VT Public: Joining a growing nationwide movement, Vermont lawmakers ban phones in school

House lawmakers during a floor debate at the Montpelier Statehouse on June 16, 2025. Photo by Brian Stevenson, Vermont Public

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Vermont Public | By Lola Duffort

Published June 16, 2025 at 9:20 PM EDT

Smartphones are everywhere these days. But soon, there’s one place you won’t see them: Vermont’s schools.

State lawmakers gave final approval Monday to a bill, H.480, that would ban personal electronic devices in all public schools and all private schools that accept publicly-funded students. (The legislation exempts students who need devices to access special education or homelessness services.)

The ban would go into effect for the 2026-27 school year, which is a little later than Rep. Angela Arsenault, who championed phone-free legislation, said she would have preferred. But otherwise, the Williston Democrat said the bill is basically what she had hoped for. Most notably, Arsenault said in an interview earlier this month, it would prohibit the use of such devices from arrival to dismissal, which advocates often call a “bell-to-bell” ban.

Many schools prohibit phones during class time, but allow students to use them in the hallways or lunch. That’s much harder to enforce, Arsenault said.

“They find that then teachers are still having to say, once kids get into the classroom, ‘Okay, put your phones away. Put your phones away. Okay, I'm going to need your phone.’ And by having a bell-to-bell policy, you eliminate that task for teachers,” she said.

Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, is expected to sign the legislation. While his press secretary, Amanda Wheeler, said in an email that Scott’s office had not yet reviewed the latest iteration of the bill, she wrote that Scott had been “generally supportive of phone-free policies.”

“We often hear phones in the classroom (and in professional settings, for that matter) can be distracting so by implementing these policies, which some schools have already done, it helps students to focus on learning,” Wheeler said.

In red and blue states alike, the phone-free schools movement is enjoying remarkable success — and at breakneck speed.... (read more)