Arizona Drew a Line Between Phones and Learning Tools. California Didn't.

Both of Arizona's U.S. senators want cell phones out of classrooms. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) introduced the Supporting Focus in Schools Act this week, just a week after Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) rolled out his bipartisan UNPLUGGED Schools Grant Act. Each bill would give schools federal grant money for phone lockers, pouches and teacher training to help keep phones put away during class.

Unlike some school districts across the country, Arizona didn't have to wait for Washington to figure out how to address this. The state already has a law on the books that gets it right.

Arizona Drew the Line.

In 2025, Gov. Katie Hobbs signed HB 2484, sponsored by Republican Rep. Beverly Pingerelli. The law requires every school district and charter school to adopt policies limiting student use of wireless devices during the school day.

The key detail is in the exceptions. Students can still use devices "for educational purposes, as directed by the student's teacher," along with emergencies and medical needs. The law also requires schools to restrict student access to social media, but lets teachers give students access when it serves a lesson.

In other words, Arizona told schools to get the distractions out and leave teachers the tools they use to teach.

"Arizona classrooms are for learning, not TikTok," Pingerelli said when the bill was signed.

California Went Further

Not all states or localities are following in Arizona’s footsteps. In April, the Los Angeles Unified School District board voted to restrict student screen time across the district - even educational technology. The resolution bars student devices for the youngest learners, through first grade. It also directs the district to set screen time caps for every grade and subject this school year, and it orders an audit of the district's education technology contracts.

That goes well beyond phones. And according to a newly released survey, it's not where LA parents put their focus.

What LA Parents Actually Want

Impact Research, the Democratic polling firm that worked for President Biden, surveyed 340 LAUSD parents in July (margin of error ±5.3 points). When asked what the district should make its top priorities, parents pointed to the basics:

 

- Increasing academic support: 37%

- Raising teacher pay: 35%

- Reducing class sizes: 28%

- Improving school safety: 28%

Tech came in near the bottom. Just 11% picked limiting screen time and 10% limiting all devices.

On classroom technology specifically, a plurality of parents (43%) said schools should limit cell phones but not the computers and tablets used for learning. That held across party lines: 45% of Democrats, 43% of Republicans and 38% of independents. Fewer than three in ten (29%) wanted all screens limited.

LA parents, it turns out, landed right about where Arizona's law did.

Why the Difference Matters in Arizona

Tens of thousands of Arizona students are still learning English. They speak Spanish, Vietnamese, Navajo, Somali and more at home.

For many of those kids, educational technology is how they keep up with state and national standards. A reading program can read a passage aloud, define an unfamiliar word on the spot, and let a student replay a lesson until it clicks. It can also show a teacher exactly which skills a child is missing, so they can spend her one-on-one time where it counts instead of guessing.

That's the kind of tool Arizona's law leaves in teachers' hands but LAUSD’s policy puts it at risk.

A phone buzzing during algebra and a reading program helping a first-grader learn English are not the same thing. Arizona's law knows the difference and so do most LA parents, who said they want phones limited and learning tools left alone.

As Gallego and Kelly make their case in Washington, the lesson from next door is a simple one: get the phones out but keep what helps kids learn.