When Amarillo ISD began the last school year with a strict new cellphone ban, administrators weren't sure what to expect.
The rule requiring the devices to be "off and away" at all times wasn't exactly popular. Kids wanted to keep in touch with friends; parents fretted about emergency situations; teachers were nervous about having to handle unruly pupils and confiscate phones after violations.
But over time, the community not only adapted to the new rules, it thrived, said Kevin Phillips, the deputy superintendent. The district even believes the reduction in cellphone use contributed to a significant drop in some disciplinary offenses, like fighting, vaping and bullying.
"Once everybody kind of got in the mode," Phillips said, "it really began to flow very well."
Now, the experiment will play out across Texas as school districts begin enforcing a new state law banning cellphone use once classes resume this month.
The law, passed nearly unanimously by the Republican-led Legislature, prohibits students from using cellphones throughout the entire school day, including passing periods, lunchtime and recess.
School boards are required at a minimum to create certain penalties for violations. Beyond that, the law provides broad latitude to administrators to determine the exact policy that fits their districts.
Some districts are going all out, purchasing secure pouches, collecting phones in a designated area, or even banning phones from being on school grounds in the first place.
But the majority of districts surveyed by Hearst Newspapers say they ended up going with the simplest option: asking students to keep their phones in pockets and backpacks, under strict risk of confiscation.
The effort was led by the youngest member of the Texas Legislature, state Rep. Caroline Fairly, R-Amarillo, who incorporated local experiences like Amarillo ISD's into the law. She said many of her constituents across the political spectrum point to chronic cellphone use as the root cause for students' declining test scores and mental health issues and addiction to video games and pornography.
"This bill puts education, not screen time, at the center of the school day," Fairly said in a statement.
Many districts said they were still examining the requirements of the new law and determining how to move forward, even with the start of the school year just days away.
Though the bill passed in May, the Texas Education Agency did not issue its official cellphone model policies to districts until last week. The agency clarified that the school day did not include time at extracurriculars or riding on buses to or from school, and also laid out general recommendations on allowable penalties, up to in-school suspension and meetings with parents for students who break the rules.
Several districts, including Hays CISD and Northside ISD in San Antonio, said they expected to finalize their rules at school board meetings sometime in August.
For many others, the law prompted simpler changes to existing policy. Garland ISD, for example, is now extending its in-class restrictions to passing periods and lunch, while Round Rock ISD is adapting its K-8 restrictions for high schoolers.
The law applies not just to traditional ISDs but open-enrollment charter schools as well. IDEA Public Schools, the largest charter school chain with more than 140 campuses around the state, also said in a statement it was still reviewing the new requirements and anticipated issuing new policies at a future board meeting.
Some districts, like Amarillo ISD, are ahead of the curve.
Since 2022, the Dallas-area Richardson ISD has maintained one of the state's more stringent cellphone policies: at eight of its junior high and high school campuses, students are required to place all phones, smartwatches, and headphones into pouches that secure shut and can only unlock in certain areas of a campus.
A district spokesperson told the Chronicle that getting parents, teachers and administrators on board was crucial for the "positive impact" the program has had in schools.
Class interruptions have decreased significantly since the policy was implemented during his sophomore year at Richardson High School, 2025 graduate Dontarious Johnson said in a video promoting the rules on the district's website.
Hallways and cafeterias may be even louder than they were before the ban, as students chat amongst themselves instead of staring at their screens, Lake Highlands High School principal Kerri Jones said. That environment even helps with attracting and retaining employees, she said.
"It's been life-changing. We can never go back, and I hope we never do go back because the campus has just changed," Jones said. "There's a sense of calm about the campus that we hadn't seen before."
But the statewide roll out this fall, likely reaching most of Texas' 5.5 million children in public schools, could come with some controversy.
Several parents testified in committee hearings that they feared a cellphone ban would keep them from reaching their children during emergencies, especially as schools across the country grappled with a rise in school threats and lockdowns in the fall of 2024.
Phillips, the Amarillo ISD deputy superintendent, said the district has frequently made exceptions to the policy for blizzards, allowing students to temporarily access their phones, and would be prepared to do so in other emergency situations.
The state law requires that all district policies carve out exceptions for emergencies and for students who use phones for documented medical needs like tracking blood sugar or as part of their special education or 504 plan.
It is unclear how students will be able to contact their families using their cellphones during emergencies at different districts, although Houston ISD said parents will be notified by call, text and email through its new parent communication app.
"There are a lot of parents that are just concerned that something's going to happen. There's going to be a lockdown, whatever it is, and they want to communicate with their kids in what could be their last moments," Houston ISD parent Camille Breaux said. "Everyone feels that phones are a distraction, and they are, for sure, but there's all these other issues as well."
Enforcement has also long been an issue with cellphone policies, several administrators acknowledged, often with varying standards set across classrooms or campuses and frequent violations.
But several lawmakers remarked in legislative hearings that they believed the new statewide ban would bolster school administrators' authority by shifting student resistance away from teachers and toward the broader mandate of state law.
Houston ISD -- which requires students to simply turn their devices off and place them in their backpacks throughout the day -- faced a student walkout at one campus after the district tightened cellphone restrictions in 2024.
An online petition calling to repeal the statewide ban had more than 55,000 signatures as of Thursday.
The petition's author, a junior attending Mansfield ISD, claimed the bill restricted student autonomy, put student safety in jeopardy and went against schools' commitment to innovative learning.
"We believe the priority should be improving safety and mental health resources in schools, not restricting the tools that help students protect themselves and stay informed," the petition read.
Even some teachers, including Houston ISD teacher Minh-Dan Tran, worry how the ban will influence their use of mobile apps, QR codes and two-factor authentication in class.
"I understand the rationale behind it, but at the same time, there are times when cellphones are actually useful in the classroom," Tran said. "As an experienced teacher, you know when to say no. You know when to tell them to put it away. You know when it's appropriate."
To some observers, the cellphone ban represents a sea change in how school officials once approached technology. It was just a decade ago when districts were racing to buy laptops and tablets for kids and finding ways to integrate tech into everyday learning.
The pendulum is now swinging back the other way as research has uncovered the harms of social media and the advent of easily-accessible AI chatbots has raised questions about how to prevent cheating, said Kevin Brown, the executive director of the Texas Association of School Administrators
"We were all pushing for technology, but like any good idea or good tool, it can be over-utilized," Brown said. "I don't think anybody anticipated that it would have such a mental health issue for not just kids but adults too."
Yondr, a company that helps promote "phone-free spaces" by selling a lockable pouch, started doing business with the entertainment industry to help sequester electronics during shows.
Now, the California-based company is the largest manufacturer of the special pouches that lock up students' electronics during the day. Yondr declined to comment about how large its footprint in Texas is. But at least a dozen or so districts, including Grand Prairie, Brownsville and Dallas ISDs, say they have contracted with Yondr or plan to work with the company at one or more schools.
Not many districts opted to purchase pouches, which typically cost around $30 each.
Amarillo ISD considered pouches but decided it didn't have the funds and was content with keeping most of its existing policy, Phillips said. The new state law provides $20 million for purchasing equipment, but the amount Amarillo would have received could not have fully covered the cost of pouches.
But he is glad the district followed through. Over the last year, teachers reported better engagement with classroom topics and more present, in-person interactions during lunch, he said, and students even reminded others to follow the policy.
As Phillips watches other districts scrambling to hammer out new policies, he thinks his school community in Amarillo will be breathing a little easier this year: "Glad we got a head start."
Correction, Aug. 8: An earlier version of this story stated that no funding came attached to the new cellphone ban law. The Legislature appropriated $20 million to districts for the purchase of equipment.