Arizona is at a critical crossroads. 

Think back to your own school days. How much learning, friendship and fun would have been lost if you had been allowed to bring a small television set to school and watch it all day long, even at lunch and recess? It may seem like an absurd question — a television set? at school? — but it is precisely the reality that students today are experiencing. 

Since the early 2010s, U.S. middle and high schools have seen a startling increase in mental illness and psychological suffering among their students. The acceptance of smartphones in schools has fueled cyberbullying, conflict among students, and had a cumulative, enduring and deleterious effect on adolescents’ abilities to focus and apply themselves. This is especially harrowing as nearly half of American teens say that they are online “almost constantly.” 

This isn’t just about mental health. Globally, test scores have been dropping since 2012. In January, new data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that reading and math scores in the U.S. have dropped to their lowest levels in decades. 

Right now, Arizona has the opportunity to restore the school day. HB2484, introduced by Rep. Beverly Pingerelli, R-Peoria, would limit the use of wireless devices and social media during the full school day. If passed, Arizona will join the dozens of states across the country that are currently working to address this important issue. Arizona will join countries including Australia, Brazil, France, Finland, Greece, Italy and the Netherlands that have passed legislation or enacted policies to limit or eliminate cell phone usage by students. 

In a divided country and a world of diverse nations, we have seen education policy on this subject move at astonishing speeds. Why? Because parents and teachers around the world have seen the damage done to students’ attention, education and mental health when they spend much of the school day on their phones texting, scrolling and posting on social media, watching videos and playing video games.

A 2024 survey of school principals showed that they were similarly alarmed by the effect of smartphones on students, with 88% stating that they were making children tired and distracted, and 85% believing it was amplifying violence and bullying in schools. No wonder that, in 2023, a major Unesco report considered the overwhelming evidence that excessive phone use was correlated with lower school performance and poorer mental health and called for the ban of smartphones from schools. 

HB2484 is a step in the right direction, but could be amended to be stronger, while the issue has legislative attention. To provide the most benefits for kids, phone-free school policies should require the full separation of students from their devices throughout the school day. Like Arizona, some jurisdictions in the U.S. are limiting student phone use, but leaving some ambiguity as to how individual districts interpret the mandate. While this is certainly a step in the right direction, I urge Arizona to consider even stronger universal bell-to-bell, phone-free school legislation. 

For example, some districts may interpret the current language as allowing for a policy that only fully bans phones during class time. Limiting phone use only during instructional time still allows for students to rush to their phones between classes, at lunch and during recess, costing them valuable opportunities to connect with one another face-to-face.

Moreover, research from the National Education Association found that 73% of teachers in schools that allow phone use between classes report that phones are disruptive during class. In contrast, of the several policies examined, only the phone-free or “away for the day” policy produced good results: only 28% of teachers in such schools said that phones were disruptive during their classes. It’s only when students have six to seven hours away from their phones that they fully turn to each other and to their teachers.

Walk around most school hallways today and take in the silence, notice the eeriness. In contrast, whenever schools adopt a bell-to-bell policy the reports from teachers and administrators are always the same: “we hear laughter in the hallways again.” Also, bullying, disciplinary problems and absenteeism decline. School becomes more fun.

In passing HB2484, Arizona can bring conversation and laughter back to the hallways of over a million Arizona students. 

Social media is designed to steal the attention of kids and teens who are at pivotal stages of their mental development. Our kids are owed their attention back. Our kids are deserving of the learning, friendship, and fun that we recall from our own schooling experiences. And, for now, the one place where we can truly safeguard that is schools. We need to give our kids a break from the noise and the drama. We need to and Arizona can. 

Jonathan Haidt is an American social psychologist and the bestselling author of “The Anxious Generation.”