The Metro: Smartphone ban coming to Michigan K-12 classrooms

By: David Leins

2 June 2026 at 17:58

Michigan will be enacting a statewide school phone ban for students from kindergarten through 12th grade this fall.

Many schools already have some form of phone restriction in place during the school day. Three researchers from the University of Michigan wanted to know what could be learned from different phone ban policies prior to the statewide mandate going into effect.

Justin Heinze, Brian Jacob and Elyse Thulin compared nearly 800 schools in Michigan with phone use limits in place and shared their findings in an article published by The Conversation Detroit. In their article, they examine what different bans districts use and key points to consider when picking a policy.

Eleanore Catolico, an editor at The Conversation – Detroit joined The Metro to discuss what Heinze, Jacob and Thulin found in their study.

Read the full article of findings here.

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