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School Implementation Guide

Restrictions on Students’ Use of Personal Phones and Devices

PDF (English)

PDF (Français)

Authors

Rajender Singh

Andre Cote

Contributors:

Catherine Amburgey
Zaynab Choudhry 

This guide is intended to support school principals, educators, and administrators in planning and implementing phone use policies that are both effective and pragmatic. It builds on the foundation established in our Policymaker Playbook, which we encourage you to read alongside this document. 

The guide is informed by:

  • A review of provincial phone policies across Canada.
  • Roundtable discussions held in all 10 provinces with educators, school board leaders, parent advocates, researchers, experts, and community organizations.
  • Our leadership development programming with youth champions leading conversations on tech, mental health, and public policy across Canada.
  • A scan of existing research and evidence on phone use, learning, and well-being.

Above all, the guide is grounded in an understanding of the day-to-day realities schools face—including policy constraints, varying levels of readiness among students and families, and resource limitations. It is organized around a clear set of implementation steps and offers practical suggestions, options, and considerations to help schools adapt policies to their local contexts.

Step 1:

Review Your Provincial Policy

Begin by reviewing your province’s official policy rules. Pay close attention to how personal devices are defined, which devices are restricted, and when those restrictions apply. Consider whether these restrictions are age- or grade-dependent and what kinds of enforcement mechanisms are proposed or allowed within your provincial context. Most provincial policies are designed with some flexibility — even if a specific device or scenario isn’t explicitly mentioned, schools generally have the authority to shape policies that reflect their local needs and realities.

This step is crucial to compare the provincial guidelines with the elements you’ll be defining in your own school-level policy in the next step. This helps ensure your policy aligns with broader directives while addressing your school’s specific context, including the needs of your students, staff capacity, and the learning environment you want to create.

Step 2:

Develop a Written
School-Level Policy

Even if your province has issued guidance or a directive, every school should develop its own written phone use policy – tailored to your school’s specific context and realities. Importantly, while the policy should be responsive to local needs, it must apply consistently across all classrooms. Inconsistent application, where different classrooms have different rules, leads to confusion among students, erodes credibility, and makes enforcement difficult for staff. A cohesive, school-wide approach strengthens clarity and promotes a shared sense of responsibility.

Your school-level policy should begin with a clear rationale. Why are these restrictions in place? What are the learning, well-being, or safety outcomes your school is aiming to support? Frame the policy around shared goals—improved attention, reduced conflict, and a healthier school environment—and not surveillance or discipline.

Once a rationale is established, the written policy should directly address the following key areas:

  • What types of devices are included?
  • When and for whom are restrictions applied?
  • What enforcement mechanisms will be used?
  • How will exceptions and accommodations be handled?
  • What are the consequences for non-compliance?

Refer to the Dais at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Policymaker Playbook for guidance on each of these questions.

Step 3:

Engage Key Stakeholders, Especially Students

Once a draft school-level policy is developed, take it to your school community for review and feedback. Schools should engage with students, teachers, support staff, and parents or caregivers. Set up structured opportunities, such as meetings, feedback sessions, student advisory groups, and surveys, to refine the draft policy. Make it clear that the policy is not final and that input is being sought to refine and improve the policy design.

Be open to legitimate concerns and requests for flexibility. This not only strengthens policy design, but also increases legitimacy and shared accountability.

The feedback process is iterative. You may need to revise the draft more than once before arriving at a policy that balances clarity, feasibility, and fairness. Steps 2 and 3 often cycle back and forth as feedback is incorporated and the policy is fine-tuned. Once the policy reflects input from your community and addresses the core components outlined in Step 2, move forward with finalization.

Step 4:

Support Implementation through Communication, Training, and Consistency

Even a well-designed phone use policy can fail if the rationale behind it isn’t clearly and consistently communicated. To build understanding and sustain support, communication should be ongoing and intentional. Here are some effective communication practices:

  • Dedicate time during professional development days and other meetings to align staff and prepare for launch.
  • Explain the “why” early and often at the start of the school year to build understanding and buy-in.
  • Revisit the purpose regularly through staff meetings, assemblies, and advisory sessions, especially after school breaks.
  • Involve students through student advisory groups, assemblies, and peer-to-peer messaging to build ownership and relevance.
  • Engage parents and caregivers with updates and reminders, especially around holidays and other school breaks.
  • Ensure school-wide consistency, applying the policy uniformly across classrooms.
  • Provide professional development on managing digital distraction.
  • Address enforcement fatigue by checking in with staff and troubleshooting implementation challenges.

Step 5:

Monitor, Evaluate, and Adapt Your Policy

Track daily infractions, gather periodic feedback, and assess how the policy is affecting the school climate. Revise your approach based on evolving technologies, staff feedback, shifting student needs, and emerging best practices. Your policy should be a living document, responsive to what is and isn’t working, in your school context.