In February 2023, Shauna Haney, the principal of the 1,130-student Ogden High School north of Salt Lake City, was looking for ways to boost student engagement in class. As in schools nationwide, students were paying less attention to their teachers after they returned to the building following pandemic school closures. And students whipping out cellphones in the middle of class wasn鈥檛 helping.
鈥淲e looked at some data from where we鈥檙e getting the most write-ups or referrals, 鈥� and it was all to do with electronics,鈥� Haney said. 鈥淚f they鈥檙e on their phone, they鈥檙e not actively engaged in the learning process.鈥�
While the school already prohibited cellphone use during instructional time, tired teachers still had to constantly police students.
If they're on their phone, they're not actively engaged in the learning process.
Haney first reached out to all 60-plus teachers and counselors and learned that while they wanted a new cellphone policy, they were worried about enforcing it. Their top concern: They didn鈥檛 want to wrestle phones out of students鈥� hands.
Haney and other school leaders also briefed the parent council on their plans.
Click through to see what Haney and her team decided to do.
After a student has their cellphone taken to the office the first time, a second infraction means a parent has to come to school to collect the phone. A third infraction leads to a parent meeting with an administrator to address the reasons why the student continues to violate the policy.
Parents were initially resistant to the new policy鈥攖hey felt going cold turkey by banning cellphones in class and confiscating any in use would lead to chaos.
But as implementation proceeded, Haney said parents came around to the idea that no cellphones meant fewer distractions and more engagement in class.
About a year into implementing the policy, the trend held up: The number of first-time infractions in the 2024-25 school year was 355, but the school recorded only 101 second-time offenses and 47 third-time offenses. Haney鈥檚 efforts are now also bolstered by Utah鈥檚 statewide restriction on the use of cellphones in class, which took effect July 1.
Utah is one of at least 30 states and the District of Columbia that require school districts to ban or restrict students鈥� use of cellphones at school, according to an Education Week tally.
While it wasn鈥檛 particularly daunting to implement the policy, Haney said, administrators had to keep re-emphasizing its rules to teachers, parents, and students to make it work.
But now, parents from other districts have reached out to Haney for advice on implementation in their own schools, and she鈥檚 done walkthroughs with other principals to show the cellphone policy in action.
To get the policy to work, follow-through is important, Haney said.
鈥淚t takes a lot for us to be organized [to collect cellphones from the classes]. We definitely get our steps in,鈥� Haney said. 鈥淭his whole thing relies on us supporting our teachers and holding the students accountable for what we鈥檙e going to do.鈥�
