Teachers and Principals Support Student Personal Device Use Policies, But Questions About Implementation and Impact Remain

1. Principals reported more favorable implementation of cellphone policies than teachers.

A wealth of data illustrates a discrepancy between principals’ and teachers’ perceptions toward a variety of education-related topics. One such example appeared in a 2023 study by Veletic, Price, & Olsen of data from the 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS). The review examined data from 37 countries and found that principals’ and teachers’ views of school climate differed, such that principals reported stronger school climate than teachers.

Figure 1 uses data from questions NEA added to RAND’s American Educator Panels, American Teacher Panel, “Fall 2025 American Teacher Panel Omnibus Survey” (RAND, Santa Monica, CA, January 2026) to show that more than half of principals and teachers perceived their school as having implemented its cellphone policy “using clear and consistent rules,” “using consistent enforcement,” and “using clearly defined exceptions.” However, fewer than half of teachers somewhat or strongly agreed that their school implemented its policy “using regular feedback and evaluation mechanisms.”

Note the discrepancy between principals’ and teachers’ perceptions across all items—principals had a much rosier view of implementation.

2. Principals had a rosier view of the challenges associated with enforcing personal device bans in schools and classrooms.

Principals and teachers agreed about the top reasons that cellphone policies were hard to enforce: “educators getting pushback from students,” “educators are uncomfortable confiscating cellphones,” and “educators getting pushback from parents” (Figure 2). However, teachers were much more likely than principals to cite each of these reasons.

Additionally, principals’ keen sense of optimism was particularly notable regarding their perceptions of support from administrators. Five percent of principals compared to 39% of teachers selected “educators don’t get enough support from administrators” as a top reason that cellphone policies were hard to enforce.

3. Across all domains, principals reported that cellphone policies had a greater impact than teachers reported.

Note that principals had a rosier view of the impact that implementation of student cellphone policies in their schools had on students and school-climate-related items than teachers. The largest discrepancies in principals’ versus teachers’ perceptions appeared for “reducing cyberbullying” (83% vs. 37%), “reducing bullying in person” (69% vs. 29%), and “improving student mental health” (83% vs. 47%) (Figure 3). Additionally, principals and teachers didn’t always agree on the areas of greatest impact.

4. Year of cellphone policy implementation was largely unrelated to teachers’ perceptions of the positive impacts of that policy.

Teachers noted the greatest perceived positive impact across all years on “decreasing student distractibility in class,” “increasing student engagement with peers,” and “increasing student engagement with adults in school” (Figure 4). Principals also reported the greatest perceived impact across all years on “decreasing student distractibility in class.” However, note that schools that implemented a device policy prior to the 2023–2024 school year were less likely to report positive impacts of that policy in some areas. Perhaps, schools that implemented their policy in 2023–2024 or later learned what worked and didn’t work from early implementers and, therefore, are seeing greater success in terms of outcomes.