On the last day of class in June, Schools Chancellor David Banks teased the possibility of banning cell phones in schools in short order.

“You’re gonna hear, within the next two weeks, the big announcement. But I will tell you, we are very much leaning towards banning cell phones,” Banks said.

What You Need To Know

  • Schools Chancellor David Banks had said to expect an announcement on a decision over banning cell phones in schools in mid-July

  • Now it appears the city will spend more time considering its options

  • Meanwhile, Gov. Kathy Hochul has launched a listening tour on the same subject

More than two weeks after those comments, the city is not quite ready to make any final decisions on cell phones in classrooms.

“The chancellor is talking to thousands of people across the city — parents, educators, leaders, elected officials. We don’t want to do something that we haven’t thought through, that isn’t going to be successful,” Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg said Tuesday.

Proponents of a ban cite the harmful impacts of smartphones on young people. Beyond being distracting in the classroom, they say the devices fuel fights, increase anxiety, decrease socialization and, when it comes to social media feeds, can be addictive.

Gov. Kathy Hochul this week launched a listening tour to hear from districts around the state about cell phone policies. Like the chancellor, she is leaning towards a ban — one that might save Banks and superintendents around the state from being the bad guys.

“It seems to me that the district by district approach does not work, and I said, ‘sometimes it’s just easier to blame the governor of the state of New York when you want to get something done,’” Hochul said Monday.

Still, there are details to be worked out, including the role teachers would play in enforcing any bans. Hochul noted the state’s teachers’ union would be holding a forum on the subject in September.

Randi Weingarten is president of the American Federation of Teachers, the national teachers’ union, and is a former president of the city’s teachers’ union. She supports banning devices inside classrooms, but says the responsibility can’t be dumped on teachers.

“We gotta make sure that we are not layering another responsibility on teachers. We have to do this in a way that it is a full school responsibility,” she said.

Weingarten also noted the need to allow kids to have phones on their way to and from school. 

Unlike other districts, high schoolers in New York City often travel long distances on public transit to class, making their phone an important part of the commute. Some schools in the city already have a system in place to account for that: when students arrive at school, they place their phones in magnetically locked pouches and get them back at the end of the day.

Still, some parents will be anxious about not having a direct line to their child — something Mayor Adams acknowledged when asked this week about the potential for a ban.

“The goal is to do it in a way that is not disruptive for the parents’ concerns, contacting their children, 9/11 changed the game,” Adams said.

Figuring out exactly how to do that might take a little longer.