Gov. Hochul's school cellphone ban faces new obstacle: Trump's immigration policies

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's plan for a statewide smartphone ban in schools by the next school year faces a new obstacle: fear of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

Growing anxiety among immigrant students after Trump’s inauguration is fueling parents’ calls for a pause on phones, echoing concerns from state education department Commissioner Betty Rosa.

The debate has gained momentum in recent weeks, though the education department and teachers union report no ICE agents have appeared at city schools since Trump took office. An uptown parent council will consider a resolution against the phone measure on Wednesday. The citywide Panel for Education Policy is considering making a similar statement at its next meeting later this month.

The resolutions are advisory and do not direct policy, but indicate resistance to the governor’s plan, which she proposed as part of her budget that will be negotiated with state lawmakers.

Elizabeth Soto-Cardona, president of the Community Education Council in East Harlem, said her council’s resolution opposing the ban is part of an effort “to support our immigrant families as much as we can.”

“Basically what we're saying is we need our children to have access to the phones for safety and communication, but more so now for immigrant families so that the children feel some kind of comfort knowing that they have their phones and they can ask their family in case anything happens, especially if ICE comes into the building,” Soto-Cardona said.

She said a “blanket ban” on phones would also cause challenges for other vulnerable students, including those who live in high-crime neighborhoods.

“Our children have to walk to school by themselves at times and our neighborhoods are not the greatest,” said Soto-Cardona. “So we want to know that they made it into the building OK and that they’re safe.”

Other school districts around the country have forged ahead with phone bans, citing research that access to social media fuels anxiety, depression, conflict and distraction. According to Education Week, 19 states have instituted bans or are requiring school districts to develop restrictions. Indiana, for example, has required all schools to prohibit all wireless devices during instructional time. Arkansas has sought to incentivize phone-free schools by offering funding to those that choose to restrict cellphone use.

Hochul has said banning smartphones during school builds on her efforts to improve youth mental health by curbing the reach of toxic social media, and her administration has argued that her policy contains the necessary carve-outs and protections.

“The governor's proposal requires that schools provide parents a way to reach their kids in case of an emergency, and includes common-sense exemptions for English language learners and students with disabilities," her office said in a statement.

But educators have said fear of deportation is rattling school communities. City Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos attributed a dip in attendance to immigrant students’ fear of encountering ICE.

Trump won a second term after a campaign promising the largest mass deportation “in our nation’s history.” ICE says it’s arresting 1,000 or more people nationwide each day. The agency has not responded to inquiries about how much immigration enforcement has ramped up around New York City compared to previous administrations.

Greg Faulkner, chair of the Panel for Educational Policy, was among those who cited concern about ICE when arguing for Hochul to “pause” her plans for a cellphone ban.

“With everything that’s happening at the national level, this is not a time I would want to remove any means of communication from a child in a school,” Faulkner said. “God forbid if the federal government were to show up at a school that child may need to reach out to a parent or a lawyer … I wouldn’t want to take that away.”

Under Hochul’s plan, school districts would be required to develop their own policies banning smartphones from arrival to dismissal, or “bell to bell.” Exceptions would be allowed for students with disabilities who require their phones, or English language learners who use a phone for translation.

But Rosa said now isn’t the right moment for such a dramatic change. “My biggest concern is the timing, given the shift in our children going through trauma and anxiety. When some of these kids are going to go home, are their parents going to be there?” Rosa said.

Hochul’s proposed budget sets aside $13.5 million for school districts to implement the plan statewide.

Aviles-Ramos has said she supports a ban, but that money isn’t enough to cover the cost of magnetic pouches used to store the smartphones.

“It’s something I feel very strongly about,” she told state lawmakers during a budget hearing last month, adding that restricting phones is necessary to keep instruction “sacred.”

She said schools would also need to develop clear protocols for how parents can reach kids, particularly given undocumented families’ heightened fears of separation.

“I want to make sure schools have clear communications plans so in the event of an emergency they can reach their families,” Aviles-Ramos said.

The city education department does not track students’ immigration status, but a comptroller’s report from last summer stated there were roughly 50,000 undocumented families with children in the city’s shelters. There are likely many more children from families with at least one undocumented parent who attend the city’s schools.

The concern about immigrant students’ access to phones bolsters earlier worries about how a ban would affect students in an emergency. Last year, Mayor Eric Adams delayed implementing a phone ban in city schools, saying he needed more time to weigh parents’ concerns about public safety, as well as other logistical issues.

According to a recent Siena poll, a majority – 62% – of New York voters support Hochul’s proposed smartphone ban. But support is lower among Black voters (47%) and Latino voters (49%).

Education officials said around 800 New York City public schools – roughly half the school system – now have some sort of phone ban in place. But teachers have said paying for storage of the phones and figuring out who’s in charge of enforcement is difficult absent a citywide policy.

Julie Scelfo, founder and executive director of Mothers Against Media Addiction, said that the city could allay parents’ fears while instituting the new ban.

“Parents rightfully need to know how to reach their kids in the event of an emergency and also how their children's school will reach them,’ she said. “Whether parents have concerns about immigration officials or anything else, these are completely legitimate and important.

"But we know that having smartphones in school and available all day to kids is distracting them," Scelfo said. "Reading and math scores are going down, and attention spans are going down. Schools can have a lot of success with these bell-to-bell policies provided that they are thinking through in advance how to communicate with parents.”