‘Don’t Seem To Care About Their Phones’: Library Checkouts Surge as Students Turn to Books To Fill Time After Cellphone Bans

A year after Texas implemented a statewide cellphone ban, students are turning to books to fill the time they used to spend scrolling on their phones while in school. The Dallas Independent School District reported a 24.35 percent increase in the number of library books checked out compared to the previous year. From the first day of the 2025-2026 school year to March 31, 2026, the district reported that the total number of books checked out was 1,084,837, CBS Texas reported. During the same period of the previous year, that number was 872,430. A librarian at Hillcrest High School, Nina Canales, told CBS Texas, “I started hearing, ‘Oh, I’m so bored. I can’t get on my phone after I do my work or during lunchtime.”“Once they lock into these stories, they don’t seem to care about their phones at all,” she said. Ms. Canales told the outlet that she was “floored” when she compared reports from the 2024-2025 school year to the current year.“I had to re-do the report again because I was like, ‘What, are you kidding me?’” she said. A ninth grader, Yamilet Jimenez, told the outlet, “Now that I’m busy with a bunch of work and college, I don’t find myself missing my phone that much, even at home.”In 2025, Texas passed H.B. 1481, which prohibits students from using personal devices such as cellphones and smartwatches during the school day. More than 30 states and Washington, D.C., have bans or restrictions on cellphone use in public schools in an attempt to limit disruptions to the learning process and increase academic performance. Other states are also seeing a major increase in the number of books checked out. Besides an increase in the number of books students are reading, some studies have found that after the bans, test scores increased. A study conducted by researchers from the University of Rochester and RAND found that in two years after Florida banned cellphones in schools, test scores increased by two to three percentiles. The number of unexcused absences also decreased.There was an increase in the number of disciplinary proceedings in the first year after the ban was implemented, which returned to its normal level in the second year. As reports spread of the apparent success of cellphone bans, more states are considering legislation to implement similar bans. Connecticut’s House passed a bill this week that implements a statewide ban on cellphone usage between the morning and afternoon bell. That bill would require students to turn their phones off and have them stored in backpacks, lockers, or locked pouches. Lawmakers in Illinois are also considering a ban. Some lawmakers have raised concerns about the bans when it comes to potential emergency situations and parents trying to get in contact with their children. States that have passed cellphone bans have typically left it up to the school districts to determine whether to ban students’ personal devices on school property or to designate storage areas for them. Other critics have argued that the decision on whether to ban devices should be left up to individual school boards and not the state.

‘Don’t Seem To Care About Their Phones’: Library Checkouts Surge as Students Turn to Books To Fill Time After Cellphone Bans

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