CHERRY HILL, N.J. — Gov. Mikie Sherrill visited Cherry Hill High School East on Thursday to hear from students about New Jersey’s new bell-to-bell restrictions on cellphones and other internet-connected devices in public schools.
The law, signed in January by former Gov. Phil Murphy, requires every public school district to adopt a policy limiting student device use for the full school day starting with the 2026-27 school year. The restrictions cover lunch, study hall and time between classes, according to the governor’s office.
Sherrill took part in a roundtable with students about how the policy has affected their classes, friendships and daily routines.
“We know that when kids put down the screens, their mental health and academic performance improve,” Sherrill said. She said her administration would keep working to “hold Big Tech accountable for the harmful content and addictive features they push on our children.”
Districts may decide how phones are stored, from locked pouches and lockers to classroom storage or keeping devices off in students’ bags. At Cherry Hill East, students must keep phones turned off and out of sight all day. Violations are handled through a tiered approach that can include locking a student’s phone away for the rest of the day, the governor’s office said.
State Education Commissioner Lily Laux said that after an adjustment period, educators report more focused classrooms, more engaged students and fewer social media-related disruptions. “While no single policy is a cure-all, these new policies are helping schools create better conditions for teaching and learning,” she said.
Cherry Hill Superintendent Kwame Morton said staff and students have reported “greater student engagement and more face-to-face conversation among students” since the rules took effect. A junior at the school said she has been more productive and less stressed without her phone competing for her attention.
The visit follows Sherrill’s announcement earlier in the week that Rutgers University was selected through a competitive grant process to host the state’s Social Media Research Center, created under one of three children’s online safety bills she signed in August. Those laws also codified the New Jersey Age-Appropriate Design Code, which limits data collection from children and requires the highest privacy settings by default for young users.
Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald, state Sen. Paul Moriarty, the New Jersey School Boards Association and the New Jersey PTA also voiced support for the policy. “Not everything government does will be popular, especially with teenagers,” Greenwald said. “But sometimes setting boundaries is the best thing we can do for our kids.”
This report is based on a press release from the Office of Gov. Mikie Sherrill.
Leave a Reply