Rich Nye, senior adviser for education policy to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, testifies at a hearing of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education on June 10, 2025. (Screenshot from committee webcast)
WASHINGTON, D.C. (NorthDakotaMonitor) — Concerns over the use of cellphones in classrooms took center stage Tuesday at a hearing in a U.S. House education panel, as an increasing number of states push to ban or restrict the use of cellphones and other electronic devices during instruction time.
Though lawmakers from both parties acknowledged the harms that excessive cellphone use can create for students, whether affecting their well-being, interpersonal skills or attention in class, Democrats also criticized the Trump administration’s cancellation earlier this year of roughly $1 billion in school mental health grants amid broader efforts to dismantle the U.S. Education Department.
The drive at the state level to curb cellphone use in the classroom has been bipartisan.
In 2025 so far, the governors of states such as Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Utah and West Virginia have already signed laws that put bans in place.
“Screens are now pervasive, mostly in the form of students’ cellphones, drawing attention away from interactive discussion and instruction,” said Rep. Kevin Kiley, chair of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education, during the panel’s hearing. The subcommittee is part of the Education and Workforce Committee.
“Too often, students spend most of their days with their heads down, thumbs scrolling and only a fraction interacting with increasingly discouraged teachers,” the California Republican said.
New Utah law
One witness, Rich Nye, senior adviser for education policy to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, touted the bill Cox signed earlier this year, which “prohibits a student from using a cellphone, smart watch, or emerging technology during classroom hours.”
The statewide ban, which allows for certain exemptions, is set to take effect July 1.
Prior to the bill becoming law, Cox had sent letters to district and charter school leaders, school principals, school community council members and the State Board of Education in 2024 urging educators to remove cellphones during class time, noting that “cellphone-free learning environments will help our teachers teach and our students learn.”
Utah GOP Rep. Burgess Owens applauded his state’s efforts.
“Technology can often be a force multiplier in the workforce, however, we need to better understand the implications when we expose our children to digital devices, and what the long-term effects might be,” he said.
Dems blast massive cuts to mental health grants
Meanwhile, Democrats took aim at the administration’s decision this year to stop funding approximately $1 billion in grants for student mental health services through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022.
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, ranking member of the subcommittee, said “these programs ended without notice to states and without recourse to help students who depend on them.”
“The grants provided funding for mental health professionals, for support services, for suicide prevention resources, for schools in districts that desperately need them,” the Oregon Democrat said.
Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy, president and CEO of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, emphasized to lawmakers the need to restore the grants.
Holcomb-McCoy said the termination of the grants “has left districts and teachers and principals and superintendents without the critical support they need for students in crisis, particularly those affected by excessive screen time.”
“I also note that many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and officials in the administration often say that the federal government should not be making decisions for local schools,” Bonamici said. “As with curriculum decisions, technology policies should be managed by state and local officials.”
Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Summer Lee said the cancellation of the grants makes her wonder how “Republicans are going to ask us to have a genuine conversation about harmful effects of screen time in schools when they’re enabling the administration to dismantle the Department of Education and any support structures that we have for schools, program by program, nickel and dime.”
Trump and his administration have sought to dramatically reshape the federal role in education, including an executive order calling on Education Secretary Linda McMahon to facilitate the closure of her own department, the gutting of more than 1,300 employees at the agency, threats to revoke funds for schools that use diversity, equity and inclusion practices and a crackdown on “woke” higher education.
But federal judges have temporarily blocked many of these efforts.
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