San Francisco schools delay cellphone ban, form policy task force

San Francisco Unified School District did not impose a citywide cellphone ban and instead set up a task force to write the district’s formal policy, leaving the fight over phones open even as California law required every district to have a smartphone rule by July 1, 2026. The central question is no longer whether phones distract students, but who gets to define distraction, safety and enforcement in SFUSD classrooms.

Assembly Bill 3216, the Phone-Free School Act, was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sept. 23, 2024, and it requires every school district, county office of education and charter school in California to adopt a policy limiting smartphone use. State Superintendent Tony Thurmond has also pushed districts to restrict cellphones, tying the issue to student wellness, safety and academic achievement.

SFUSD’s own handbook already says students may possess cell phones, smart watches, pagers or other mobile communication devices on campus as long as they are used in accordance with law and district rules. District school pages also show cellphone policies at the school level, which means families can already run into different expectations from one campus to another. A task force-driven approach would keep that patchwork in place longer, while a citywide ban would force a single standard across the district.

That choice matters because California schools have already tried several enforcement methods. Districts have used confiscation, calls home and sealed pouches to keep phones out of sight during the school day, and San Diego Unified has adopted a phone-free school day policy. San Mateo-Foster City went further in 2022, banning cellphones on its four middle school campuses.

The politics are not new in San Francisco. A San Francisco Examiner article in August 2024 said teachers were split on Newsom’s call for a ban, reflecting the divide SFUSD now has to manage between classroom control and family communication. For many parents, the question is how a rule would work in practice this fall, especially if one campus tightens enforcement while another allows more flexibility.

The task force now has to decide whether phones stay in backpacks, whether teachers are expected to collect them, and how the district handles emergency contact concerns without turning every classroom into a debate over policy. In a district that already allows students to possess mobile devices if they follow district rules, the task ahead is as much about consistency across campuses as it is about restricting screens.