Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.The Denver school board appears poised to adopt a bell-to-bell cellphone ban for elementary, middle, and high school students districtwide. The policy would take effect when school starts in August and require cellphones to be off and out of sight when students are in school buildings. It wouldn’t be in effect off-campus, for example when high school students leave school to go to lunch or to an internship.Board members discussed and fine-tuned the proposed policy at a work session Thursday. They’ll vote on a final version Monday. Multiple board members said many Denver parents urgently want school cellphone limits. “We’re a year behind a lot of districts in the state of Colorado with this decision-making and with this implementation,” said board member John Youngquist. “Our parents have been yearning for this.”The board’s discussion mirrors a broader debate unfolding across Colorado as districts work to meet a July 1 deadline to adopt policies on student cellphone use. Many parents and educators want to sharply curtail cellphone use during school hours to reduce device addiction and encourage in-person social connection. But others say students need cellphones in case of emergencies, to communicate with employers or relatives, or to address health or mental health problems.A 2025 Colorado law requires school districts and charter schools to adopt cellphone policies, but doesn’t require a ban. Many school districts have already settled on such policies, most of which will take effect in the fall. This spring, the 62,000-student Douglas County district and 34,000-student Aurora district adopted a bell-to-bell bans for elementary and middle school students, but those policies only ban cellphones during class for high schoolers, not other parts of the school day. Several districts, including Boulder Valley, Mesa County Valley 51, and Westminster, have adopted bell-to-bell bans for students in all grades.Denver’s proposed policy mirrors recommendations made by a 17-member district advisory committee in April. A recent survey by the district shows that even for older students, most people agree with the away-for-the-day approach to cellphones and devices like smart watches. Of more than 7,000 survey respondents, 64% supported a bell-to-bell ban for middle and high school students. Students respondents were the outliers though — 97% of more than 600 surveyed opposed a bell-to-bell ban for middle and high schoolers. Sarah Almy Moore, a Denver parent and a member of the advisory committee, urged support for the proposed policy despite student opposition. “Kids are telling you they cannot be without their phones because many have never learned how,” she said. “We must prepare students to have a healthy relationship with technology, and to know they can, at times, function without it.”Multiple parents warned against a cellphone policy that would allow high schoolers to use phones at school when they’re not in class, an idea the board discussed in May. “We know partial policies don’t actually work when phones are allowed during lunch or passing periods,” said Natalie Perez, a parent and organizer with the advocacy group Stand for Children Colorado. “Those distractions don’t stay there, they just come back into the classroom and teachers lose valuable learning time managing devices instead of teaching.”No students spoke about the cellphone policy during the public comment period Thursday. The district’s proposed policy would include a ban on smartphones, smartwatches, earbuds, and other technology not issued by schools. It would allow exceptions for students who need their phones for medical reasons or as part of a special education plan or disability accommodation.Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.
