Aurora Public Schools is getting ready to lock in a new student communication-device policy after more than a year of targeted pilots meant to keep phones out of classrooms. The district’s “Away for the Day” pilot, first rolled out in March 2025, is designed to cut down on distractions and help students regulate their emotions during the instructional day. The work is unfolding as Colorado requires every district to adopt and publish a communication-device policy by July 1.
Pilot results and teacher views
Teachers in pilot schools report that classrooms feel calmer and that students stay locked in on lessons longer. Aurora Hills Middle School teacher Tracie Jansen told Sentinel Colorado that her students “are more engaged and enabled to access learning without distraction,” a shift district leaders say they are hearing across multiple campuses. District survey data cited by officials showed about a 7% rise in students’ reported emotional regulation between October 2025 and January 2026, which they see as a hopeful early sign rather than a final verdict.
The national context is also shaping Aurora’s choices. The National Center for Education Statistics reports that roughly three-quarters of U.S. public schools already prohibit nonacademic cellphone use during school hours, so local leaders say Aurora is not exactly leaping into uncharted territory.
What the research says
Large new research suggests that phone bans do what they promise on the most basic level: they sharply reduce in-school phone activity. A National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, available from NBER, found teacher reports of in-class phone use fell from about 61% to 13%, and campus device pings dropped roughly 30% by year three of a ban. The same study reported that suspension rates rose nearly 16% in the first year before easing in subsequent years.
The authors note that many of the discipline and well-being effects fade over time and that the average effects on standardized test scores were “consistently close to zero.” In other words, keeping phones out of sight may calm classrooms without magically boosting test scores.
State rule forces districts to act
Colorado’s House Bill 25-1135 requires each district to adopt, implement, and post a policy governing student communication devices by July 1, 2026, but it stops short of laying out a single model everyone must copy. Instead, the law directs districts to spell out exceptions for emergencies and instructional uses, which is why local boards are now hammering out what “away for the day” actually looks like on the ground…