NEW YORK — The first day of classes for 900,000 New York City students on Thursday means a statewide ban on cellphones in schools is officially in effect.

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the law last spring prohibiting the devices from the morning until the final bell, with limited exceptions. The new policy is part of a larger effort to promote better attention in the classroom and more socializing in the cafeteria and hallways.

“We’re doing this because we want to make sure that you can keep learning and in a distraction-free environment,” Hochul told students at Middle School 582, The Magnet School for Multimedia, Technology and Urban Planning, in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. “We’re doing it all over the state, and you’re among the very first.”

In New York City, about half of public schools banned the phones this year, joining hundreds of schools that already had restrictions in place. While there are some guidelines that all city schools must follow, such as exemptions for students with disabilities or caregivers for younger siblings, it’s up to principals to come up with a plan to separate kids from their devices.

Among the most popular methods: Give students pouches that snap shut at the start of the school day, then unlock with a magnet at dismissal. Or collect phones when teens get to the building or younger kids get to their first class, and give them back at the end of the school day.

About 820 schools have purchased pouches, 600 are using drop-boxes or storage bins, and 550 are collecting phones in the classroom, according to the New York City Department of Education, which recently surveyed principals. The rules also apply to other electronic devices, such as smartwatches and AirPods.

When it came time to put the phones away, the reception was mixed — with some parents and students finding creative ways to get around the ban.

“I give her another phone to put in the pouch — arrest me,” said a mom of an eighth-grade student at MS 582, who was granted anonymity to speak freely. “I know her, she will not be on her phone. She’s actually a straight-A student, thank God. The governor can come and ask me, but I don’t care. Arrest me! She has a phone.”

“I’m totally against it. Because, like, God forbid anything happens, especially with all the shootings going around, I feel like it’s just dangerous,” the mom continued.

Unable to contact her daughter, Brooklyn Technical High School mom Rena Singh waited two hours to pick her up from school and show her the interborough route home to Queens. While a frustrating experience, Singh said she understood that the ban would help her child focus in the classroom and make friends at her new school.

“I don’t know what’s gonna happen this year,” Singh said. “I think she will get used to it, and she’ll be able to focus more on her studies.”

But unlike the magnetic pouches from the company Yondr at MS 582, Brooklyn Tech is using small bags with a velcro closure kept in backpacks that while a disincentive for students to grab their phones, does not guarantee their disuse.

“The way we’re using these pouches, we can access them anyways,” said Rachel Zeng, a senior, calling that a “good thing” in case of an emergency. But with deans enforcing the policy and some students having their phones taken away, she noticed fewer of her classmates reaching for their devices during the school day.

At a back-to-school press conference at HBCU Early College Prep in Jamaica, Queens, Mayor Eric Adams said there are emergency procedures in place, locks on school front doors and student drills on what to do in a crisis.

“We’re going to do our job to keep our children safe, but let’s not confuse this — Mommy did not text me during an emergency. She called the school,” Adams said. “And so, we will survive without cellphones in our schools. It is hurting our children.”

Overall, the policy remains widely popular among adults — and, for some teens, at least not too much of a nuisance.

“For me, if the phone ban wasn’t a thing, I would just keep it in my bag,” Taylin, a ninth-grader at HBCU Prep, said after the event. “Or if anyone needed to reach out to me, I would answer, put it back in my bag. … I wouldn’t just be on the phone the whole school day.”

About 61% of New York voters support a cellphone ban in schools, according to an April poll from Siena College Research Institute. The restrictions were passed with bipartisan support in the state Legislature and the backing of both the state and city teachers unions.

For the first day of the ban, Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos held an early afternoon meeting with principals citywide and deployed borough safety directors and local district staff to schools. She also planned to hold more meetings with administrators by grade level, as well as form a teacher advisory council and focus groups, including with students. But the chancellor insisted schools were ready for the challenge.

“It is a shift, but we will be OK,” Aviles-Ramos said at the press conference with the mayor. “This is not new to New York City. It is new to some schools.”

New York is one of 17 states, plus the District of Columbia, that are implementing new phone restrictions this year, for a total of 35 states with such a law on the books. The education reform has seen a rapid uptake since Florida became the first state to do so in 2023.

“I’m fortunate, when I went to school in this city, it was before the peak of social media,” mayoral Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani said at press conference outside Intermediate School 5, The Walter Crowley Intermediate School, in Elmhurst, Queens, with the United Federation of Teachers. “Because to be young in this moment is to feel a relentless amount of pressure.”

A state assemblyman, Mamdani is part of the New York Legislature that voted to implement the ban as part of its most recent state budget.

IS 5 purchased Yondr pouches in spring 2024. Entering their second full school year with the policy in place, teachers say it’s been a boon for students and staffers alike.

“We have a very successful cellphone ban in place,” said Nicole Keaster, an English teacher at IS 5, in Queens, which purchased Yondr pouches in spring 2024. “We’re really proud of it. There was a clear plan, there was follow-through.”

“I know there might be some bumps, but if you stay the course, it really does work,” said Keaster, who’s also the UFT chapter leader at her school. “Everybody, just give it a little bit of time.”

David Banks, the former city schools chancellor who pushed for a citywide school phone ban last year before Adams put the kibosh on his plans, took to social media to lament it did not happen sooner.

“The mayor at the time wasn’t prepared to do it, but thank goodness that the governor has leaned in with a level of leadership to make this happen,” Banks said in a video posted on Instagram. “This is a huge deal.”

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(With Chris Sommerfeldt)

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