Granite School District students started the 2026-27 school year Aug. 12 under Utah's new bell-to-bell cellphone ban. The statewide rule bars phones, smartwatches and similar devices from first bell to last.

Senate Bill 69, signed by Gov. Spencer Cox on March 18, expands a 2025 law that restricted phone use only during class time. The new law covers lunch, passing periods and all other downtime. The Utah House passed SB 69 46-21, and the Senate gave unanimous final approval, Utah News Dispatch reported.

The law took effect July 1 but leaves enforcement up to individual schools. Some may require phones in backpacks or lockers. Others may use Yondr pouches, fabric sleeves with a magnetic lock that keep a phone on the student but inaccessible. Exceptions exist for emergencies, medical needs, school-issued devices used for instruction and brief parental-requested use in a designated area during non-instructional time.

One Granite District school already has a year of data. Granger High School adopted Yondr pouches after the 2025 classroom-only ban. Luke Allen, Granite School District's communications director, told the Millcreek Journal that fights at Granger dropped 50% and academic failure rates hit a five-year low.

"The first year of that policy at Granger High School, if you compare the student failure rate to the four years leading up to that, [Granger] had their lowest rates of those five years," Allen said.

Cost remains a hurdle. Yondr pouches are expensive for schools already stretched by budget cuts, and SB 69 sponsor Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, said in February that schools would not be required to use them. "There are all kinds of workable solutions at various costs," Fillmore said at a news conference when the bill was introduced.

The Granite School District Board of Education voted 6-0 on Aug. 4 to approve a first reading of updated electronic-device policy, Article VIII.A.24, according to board meeting records. The update conforms district rules to state law and creates separate exceptions for high school device use. It also requires each school to designate an area for permitted device use during non-instructional time and to adopt accountability practices.

Julie Jackson, the board member who represents Precinct 1 covering Millcreek and Holladay, said in a June Millcreek Journal interview that the district has had "great success" removing phones from schools. Jackson, who announced in August she will leave the board at year's end to run for the Utah House, stressed that enforcement is the real challenge.

Harvard Kennedy School presented early data in June suggesting bell-to-bell bans are producing positive results. Florida, the first state to adopt such a ban in 2023, saw improved learning but a temporary spike in suspensions in year one. By year two, suspensions returned to baseline while learning gains held.

A second reading of the district's electronic-device policy is expected at a future board meeting.