Do Cellphone Bans Curb Teacher Burnout?

School cellphone bans may improve teacher well-being and stress levels, according to preliminary results from a new study.

The findings are from the first year of a multi-year study conducted by researchers at Kennesaw State University that examines the effects of a district’s middle school cellphone ban on teachers’ perceptions of their own well-being and their students’ engagement. The research has not yet been peer-reviewed.

However, the preliminary findings underscore an important aspect of school cellphone restrictions: the potential for these policies to improve teacher job satisfaction and retention, said Mei-Lin Chang, a professor of educational research and one of the researchers for the study. She’s been studying teacher burnout for two decades and she’s alarmed at how many veteran teachers who have devoted their careers to the classroom now say they want to switch jobs or retire early.

“What I’ve found in my other research where we look at teacher burnout [is that] a lot of them are saying the classroom dynamic is different,” now than the pre-smartphone era, she said. “Students are distracted, they’re not able to engage like the good old times.”

Chang and her team surveyed teachers from two middle schools in the Marietta City school district in Georgia in May, at the end of the district’s first year with a cellphone ban in place. The district requires middle schoolers to keep their smartphones and smartwatches locked in Yondr pouches for the entire school day. Exceptions are made for students with documented medical conditions.

Under a law signed this summer, all public schools in Georgia are required, by July 1, 2026, to enact policies that prohibit students in kindergarten through 8th grade from accessing their personal electronic devices during the school day. The Georgia law was passed after the two middle schools had already put cellphone bans in place.

Chang shared the early survey findings with Education Week in an interview.

The researchers found that 9 of every 10 teachers said the ban had helped them manage their classrooms and build stronger connections with students. Eighty-five percent said they felt the cellphone ban had overall improved their well-being— specifically, that they felt less stressed about teaching and more supported overall in their jobs. More than 8 in 10 reported that they found teaching to be more rewarding under the cellphone ban.

Cellphone bans can also have the reverse effect, some teachers have reported in separate surveys conducted by the EdWeek Research Center. The measures can cause logistical headaches for teachers when they are charged with enforcing them without adequate support from their schools’ administrators; when lack of buy-in from fellow teachers leads to inconsistent enforcement; or when there is no clarity around disciplinary steps for students who violate the policy.

“When you put more burden on teachers to implement the cellphone ban, then yes, we cannot guarantee there won’t be disruption,” Chang said. By locking students’ devices up in pouches when they enter the school building, teachers in Marietta schools are lifted from the burden of enforcing the policy. “Therefore, we see that overwhelming support from teachers,” said Chang.

Chang plans to follow up with teachers this school year to conduct qualitative interviews as well as another survey in May 2026.

Early research is showing the benefits of cellphone bans

The findings from the Kennesaw State University survey are similar to other studies that are also in the early stages. Research into their effectiveness is still emerging because cellphone bans are a relatively recent policy development, especially restrictions enacted at the state level.

Since 2023, at least 32 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws requiring school districts to ban or restrict cellphones, according to an Education Week analysis of state cellphone laws. (Additional states either incentivize or recommend local districts enact their own policies.)

Preliminary findings from a separate survey of teachers in a Texas high school found that teachers there reported improvements in student engagement and school culture as well as a decline in classroom management problems after a cellphone ban was implemented.

Early findings from an ongoing large-scale national survey project led by psychologist Angela Duckworth show that cellphone policies that require students to store their phones in locked pouches or in lockers are linked to students paying better attention in class, according to teachers. (Educators can take that survey here.)

Another analysis that has not yet gone through the peer review process found that in a large Florida school district, a cellphone ban improved students’ test scores and attendances rates in the second year of the measure. However, in the first year, school suspensions spiked, disproportionately affecting Black students, before mostly falling back to pre-ban levels in the second year.

While cellphone policies may make it easier for students to pay attention and learn, that’s only part of the equation, Chang said. Happy and satisfied teachers also improve student outcomes, she said.

“If we want to keep good teachers in the classroom, we have to trust them” when they say cellphones are a problem for them and their students, she said. “We need to take away that distraction so good teachers will remain teaching.”