NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: How Students Are Handling New York’s School Cell Phone Ban, and New Jersey Considers a Ban of its Own

Episode Date: November 25, 2025

Months into the first school year since New York banned smartphones in school, students are talking to each other more than they used to. Meanwhile, Gov. Phil Murphy wants New Jersey to pass similar legislation to ban cell phones in schools across the Garden State.

How students are handling New York's school cell phone ban. And New Jersey considers a cell phone ban of its own. From WNYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Jenae Pierre. New York and New Jersey are suing the Trump administration to stop it from cutting funds from programs that help house thousands of formerly homeless people. The White House says the money will instead go toward short-term programs

that mandate work rules and treatment for men. mental illness and addiction. Department of Social Services Commissioner Molly Park says the way to solve homelessness is by providing housing. Should these people lose their homes as a result of this funding and policy shift that we would see significant increases in unsheltered homelessness, right? More people on our streets and subways and a significant uptick in shelter use. New York City is expected to lose more than $100 million in long-term housing funding next

January. Months into the first school year since New York banned smartphones in school, students say analog activities like cards and board games are making a comeback, and kids are actually talking to each other more. WMYC's Jessica Gould visited Benjamin Cardoza High School in Queens to ask teenagers how it's going. There are more than 3,000 students at Cardozo High School, but lunchtime used to be surprisingly quiet because everyone had their eyes glued to their phones. Not anymore.

Jimena Garcia is 15. This year's gotten way louder. Do you see it as a plus or a minus in terms of the lunchroom? I mean, it depends because sometimes I would like to take, like, naps in the lunchroom. But now I can't because of the noise. But it's fun. We keep talking. Exactly.

Garcia and her friends are playing Jenga. You were about to knock it over. Oh, my God. No, no. My friend? Once the smartphone ban went into effect, the school collected board games to give out at lunch. You're going to knock it over, I know. The goal is to keep kids busy and help them connect.

So they're playing Connect 4, Scrabble, and Trivial Pursuit. Here at the Jenga table, things are getting tense as the tower starts to lean. This fall, a survey from the New York State Teachers Union found almost 90% of school staff's statewide, said the ban had already improved the school environment. Teachers say even the hallway traffic is moving more smoothly, now that kids aren't staring at their phones all the time. Cardozo's students, like 14-year-old Henry Chen, say school does feel different. It's way more socializing. People are actually talking to each other

instead of being on their phones most of the time. He's playing trouble for the first time. Yo, we got to stop this guy, huh? Somebody stopped this guy, bro. school president Alyssa Coe is 17. She says all kinds of old school activities are making a comeback. Her friends are passing notes now and taking Polaroid pictures. There are just like a lot of memories that we make throughout high school that we want to capture. And Polaroids are physical so we can like hang it up in your room.

And like I actually have a lot of Polaroids like on my wall. Some kids have vintage iPods. 16-year-old Brian Fang says he's even seen people reading actual books. Actually, just last period, I was in my AP Environmental Science class, and I saw this guy reading a book, and then I looked around, and a lot of people were actually reading books instead of being on their phones. Just a few feet away, Ryan Trepathy, who's also 16, is reading Lord of the Flies. The first chapter.

What do you think so far? Well, I'm not the biggest fan of it, to be honest. Yeah, why? I guess I'm just not used to reading. You usually look on my phone. So it's taking some work. Yeah. Cardozo has kids keep their phones in magnetic pouches,

which need to be unlocked at the end of the day. A few kids still try to sneak in their phones or break their pouches. Tripathi says he has mixed feelings about the whole thing. He says class discussions have gotten more interesting, but he misses the old days. Because sometimes you just want to go on your phone and you don't have the ability to do that anymore. He turns the page and hunkers down,

but then lunches over. and thank goodness for the bell because students don't have their phones to keep track of the time and some of them say they're only so-so at reading the wall clock. That's WMYC's Jessica Gould. New Jersey

could be the next state in the country to ban students from using cell phones in school. More on that after the break. In January, New Jersey will inaugurate Mikey Cheryl as its next governor. She'll become only the second woman to govern the Garden State and the first Democratic woman. But before he leaves office, outgoing governor, Phil Murphy, says one of his big priorities that he'd like to get done is signing a statewide ban on student cell phones in schools. WNYC's Mike Hayes is here to talk more about it. Mike, give us the details on the cell phone ban New Jersey lawmakers are talking about.

Yeah, so what legislators in New Jersey are working on today is a statewide policy that would ban students from using their phones from bell to bell. So during the entire instructional day. And in New Jersey, some municipalities have actually started doing this on their own. One example is Woodbury, New Jersey, starting this year junior and senior high school students, when they get to school, they place their phones in these locked pouches that they carry around, but can't unlock until the end of the day. So Governor Murphy has said we need policies like this across the state. And he told our colleague Nancy Solomon last week on WNYC that signing a law on this is among his highest priorities. Now, legislators have told me they're working on this and they're hopeful that they're going to pass something in the coming weeks. They're just working on some amendments with the Murphy administration before they bring it up to the floor for a vote. And if it passes, New Jersey would become the 21st state in the country to pass a total cell phone ban for students in schools. We should note, however, that when we say total, there are some exceptions here that would be made for students with disabilities and those with individualized education plans. Now, Mike, earlier in today's show, we talked about the school

cell phone ban in New York. And I'm wondering, how would this one compare in New Jersey? Yeah, I think a lot of New Jersey teachers and school administrators might be looking at WNYC and Gothamist reporting that says lunch rooms in New York are loud again because they got rid of cell phones. And they're probably saying that, hey, that's what we want. In many ways, New Jersey is trying to mirror what New York and other states have done. New Jersey lawmakers are looking to give municipalities, local control over how they would institute these rules, which is much like you've seen in New York. For instance, we're expecting that New Jersey's law will follow the example of other states that are allowing schools to decide, do we want kids to put their phones in locked pouches,

in lockers, in backpacks, et cetera. Earlier you mentioned that legislators and Governor Murphy want to get something passed within the coming weeks. That's pretty fast. Talk about the legislative process there. Yeah, it is fast, Janae, but now is the time to do things quickly in the New Jersey legislature. We're in what's known as the lame duck period. It's that strange time between the elections in November and when the new governor

you mentioned the top Mikey Cheryl and other newly elected members of the legislature haven't been sworn in yet. And these six weeks or so of the lame duck period are particularly significant for Governor Murphy because it's his last chance to get stuff done before he leaves office. So you better believe his team will be pushing their priorities. Now, on this piece of legislation in particular, last January, it passed the Senate unanimously. we should note on that, this is something that has bipartisan support. But then it paused in the house. So it's further along in the process than a lot of other bills. It's also not a particularly long bill. It's about five pages. So when they say they're working to refine it and then

bring it up for a vote, it's not hard to believe that they'll work quickly through that process here. Now, of course, we know that there has to be some concerns from parents about public safety here. Can you talk a bit about that? Yeah, so I talked to Assembly member Corey Miller. He's one of the co-sponsors of the bill. And he brought that up to me when we were talking about the cell phone ban legislation. He talked about how parents have expressed concern about how if this goes into effect and then an emergency happens at their kids' school, the parents fear the prospect of not being

able to get in touch with their kids. Now, Assembly member Miller works in higher education at Rowan College in South Jersey as his day job. He made the point that sometimes kids having their cell phones can actually be a public safety detriment. And I should also note Cheney that Cody Miller, he works as a volunteer firefighter and first responder in Williamstown where he lives. He said when something happens and parents are communicating with their kids, they flood the school. And that makes it hard for emergency first responders. So he noted that most schools have text alerts that they send out as well as law enforcement on-site that may be providing updates in an emergency situation.

So Cody Miller said he doesn't see any public safety issues with the cell phone ban bill. That's WNYC's Mike Hayes. The holiday season is upon us, and folks are already talking about New Year's Eve. A new time square ball will ring in 2026. It's called the Constable. isolation ball. Here's the president of NYC Tourism and Conventions, Julie Coker. The ball will be more than a centerpiece of New Year's Eve. It will become a touch point. It's the biggest one yet, 12.5 feet wide and weigh more than 12,000 pounds. The ball features circular water for crystals and a sound reactive lighting system. Sounds pretty cool, right? I mean,

that's if you don't mind Times Square. And I know real New Yorkers do. No shade. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.