Students in 17 states and the District of Columbia start the school year with new restrictions on use of cellphones. It brings the total to 33 states that have passed laws or rules to limit student use of phones and other electronic devices in school. The movement has been remarkably quick after Florida became the first state to pass a law in 2023. Both Democrats and Republicans have taken up the cause, reflecting a growing consensus that phones are bad for kids' mental health and focus on learning, even though some researchers say the issue is less clear-cut. “Anytime you have a bill that’s passed in California and Florida, you know you’re probably onto something that’s pretty popular," Georgia state Rep. Scott Hilton, a Republican, told a forum examining the issue last week in Atlanta. Of those that have acted, 18 states and the District of Columbia have enacted bans from the beginning until the end of the school day, although Georgia and Florida are only requiring such “bell-to-bell” bans for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Another seven states are banning the use of devices during class time, but not between classes or during lunch periods. Other states, particularly those with traditions of local school control, are mandating only that schools adopt some kind of cellphone policy, believing districts will take the hint and sharply restrict phone access For students, the rules are adding new rituals to the school day, like putting phones in magnetic pouches or special lockers. At McNair High School in suburban Atlanta, students have been required to put their phones in lockers during class since last year. Audreanna Johnson, a junior at the school, said that first there was a lot of resentment. “Most of them did not want to turn in their phones,” Johnson said in an interview earlier this month at the school. But she said that resentment is “starting to ease down.” “More students are willing to give up their phones and not get distracted,” she said. Johnson says that phones could be distracting because students would use them to gossip, texting "their other friends in other classes to see what’s the tea and what’s going on around the building.” But she says the rules also have drawbacks because she can no longer listen to music when working independently in class. “I’m kind of 50-50 on the situation because me, I use headphones to do my schoolwork. I listen to music to help focus,” she said. Jamel Bishop a senior at Doss High School in Louisville, Kentucky, which enacted an all-day ban this year, said that in previous years, students often weren’t paying attention to teachers, leading to duplicative questions that wasted class time. Now, he said teachers can provide “more one-on-one time for the students who actually need it.”