As students return to school, the leaders of Colorado’s K-12 districts are considering how they might limit cellphone use in schools — including whether to ban the devices outright — to meet a 2026 deadline set by a newly enacted state law.
Such restrictions have grown in popularity nationwide as more research shows phones and social media negatively affect students’ mental health and academic outcomes.
But Denver-area districts have been slow to ban phones from the classroom, with educators saying they can be both a distraction and an educational tool depending on how they’re used…