Students in Baltimore City Public Schools will have to abide by an updated cell phone policy in the 2025-26 school year: their cell phones will need to be powered off, put away, and secured during the school day. This change is effective on the first day of the school year.
City School students are still permitted to bring their phones to school, and in certain rare circumstances will be permitted to use them. For the most part, though, phones will no longer be a presence in the classroom. The policy update was approved by the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners in April 2025.
The policy change considers a significant amount of research pointing to better learning environments, reduced distractions, and more meaningful interactions between students and staff when student cell phones and/or personal electronic devices are removed from the educational picture. The research lists many positive impacts, including better student focus, increased student engagement, fewer disruptions to learning, fewer disciplinary problems, fewer conflicts between students, reduced use of social media, and more.
If there is a school-wide emergency, students will be allowed to use their phones when a school administrator or Central Office staff member permits it. If there is a personal emergency, students will be able to use a school phone and/or their cell phone to contact a parent or guardian.
For instruction, students should be using City Schools-issued devices whenever possible. If teachers want students to use their own personal phones or devices for instructional purposes, teachers must get approval from the principal first.
The new policy allows for student with a legitimate caregiving or other personal need to be given reasonable access to their phones and/or a school phone. Likewise, students with documented medical conditions, IEPs, 504 Plans, or Multilingual Learner Plans requiring device access will be accommodated.
Parents or guardians who need to reach their student should call their student’s school. Under the new policy, schools will have a plan in place for responding to parent/guardian phone calls, including ways to relay important messages to students.
During the 2024-25 school year, City Schools ran a pilot program in 25 schools to test different ways of limiting students’ cell phone and electronic device use. The updates to Board Policy are based on feedback from students, families, and staff members who participated in that pilot.
City Schools views social media as so detrimental to students’ education, social well-being and mental health that they filed litigation against the companies that own five major social media platforms: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, and Facebook. That litigation is in the discovery stage and may go to trial in late 2025 or 2026.
