The bill 1481 is a new state law banning all personal technology devices from school during instructional time. This law took effect during the 2025-2026 school year. If caught with a phone or any personal technology device you’ll face disciplinary actions. It was signed into law by Governor Abbot—this law takes place in Texas. They passed this law because they believe that no phones in school can help for a better learning environment. 

The real question is if it’s really helping for a better learning environment. As a student myself, I see people still being off task and not paying attention because of their chromebook. Since I’m a freshman, I don’t see much of a difference, however; people who are juniors and seniors most likely experienced a change with this law. Since it’s the first year with the phone ban law there’s not much research about how much it is and isn’t working. 

The phone ban can help with students who get cyberbullied which helps prevent that from happening. This article says “Eighty-six percent of principals in schools with some sort of policy restricting cell phone use endorsed the safety-related benefits of those policies, most commonly citing positive impacts on school climate, a reduction in inappropriate cell phone use, and a reduction in cyberbullying.” The use of technology causes distraction in school like listening to music instead of listening to the teacher or doing something off task. Students dislike the phone ban because they think it’s foolish that they aren’t allowed to use it during lunch or in the hallways, however; if they didn’t make this law students would most likely use their phones a lot more in class and not care rather the teacher takes it up or not because they could get it back at the end of class.