BOZEMAN — Starting next school year, high school students in Bozeman will not be allowed to go on their phones for the entire school day.
Currently, students are allowed to use their phones between classes and at lunch, but beginning in fall 2026, Bozeman School District 7 (BSD7) will implement a full cell phone ban in high schools.
“I think it’s pretty unsafe knowing we won’t be able to talk to our parents if something bad happens at the school,” said Lucy, a sophomore at Bozeman High School. Lucy’s classmate Bridger agrees, adding that phones are useful for more than just social media.
Bozeman high schools are going phone-free starting fall 2026. The district says it’s about student mental health, but students have concerns about safety and communication
Bozeman high schools to ban cell phones during entire school day
The new policy will mean high school students can’t use their phones during lunch or passing periods.
Students we spoke with said this will make it harder to communicate and plan locations to meet up with friends at lunch break.
“The school is so big I fear I won’t be able to find any of my friends,” Lucy said.
Freshmen Olivia, Harper, and Allie also worry that the ban will make coordinating plans difficult.
“If you have lunch plans with somebody, you can’t text them where to meet,” they said.
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BSD7 Superintendent Casey Bertram said the decision isn’t about cutting down on distractions; it’s about improving student mental health.
He said self-reported depression and anxiety symptoms in high school are increasing overall.
“The real goal is to give students a break from the addictive nature of social media during school hours,” Bertram explained. “It’s more about the mental health component and the addictive nature of social media apps and trying to break that cycle of students being tied to that intermittent dopamine hit.”
According to Bertram, the district plans to enforce the ban by encouraging students to leave their phones in their backpacks or lockers.
“This isn’t a top-down, ‘the school board wants to take your phone away’ approach, this is about caring for mental health and our community.”
While Bertram said the new policy will benefit students, students believe the ban will be hard to enforce, especially when students are not in class.
“I don’t think they’ll be able to. I think there are just too many kids for them to be able to enforce it,” said a freshman student.
“You’re already not allowed to have phones in class, but people are definitely still on it in class,” said another student.