For years, phones have been an easy scapegoat for educators watching students drift from instruction, check screens between tasks, struggle with challenging problems, and seek stimulation at the slightest lull. In response, schools are taking action.

During the 2024–25 school year, 77 percent of U.S. public schools reported having policies that prohibit students from using cellphones during class. Additionally, more than half of public school leaders said cellphone use has negatively affected students' academic performance, mental health, and attention span, according to federal education data.

The rationale behind these restrictions is simple: if the phone distracts from instruction, schools should remove it. However, schools will increasingly need to address another critical question: once the distraction is eliminated, do students actually know how to focus their attention elsewhere?

This distinction is important. While removing a competing stimulus can create a better environment for concentration, it does not automatically develop the fundamental skills students need to maintain focus, tolerate boredom, manage internal distractions, recognize when their attention has wandered, and consciously redirect it to the task at hand. 

As more U.S. schools implement cellphone bans, emerging evidence suggests these policies may be only part of the solution. The next step is to help students build what we can call "attention infrastructure", the cognitive, physical, emotional, and metacognitive skills essential for sustaining attention in the first place.

Do Cellphone Bans in Schools Actually Improve Student Attention and Academic Performance?

Recent evidence on school phone restrictions in the United States shows outcomes more nuanced than proponents and opponents of phone bans might suggest. A study examining Florida’s cellphone restrictions found no significant improvement in test scores during the first year of the policy. By the second year, average spring test scores increased by about 1.1 percentile points, with somewhat larger gains among boys and middle and high school students.

Unexcused absences also declined, and researchers estimated that this improvement in attendance could account for roughly half of the academic progress. However, the transition was not without challenges. In-school suspensions rose by about 20 percent during the first year, but returned to previous levels in the second year.

An even larger 2026 National Bureau of Economic Research study, covering more than 43,000 U.S. middle and high schools using lockable phone pouches, found a similarly complicated adjustment period. Phone use during school decreased significantly. Initially, disciplinary incidents increased in the first year but then declined over time. Student well-being initially declined before becoming positive by the third year.

One particular finding stands out: researchers found little evidence of changes in self-reported classroom attention, and the average effects on test scores remained close to zero throughout the three years studied. This does not imply that phone policies lack value. An inaccessible phone cannot disrupt a lesson with notifications, texts, videos, social media feeds, or frequent checking. However, it suggests that minimizing distractions and developing attention are not the same approach.

How Executive Function Shapes Attention and Focus in Adolescents

We often discuss attention as if it's straightforward: students either have it, or they don’t. Phrases like "Pay attention," "Focus," and "Stop getting distracted" reflect this view. However, neuroscience reveals a more intricate understanding. Sustained attention relies on several interconnected executive functions, including inhibitory control, working memory, cognitive flexibility, goal maintenance, and self-monitoring.

The NIH-funded Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, commonly known as the ABCD Study, has followed nearly 12,000 U.S. children across 21 research sites as they move through adolescence. Research emerging from this work continues to show the importance of executive functioning for emotional, behavioral, and cognitive development.

When a student tackles a multi-step math problem, they must juggle several cognitive tasks. They need to remember the instructions, resist distractions from nearby conversations, notice when their mind starts to wander, and keep relevant information active in their working memory. They must also switch strategies if one approach isn’t working and persist with the task even when immediate rewards are minimal. 

Putting away a smartphone does not eliminate these cognitive challenges. Although the environment has changed, students still have to manage their thoughts and focus amid those changes.

How Smartphones and Media Multitasking Affect Student Attention

Another important point is that students are not entering phone-free classrooms with a blank slate when it comes to attention. Many have spent years quickly shifting between texts, notifications, videos, games, social conversations, homework, music, and multiple open screens.

Research on media multitasking suggests those habits may matter. U.S. adolescent research has associated frequent media multitasking with poorer working memory, greater impulsivity, and lower standardized academic performance. Another study involving adolescents ages 11 to 18 found that multitasking with media while completing homework was negatively related to executive function and performance in math and language.

Perhaps most importantly, working-memory research from Stanford found poorer performance among heavy media multitaskers even when external distractions were absent. This finding suggests that removing the second screen may not be enough to solve the problem. Frequent switching between tasks actually provides practice in switching. However, maintaining sustained attention requires a different type of practice: the ability to stay focused on one task. Although limiting phone use might reduce the chances of constant task-switching, students still need support in learning how to concentrate on a single activity.

Phone-Free Classrooms, Boredom, and the Challenge of Sustaining Attention

When a highly stimulating object disappears, what takes its place? Sometimes, it may be nothing. For instance, there is a pause before a class begins, a transition between activities, ten minutes of independent reading, a teacher explaining a concept that students do not immediately grasp, or a challenging assignment that offers no instant feedback or novelty. 

These moments require a tolerance for lower levels of stimulation. A national U.S. study on phone bans found that students’ subjective well-being initially declined during the first year of phone restrictions, but then it recovered and eventually became positive. Researchers interpret this pattern as part of an adjustment period rather than evidence of lasting harm. 

It is important not to exaggerate this finding by claiming that smartphones are "destroying dopamine receptors" or creating a universal addiction. The science does not support such simplistic conclusions. A more valuable question to consider is whether repeated exposure to rapid novelty, frequent rewards, social updates, and constant opportunities for distraction makes slower activities feel unusually difficult by comparison. 

Students may need time to adjust. They may also need opportunities to relearn that feelings of boredom, effort, uncertainty, and waiting are not emergencies that must be escaped immediately.

How Stress and Emotional Dysregulation Affect Student Attention in the Classroom

Another type of distraction a no-phone policy cannot eliminate is stress. A student who is worried about conflicts at home may look directly at the teacher but absorb very little information. Similarly, a teenager who is replaying a social interaction in their mind can sit in a quiet classroom yet remain completely distracted. Factors such as fatigue, anxiety, sensory overload, emotional turmoil, and internal rumination can interfere with learning just as much as a notification from a phone.

This distinction matters because adolescent distress is not rare. CDC data collected between 2021 and 2023 found that 50.4 percent of U.S. teenagers ages 12 to 17 reported four or more hours of daily screen time outside schoolwork. Among teenagers who reported higher screen time, 27.1% experienced recent symptoms of anxiety, and 25.9% reported symptoms of depression. In comparison, only 12.3% of teens with lower screen time reported anxiety symptoms, and 9.5% reported depression symptoms.

The CDC emphasizes that these findings indicate an association, not a direct cause-and-effect relationship between screen use and mental health symptoms. Shared underlying factors or reverse relationships may be at play, which is an important caveat. The key takeaway is that attention functions within the nervous system. If this nervous system is exhausted, overwhelmed, anxious, hypervigilant, or under-stimulated, simply removing a phone may reduce one source of distraction without addressing the underlying state that makes concentration challenging.

Why Self-Regulation and Attention Skills Need to Be Taught in Schools

Schools often focus on teaching students how to manage their attention in specific ways: listening, staying on task, completing assignments, not interrupting, and keeping their phones away. However, they spend much less time teaching students how to actually notice and manage their attention.

Research on self-regulated learning and metacognition suggests these skills can be deliberately taught and strengthened in educational settings. Students can learn to plan how they will approach a task, monitor whether they understand it, recognize when their attention has shifted, evaluate what is interfering, and deliberately choose what to do next. Guidance on metacognition and self-regulated learning similarly emphasizes explicitly teaching students how to plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning rather than assuming those skills will develop on their own.

These skills do not develop automatically, even in more controlled classroom environments. For instance, a student may follow a phone ban but still rely on adults to keep redirecting their focus. This distinction becomes even more crucial when students transition out of school. There won't be a phone pouch in college, at work, while studying independently, or during difficult tasks at home.

The long-term goal should not be solely to create environments that limit distractions. It should also involve helping students become more adept at directing their attention, even when distractions are present.

How Classroom Movement Breaks Can Support Student Focus and On-Task Behavior

One response to struggling attention is to ask students to try harder. Another is to change their state. In one study, fifth graders completed just six minutes of coordinated bilateral physical activity each day for four weeks. Researchers reported improvements in processing speed, focused attention, concentration, and attention span.

Research conducted across 24 California schools also found that greater use of classroom activity breaks was associated with less off-task or inattentive behavior. The overall evidence is not consistent. A systematic review of classroom physical activity found a moderate positive effect on students' on-task behavior, but no statistically significant improvements in cognitive function measures. 

This distinction is important. Movement is not a guaranteed way to achieve better grades or perfect attention. However, it can provide something valuable during a phone-free school day: a purposeful way to transition focus rather than expecting students to switch their attention instantly. 

For instance, a student coming into class after lunch, dealing with a stressful interaction in the hallway, or winding down from a stimulating activity may not be ready to dive directly into intensive cognitive work. Taking two or three intentional minutes for movement can bridge the gap and help them adjust.

Can Movement-Based Mindfulness Improve Attention and Executive Function in Students?

Mindfulness is often described as a technique to help students "calm down." However, this description can oversimplify what the practice truly involves. At its essence, mindfulness is about noticing where our attention is focused, intentionally directing it elsewhere, recognizing when it has drifted, and then gently guiding it back. This process is essentially training our attention.

Movement-based mindfulness incorporates a physical element into the practice. Instead of starting with students sitting still and focusing inward, this approach lets them concentrate on something tangible: a movement, their breath, bodily sensations, rhythm, or changes in posture.

Promising evidence exists, but it should not be exaggerated. A U.S. randomized study involving 292 fifth graders across 21 public-school classrooms found that students participating in an eight-week mindfulness intervention improved on an objective measure of cognitive flexibility.

Movement-based mindfulness should not be treated as a foolproof academic intervention or a universal remedy for attention issues related to phone use. Instead, it can be understood as a valuable opportunity for students to practice noticing, directing, and returning their attention while also becoming more aware of their physiological state. This perspective offers a more realistic view of its role.

How Interoception and Body Awareness Support Attention and Self-Regulation

Before someone can consciously shift where their attention is directed, they often first need to notice what is happening within themselves. Am I feeling restless? Am I tired? Is my breathing shallow? Am I anxious? Am I confused by the assignment? Am I seeking stimulation because I find this task difficult?

Interoception refers to the awareness of internal bodily signals. Research with school-aged children has shown a connection between interoceptive awareness and executive function skills like working memory, inhibition, and emotion regulation. The key point is not that simply noticing your heartbeat makes algebra easier; rather, self-regulation begins with awareness and information.

A student who recognizes rising agitation is more likely to respond intentionally than a student who merely feels an unexplained urge to move, check something, talk, avoid the task, or disengage. Movement, mindful breathing, and brief centering practices can help make these internal changes more noticeable.

Instead of only asking, "Are you paying attention?" schools can encourage students to ask, "What is happening with my attention right now, and what might help me refocus?"

What Schools Should Pair With Cellphone Bans to Build Student Attention

The debate around school phone restrictions is often framed as a binary question: bans work, or bans don't. The evidence suggests schools need a more useful question. What are we trying to build once the phone is gone?

A school can create a stricter environment without necessarily creating stronger self-regulation. Implementation also raises important equity questions. In the Florida study of school cellphone restrictions, the initial increase in suspensions was disproportionately concentrated among Black students. Researchers found an approximately 30 percent increase in in-school suspensions for Black students after enforcement began, compared with no significant increase for White or Hispanic students.

The largest national phone-ban study also could not determine whether students with disabilities experienced different consequences, leaving important questions around accommodations and disciplinary responses unanswered. That means a phone policy should not only be evaluated by how many devices disappear from classrooms.

Schools should also monitor who receives disciplinary consequences, whether accommodations are working, how teachers are supported during the adjustment period, whether students understand the policy's purpose, and what new routines are being introduced to help them regulate and re-engage.

A strong attention environment might combine reasonable technology boundaries with explicit metacognitive instruction, predictable transitions, physical activity, brief attention resets, body-awareness practices, supportive teacher-student relationships, and opportunities for students to gradually take more responsibility for directing their own focus. In other words, remove the distraction when necessary. But do not stop there.

Final Thoughts: Helping Students Build Lasting Attention Skills

Phones are powerful competitors for attention. Schools are justified in asking whether students need greater protection from that competition during the school day. But the goal of education is larger than creating a room without phones. Students will eventually return to environments filled with notifications, entertainment, social demands, internal stress, boredom, difficult work, and thousands of opportunities to shift their attention elsewhere. 

They need more than restriction. They need practice. They need opportunities to recognize when attention has wandered, regulate the states that make concentration difficult, tolerate periods without constant stimulation, stay with challenging tasks, and intentionally return to what matters.

This is where prevention and skill-building become as important as policy. At Niroga, we use movement-based mindfulness to help make skills such as self-awareness, regulation, and intentional attention more accessible in real settings, including classrooms where students may not arrive calm, still, or ready to focus.

The purpose is not to ask students to become perfectly attentive. It is to give them more ways to come back. Because removing the phone may clear the desk. Helping students learn what to do with their attention afterward is the deeper work.

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