NEISD rethinks the phone-free school day

The North East Independent School District last week welcomed students back to a new bell-to bell cell phone ban. Now, instead of scrolling on TikTok or Instagram during lunchtime, high school students can challenge their friends to checkers. 

San Antonio’s second-largest district implemented the updated device policy on the first day of school on Aug. 17 after spending most of the previous school year at odds with the state over the interpretation of a 2025 Texas law requiring public school districts to ban student cell phone use during the school day. 

NEISD students must now have their cell phones turned off and stored out of sight from the first bell in the morning until the end of the school day. The policy allows students to keep their devices with them, rather than turning them over to a staff member. So far, the new policy has been met by little-to-no student pushback from high schoolers at Legacy of Educational Excellence (LEE) High School, Principal Alejandro “Alex” Escamilla said. 

House Bill 1481, which took effect at the start of the 2025-26 academic year, mandated that public school districts and charters must adopt policies prohibiting students from using their personal communication devices, which also included tablets and smart watches. North East ISD invoked a months-long fight with the Texas Education Agency when it defined the “school day” as instructional time and implemented a policy allowing students to use their devices during lunchtime and in the hallways. The district shaped the original device policy based on the wishes of parents to communicate with their kids during the school day.

The state agency threatened to appoint a conservator to force the district to comply if the board didn’t back down on its own. After NEISD trustees voted in April to implement the bell-to-bell ban at the start of this school year, TEA freed the district from the threat of intervention.

Despite a handful of cases requiring disciplinary intervention, the majority of kids are responding to the ban well, Escamilla said. Staff provide a verbal reminder to students the first time they pull out their phones. LEE students have responded with apologies as they work to make the transition. Escamilla has heard the same feedback from other North East ISD principals. 

“It’s actually been very good to see the kids out there communicating with each other again,”  Escamilla said. “You can actually hear the buzz in the the cafeteria and the courtyard, because kids are actually talking.”

While the district already prohibited phones during instructional time, Escamilla hopes eliminating students’ access to social media during the full school day will decrease their anxieties and help them connect with their peers in person. A strict filtering system on the district’s network only allows students to access instructional materials on their district-issued devices, he said.

In lieu of social networking, LEE students will soon have access to board games, checkers and Uno cards, which staff ordered for students to borrow during their 50-minute phone-free lunch.

Push to limit school screen time 

Now that all Texas public school districts have complied with HB 1481, Gov. Greg Abbott wants to push the anti-technology initiative even further.

Abbott, who is up for re-election this November, announced on Aug. 13 a proposal to limit the use of electronic devices – including district-issued laptops and tablets – in the classroom. He proposed returning to physical materials and direct teacher instruction. His challenger, State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, has also campaigned on an education-focused platform and has criticized the computer model used to score state standardized tests.   

“The phone-free classroom law I signed last year was a powerful first step,”  Abbott said in a statement. “Now, we will finish the job by getting unnecessary screens out of the way and putting teachers, textbooks, and proven instruction back at the center of the classroom.”

Across the state, some districts have already taken steps to limit screen time.

Lockhart ISD, located between San Antonio and Austin, this year launched its new district-wide “Childhood Unlocked” initiative to cut back on screen time in school. The district has reduced elementary screen time and designated two recess times for play each day. Lockhart middle and high school teachers must cut in half the time spent using devices for instruction. Adam Miller, the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, said district leaders are excited to pave the way in reducing screen time across district campuses. 

Lockhart’s movement to reduce screen time started in 2024 when Superintendent Mark Estrada read a book titled “The Anxious Generation” and brought it to his executive staff to read. Two years later, data from the first two weeks of the 2026-27 year shows the district has reduced screen time by over 50%, Miller said. Administrators hope the initiative leads to increased learning, social interaction and creativity.

“We’ve shifted from a play-based childhood to a phone-based childhood,” Miller said. “The essence of childhood is playing. We strongly believe that if we have a more intentional approach to technology and increase opportunities for free play and creativity and movement, that it’s just going to have a healthier impact on all of our kids.” 

Addressing social media harms

Education leaders and policymakers across both Texas and the nation have discussed the potentially harmful effects of social media on children, particularly teens. 

The Texas House Committee on Public Health on Aug. 20 discussed the effect of social media and AI on youth mental health and cognitive development. And on Wednesday, Meta, which owns social networking sites including Facebook and Instagram, agreed to pay states $18 billion, which includes $1 billion to Texas, for harms caused by teen social media addiction. The settlement also requires Meta to implement new safeguards to protect children on its platforms.

In Texas, the settlement will fund youth mental health services and school grants, the Office of the Texas Attorney General announced. 

Some San Antonio districts, including Northside and San Antonio ISDs, joined a separate national class-action lawsuit against social media companies over negative mental health effects on their students from social media addiction. The lawsuit, involving thousands of districts nationwide, is still pending in federal court in California. 

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This article originally published at From TikTok to checkers: NEISD rethinks the phone-free school day.