Towards Phone-Free Classrooms Across Canada

In 2025, let’s work with students to get phone restrictions right

By: André Côté and Rajender Singh

February 20, 2025

Without too much fanfare, we have begun the most important experiment in Canadian schools in a generation. A decade after smartphones and digital devices flooded into students’ pockets, backpacks, and classrooms, what happens when we abruptly try to take them away?

Anecdotal reports suggest a positive start this school year, but we’re still largely flying blind. There is no concrete evidence on whether provincial phone restriction policies are being enforced, the outcomes, and—critically—how students are feeling about the move.

In the last year, all 10 Canadian provinces have announced some form of restriction on students’ personal use of phones in K-to-12 classrooms. They are a response to growing evidence, and a groundswell of advocacy from teachers, parents and experts, that unchecked personal device use is resulting in harmful distractions for students, hurting their learning and wellbeing.

Research shows 71 per cent of Ontario students grades seven to 12 spend at least three hours a day on screens, with more screen time resulting in lower standardized test scores, and higher levels of anxiety, depression and aggression. This past May, our survey from the Dais at Toronto Metropolitan University found that nearly eight in 10 adult Canadians support a cell phone ban in K-12 classrooms—though support was far lower among school-aged 16 to 19 year olds.

This Canadian trend reflects what’s happening in other countries, too. In the United States, a burgeoning grassroots Phone Free Schools Movement has led to restrictions in many states. The Netherlands has implemented a ban on the use of mobile phones, smartwatches, and tablets in primary and secondary classrooms, nationwide. Countries such as France and New Zealand have already implemented similar bans in their jurisdictions, citing concerns over increasing distraction and declining academic performance.

Across Canada, media reports suggest the restrictions are generally welcomed by students and teachers, while acknowledging they will not solve complex issues like social media overuse, cyberbullying and teen mental health issues. In Alberta, principals and parents see early success, with more engaged students. In New Brunswick, our discussions with a cross-section of provincial officials, the teachers federation and school leaders, revealed a sense of positive impact on classroom behaviour and the school environment—but with more pronounced effects in middle schools where restrictions are stricter than in high schools.

Still, while early successes are heartening, the haste of restriction rollouts has illuminated many challenges.

Provincial screen restriction policies take different forms from coast-to-coast, reflecting a lack of coordination and policy consensus on the issues. Enforcement of the policies—at the board or district level, and within schools and classrooms—also varies dramatically. In Ontario, with parties racing to election day, little has been said on the campaign trail about further support for implementation in Ontario classrooms.

The silver lining is a fascinating experiment across the country – to see what works and, importantly, to share those learnings and good practices.

Parental support is another critical factor. Concerned moms, dads and caregivers can be critical allies to teachers and school administrators on screen use, but they can also be major roadblocks when they insist on being a text away from their kids during the school day. How parents ‘role model’ good phone behaviour at home is also critical—something your authors often fail at.

The most glaringly overlooked challenge is the most basic: we have not done enough to seek the views of young people about these technology use policies. No wonder many students, even some that appreciate phone freedom in class, chafe at the perceived phone-use hypocrisy of teachers and parents, and patronizing adults who just “don’t get it.”

School phone restrictions intersect with other complex “kids and tech” issues. Personal devices can be essential in supporting learning and accessibility needs, while school-issued devices, like laptops and tablets, can be the source of non-learning distractions like web-scrolling and YouTube videos. Strengthening digital literacy education and addressing social media’s impact on student mental health and well-being—through measures like Canada’s now stalled Online Harms Act—are also critical to fostering healthier technology use among students.

Here’s our call to action: let’s work together on a more deliberate approach to this grand experiment to ensure that our kids develop healthier relationships with technology – inside and outside of the classroom. As a starting point, we need to engage students, parents, educators and school system administrators to understand what’s working and what’s not with phone restrictions – and how they can all be better equipped to navigate this brave new world.

André Côté is Director of Policy and Research, and Rajender Singh is Senior Policy Analyst, at the Dais, a think tank at Toronto Metropolitan University that is leading a pan-Canadian initiative called Screen Break to help students, educators, and school administrators in every province refocus on classroom learning without phone distractions.