Legislation aimed at restricting student cellphone use in the Pentagon’s school system was introduced last week in both chambers of Congress. The measures call for the Department of Defense Education Activity to prohibit students from using or possessing phones during school hours, citing concerns about classroom distractions. (Courtesty photo/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
A bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress is pushing for phone-free classrooms in the Pentagon’s 161 schools worldwide, calling smartphones harmful to mental health and disruptive to education.
A pair of bills introduced last week in the Senate and House armed services committees would require the Department of Defense Education Activity to prohibit students from using or possessing their phones during school hours.
Both bills would remove local control of student cellphone use in DODEA, which currently allows individual schools flexibility in setting those policies, agency spokeswoman Jessica Tackaberry said.
Sen. Jim Banks, an Indiana Republican and Navy Reserve veteran who served in Afghanistan, is sponsoring the Restoring our Educational Focus on Children of U.S. Servicemembers at DODEA Act, with Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., according to a joint statement.
“Cell phones in the classroom distract from learning and lead to all kinds of issues for students,” Banks said in the Tuesday statement, adding that the legislation “will get them out of our schools on military bases.”
In the House, the Mission Unplugged Act was introduced by two Virginia legislators, Democratic Rep. Eugene Vindman, a retired Army officer, and GOP Rep. Jen Kiggans, a former Navy helicopter pilot, according to a joint statement Wednesday.
The proposal would require all DODEA schools to adopt policies prohibiting students from using or possessing their smartphones from the start of the first period to the end of the last.
The measure would position DODEA to “become leaders in restoring in-class focus and reducing screen time during school hours,” the joint statement said.
Tackaberry said Friday that the agency does not comment on proposed legislation.
Smartphone use varies across the school system, which serves more than 65,000 children of American service members and Defense Department personnel stationed in the United States and overseas, she said.
Smartphone policies are implemented at the school, district and regional levels, Tackaberry said.
“This localized approach allows school leaders the flexibility to address the unique needs of their communities while maintaining alignment with DODEA’s overarching educational goals,” she said.
The Senate bill would require students’ smartphones to be placed in a phone locker or other approved storage container for the duration of the school day.
Exceptions would be allowed for medical or other “high-priority” reasons, such as in emergencies, according to language from the bill.
As of Monday, no text had been made available for the House bill, which was referred to the armed services and education and workforce committees on June 12.
Vindman introduced similar legislation in April that would require public schools across the U.S. to implement policies restricting cellphone use during the school day.
He cited the work of Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist and author of “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.”
Haidt supports phone-free schools to encourage more social interaction between students during free time. In a 2023 essay in The Atlantic, Haidt argues that policies need to ensure phones are put away the entire school day to be effective.
“Many students do not have the impulse control to stop themselves from checking their phone during class time if the phone is within reach,” he said.
At least nine states, including Virginia, have laws in place to curtail students’ use of cellular phones during school hours.
The two bills will be considered for review in committee at dates to be determined.
