Vermont has joined more than half the states across the country in banning smartphones from schools, a move state education officials and lawmakers have said will go a long way toward alleviating compulsive social media use among teens while removing classroom distractions.

Phil Scott signed legislation late last month that requires Vermont schools to adopt policies prohibiting students from using cellphones and other personal devices like smartwatches from arrival to dismissal. The policies, which would include exceptions for students who need certain accommodations, must take effect in time for the 2026-27 school year.

The law also includes a first-of-its kind provision that bars schools from using social media platforms to communicate with students, or from otherwise requiring students to have social media accounts to engage in academic and extracurricular activities. That provision took effect immediately. Although the legislation provides exceptions for certain platforms approved by school administrators, it prohibits school officials, teachers and coaches from using platforms like Facebook or TikTok to make announcements to students.

Vermont’s move comes amid growing concerns nationwide about the emotional and cognitive impacts of smartphone and social media use among teens, which have inspired a bipartisan movement to ban personal devices from classrooms across the country.

Over 25 other states including Virginia, Arkansas and California have passed laws that either require schools to develop phone-free policies or simply ban smartphones from public school classrooms outright at the state level. A handful of other states like Delaware and Pennsylvania have passed laws incentivizing — but not requiring — schools to adopt policies by offering funding for pilot programs.

Several countries, including France and Brazil, have also put into place nation-wide versions of a school smartphone ban.

“We need kids to be focused on learning, interacting with their peers, teachers, and friends while they’re at school,” Scott said in a statement upon signing the bill. “And it’s clear now that phones can get in the way of important conversations and class discussions and can also be used for harmful interactions, like bullying.”

Vermont’s law directs the state’s Agency of Education to create a “model policy” for schools to follow when enacting the device ban, though schools could choose to adopt their own policies provided they are “at least as stringent” as the one developed by the state.

Prior to the passage of the law, many schools across Vermont had already adopted classroom smartphone bans, taking varied approaches to enforcement.

At the Harwood Union Middle and High School, which adopted a ban last year, students place phones in lockable fabric pouches at the beginning of each day. At K-8 schools in the Maple Run Unified School District, meanwhile, students who bring phones to school are asked to turn them off and leave them out of sight.

“With the passage of our bill, the school day will soon provide all Vermont kids with a respite from the pressures and harms that are now ever-present in their lives thanks to social media and other online products,” Rep. Angela Arsenault, D-Williston, said in a press release from the advocacy group Fairplay.

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