CLEVELAND — Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) students will say goodbye to their cellphones this upcoming school year.

What You Need To Know

  • Cleveland Metropolitan School District will be a cellphone free zone for students this upcoming school year

  • Each school will be responsible for deciding how to store students’ cellphones

  • Some schools in the district have already implemented a no cellphone policy

The district made the decision to no longer allow students to have their phones out during the school day.

This decision comes as districts across the state have implemented or are considering similar cellphone bans, including in the Akron Public School district.

Susan Harvey is the principal at CMSD’s George Washington Carver, which hosts grades Pre-K through 8th grade. During the 2023-24 school year, her school became a cellphone free zone for students.

“I think that cellphones are the biggest interruption to education that we have ever seen,” Harvey said. “I did notice an improvement in time on task [with the phone ban]. So kids were focusing on turning in their work they were more focused on the teacher versus looking at their cellphones.”

Each morning, the students put their phones into a lockable cell phone bag, called a Yondr pouch, to store for the duration the school day, and they are able to open the pouch and retrieve their phones before leaving school.

Now, Warren Morgan, the CEO of CMSD, said the rest of the school district will be cellphone free this upcoming school year.

Each school will be responsible for deciding how to store students’ cellphones during the day.

“The importance of this is really making sure we are preserving that instruction time. Schools that have implemented this, we already have schools that have done this for a year or two, we’ve seen increases in student engagement and learning, as well as decreases in serious infractions and also improved culture and climate," Morgan said.

Harvey said her students did push back when the ban was first introduced but they eventually came around and no disciplinary actions had to be issued in response to the ban.

“When we told them that this was a way to be successful, this is a way for you to do better academically, then they kind of understood the reason why,” Harvey explained.

She said she is excited to see this policy implemented throughout her district.

“The advice I would give principals is to make sure you have a team behind you — its not just you. Make sure your teachers are on board, make sure your whole staff is on board, parents are on board. It’s not a surprise. I know that parents know we are going to a cellphone-free district, however, they may not understand all of the ins and outs of it, so it's really good for you to have meetings with your parents so they understand why we are doing this.”