- What times will students not be allowed to use their personal device?
- What method will the school use to limit students’ access to their device? Will the devices be collected, or will students keep them in their possession?
- What are the necessary exemptions to the policy?
- What resources will the school need to put the policy in place?
- What are some anticipated challenges to policy implementation, and what is the plan to address those challenges?
Fourth, the report suggests that schools accompany their policy with digital literacy training for students and families. The report provides resources like Healthy Digital Habits from the American Academy of Pediatrics to emphasize the importance of supporting students’ digital literacy development outside of schools.
And last, schools should identify specific metrics they want to use to measure the success of their policy. This could include tracking attendance, reports of mental health concerns, or academic outcomes.
Some schools and districts in North Carolina that have already adopted policies limiting cellphones have shown positive results. Six schools in Chatham County, for example, participated in a pilot program during the 2024-25 school year that used Yondr pouches to magnetically seal students’ phones in pouches during school hours. Chatham County school administrators shared at the district’s March Board of Education meeting that the pilot led to not only improved student outcomes and behaviors, but also an increase in students’ overall engagement during instruction, lunch, and school clubs. Two more schools will join the pilot program next year.
This legislative session, the General Assembly introduced legislation to require school districts to adopt policies limiting students’ cellphone use. House Bill 959, originally a bill on social media literacy that was amended to include language requiring districts to ban cellphone use during class time with a few exceptions, is now waiting on a vote in the House. If it passes, the bill will go to the governor for his signature.
The executive order establishing the Advisory Council listed the recommendation and accompanying best practices as the council’s first duty. Now, the council will move to examine other issues related to student wellbeing, such as school violence prevention, behavioral health needs, and non-exclusionary disciplinary interventions.
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