# Phones in bedrooms and at school

**Should phones be allowed in bedrooms and at school?**

Whether phones stay out of bedrooms overnight and how phones are handled during the school day.

In short: Parents choose between 5 main approaches: Never overnight, charge in a common area; Out at bedtime until a set age; Night mode; Unrestricted; support school bans; Want the child reachable. Evidence: evidence leans one way. Research or guidance points in a direction, but it's thin, small or correlational. Best settled: tween.

- Area: Screens, phones and digital life
- Evidence: Evidence leans one way
- Best settled: Tween
- First published: 2026-10-03
- Last updated: 2026-10-05
- Page: https://www.raisingyourchild.com/topics/screens-phones-and-digital-life--phones-in-bedrooms-and-at-school

## Phones in bedrooms and at school: what are the options?

1. **Never overnight, charge in a common area**: Phones never stay in the bedroom at night and are charged in a shared room.
2. **Out at bedtime until a set age**: The phone leaves the bedroom at bedtime until the child reaches an age you set.
3. **Night mode**: The phone stays in the room with notifications silenced.
4. **Unrestricted; support school bans**: The phone is unrestricted at home, and you back the school banning phones.
5. **Want the child reachable**: You want the child to have their phone at school so you can reach them.

## Phones in bedrooms and at school: what does the evidence say?

**Evidence leans one way.** Research or guidance points in a direction, but it's thin, small or correlational.

The AAP's June 2026 parent guidance names bedrooms and mealtimes as the places to start keeping devices out, especially the hour before bed; the underlying sleep studies were not retrieved. School access is now mostly set by state law, and trackers disagree on the count: Education Week counts at least 37 states plus DC requiring districts to ban or restrict student phones, with most requiring a bell-to-bell restriction, while other trackers report 41 or more states and between about 20 and 33 with full-day bans. Check your own state and district

Sources:

- [HealthyChildren.org](https://www.healthychildren.org/English/family-life/Media/Pages/helping-kids-thrive-in-a-digital-world-AAP-policy-explained.aspx)
- [Education Week, April 2026](https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/a-federal-school-cellphone-policy-big-barriers-stand-in-the-way/2026/04)
- [Away for the Day](https://www.awayfortheday.org/latest-news/more-states-introduced-school-cell-phone-bans-in-2026)

## What else is worth knowing?

Phones in the bedroom at night are linked with less sleep. Many schools now restrict phones during the day. The two questions are where the phone sleeps and whether it goes to school.

## Questions to ask each other

- Where do phones sleep at night?
- How do we feel about phones in school?
- What would we do if our child needs to be reachable?

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General information, not medical advice. Two parents can each answer this and compare: https://www.raisingyourchild.com/explore?cat=screens-phones-and-digital-life&topic=screens-phones-and-digital-life--phones-in-bedrooms-and-at-school