Here are the details of LAUSD's new cellphone policy

Los Angeles Unified students will be banned from using their smartphones and social media during the school day starting in February 2025.

The LAUSD Board voted to expand the district’s existing technology restrictions in June, citing rising concerns about the impact of the technologies on youth mental health, bullying and distraction from classroom instruction.

California lawmakers voted in August to require all districts to ban student smartphone use by July 2026.

“It is clear that our students, our youth’s addiction to their cellphones and the content that cellphones bring into their lives needs to come to an end,” said superintendent Alberto Carvalho. “The impact on their mental health is real.”

LAUSD officials unveiled full details of the policy at a meeting Tuesday. The school board does not need to vote on it. District officials said the policy is final; now it’s up to individual schools to decide how they’ll enforce it.

What’s the new policy?

Implementation will vary from campus to campus, but at a minimum:

• Students may not use cellphones, smartwatches, and earbuds on campus during school hours.
• Devices must be turned off and stored. 

Students can use devices before and after school and there are exceptions during the school day for students who need their phones for:

• Health-based reasons, i.e. to monitor blood sugar 
• Translation

Students with disabilities who use a cellphone or other technology as part of an Individualized Education Program or 504 plan will also not lose access to their devices.

Schools must also provide students access to their phones in case of an emergency.

The district’s expectation is that when students come back from Presidents’ Day weekend in February, new policies will be in place at every school.

LAUSD Chief of School Operations Andrés Chait said the policy is based on:

• a review of existing research on youth cellphone and social media use; 
• feedback from parents, students and educators via in-person and virtual meetings; and
• consultation with unions, other districts, researchers and media professionals.

Chait said there are at least 50 LAUSD schools that already have strict cellphone policies.

What is an ‘emergency’?

Chait, who oversees school safety among other responsibilities, said there isn't a formal definition of an “emergency.”

“When all else fails, apply common sense," he said.

For example: If students have to leave campus because of an incident, or maybe there's an earthquake, that might constitute a time when staff members will let students have their phones to text their families.

A lockdown in and of itself is not necessarily going to constitute an emergency, however. District officials said they're trying to balance student safety and mental health with the need to try and communicate with family at home.

In terms of basic communication — like if a student forgets their lunch at home — Chait said front offices exist to help bridge parents and their children during the school day.

So I can have a say in my school’s plan?

Schools will be expected to come up with their own rollout plan based on community input.

Options on the table for storing phones include:

• pouches (students put their devices in, and those devices are sealed with a special key); 
• lockers; 
• an honor system (phones in backpacks)

LAUSD will offer schools several options for storing smartphones.

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Courtesy LAUSD

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The district has made a one-time allocation of $7 million to cover costs.

Parents should expect schools to begin communicating the policy and its timeline, and that schools reach out to gather thoughts on how to implement the policy, if they haven’t already.

That communication may come through the Local School Leadership Council (LSLC), which includes parents, community members, school staff, and students.

Chait said the district has “common expectations,” about how the new policy will be enforced, but schools will have discretion over incidents.

“For example, one school may say that the second time that there's an incident, the student may be referred to a dean,” he said. “Another school may say they're referred to a counselor. But in general, the expectation is consistent that there's a lot of dialogue, there's a lot of opportunities for changes to behavior before there's any confiscating of a phone.”

What do charter schools have to do?

The district’s traditional, magnet, and affiliated charter schools will be expected to follow the policy. Unaffiliated charter schools located on the campus of district-run schools are also expected to follow the policy, but they have more leeway, Chait said. For instance, they can use different products than what the district plans to make available to its own schools.

“But at the end of the day,” Chait said, “they have to ensure, one, that cellphone use is restricted for the school day and, two, they're in compliance with state law so that kids still have access to those phones in the case of an emergency.”

Read the policy

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Senior editor for education Ross Brenneman contributed to this story.