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As restrictions on student personal devices increase, education leaders must ensure families can still connect with their students during the school day. Edlio's school mobile app makes staying connected easy.
Many schools and districts are entering the 26–27 school year with a new policy implementation to navigate–cellphone restrictions for students. As of June 2026, more than 30 states had enacted laws or policies that restrict or ban the use of smartphones and/or personal communication devices in K-12 classrooms. The scope of the restrictions vary, from prohibiting use only during classroom time, to full-day bans.
Support for cellphone restrictions in schools has continued to grow. In a recent survey by Pew Research Center, 77% of adults supported in-classroom cellphone bans. 48% supported full-day device bans, up 12% from 2024.
Parents Want to Stay Connected
One of the reasons in-classroom cellphone restrictions receive more support than full-day bans is that parents want to ensure they can communicate with their students. A 2024 survey by the National Parents Union found more than half of parents thought students should be able to use their phones at some point during the school day. When asked about reasons they would want their students to have access to their cellphones, 79% listed emergency communication, and 54% listed transportation coordination.
So, even though a majority of parents support cellphone restrictions in school, they still want to be able to connect with their students when necessary. For schools and districts, ensuring that connectivity can be important to maintaining strong family engagement, and making sure parents feel heard.
Edlio’s School Mobile App Can Help
With a custom school mobile app from Edlio, families can contact their students during the day on school-approved devices. The mobile app works on browsers, Chromebooks, Windows and Mac laptops, and iOS and Android tablets. Schools can set conversation options to ensure that students and parents can always message each other using the mobile app.
So even in schools where a full-day personal device ban is in place, families can feel confident they can always connect when they need to.
Each school mobile app from Edlio includes school branding, logo, colors, & mascot–for an app as unique as each school or district. Parents who have students at multiple schools can also download a single district app and toggle between schools for custom updates.
Learn more about how you can transform your school communication with a custom mobile app for schools here.
Continuing the Conversation
Many of these new cellphone and personal device policies are going into place at a time where there is a pushback against technology in the classroom overall. Every technology decision a school or district makes right now is under a high degree of scrutiny, and the need for clear communication around technology is at an all-time high. Edlio is committed to being a strategic partner to schools and districts by providing a full K-12 communications platform and sharing our decades of expertise in helping schools and districts reach every family, connect their community, and uplift every student.
