Last Thursday, Jan. 8, Governor Phil Murphy signed a bell-to-bell cellphone ban into law after New Jersey’s state senate unanimously passed the bill. The act will direct the state Department of Education to develop guidelines regarding student cellphone use in school. Schools will then be required to adopt the new policy for the 2026-2027 school year.
The bill, S3695, passed both houses in December and was signed by Murphy as one of his last pieces of legislation while in office. Murphy had previously expressed support for the ban earlier in his term, calling it a top priority in a speech last January.
The bill has received bipartisan support, passing 63-3 in the General Assembly and 37-0 in the Senate.
Many schools throughout the state have already instituted bell-to-bell cellphone bans. Pascack Valley High School’s student handbook requires cell phones to be turned off during class time, but lets teachers set their own rules as to whether to collect the phones or not.
The policy developed by the Department of Education would prohibit non-academic use of cellphones during classroom instruction, take into account students’ age and grade level, and allow exemptions for special education students who need cellphones for learning purposes.
“Honestly, is it any surprise that the rise in smartphone usage has coincided with a growing youth mental health crisis?” Murphy said in his State of the State speech in January of 2025. “Of course not. And I, for one, am not going to sit back as our kids suffer.”
“I say this as a dad of four more so than a governor — I wish this ban had been in place a long time ago,” Murphy said at the bill signing event at Ramsey High School.
According to Pew Research Center, 72% of high school teachers in the United States say cellphone distraction is a major problem in the classroom.
New Jersey’s legislative representatives who represent PV’s district, Assemblymen Robert Auth and John Azzariti, both abstained from voting.
Azzariti told The Valley Echo that he believes the issue should be decided upon by each district’s board of education rather than the state, because “one-size-fits-all usually fits nobody.”
“I have a 15-year-old son, and he didn’t get a cellphone until this past September,” Azzariti said. “My wife and I are obviously very against him having it during school, but I don’t think that’s a top-down issue to be made by the state. I think that’s a decision to be made by the parents.”
New Jersey will now join 37 other states that have enacted laws or policies on K-12 classroom cellphone use. 28 states have banned or limited cellphones in classrooms.
