Classrooms and Cellphones: How Phone Usage Impacts Students

ZANESVILLE, OH – Kids are heading back to the classroom and that means preparing your children to decrease cellphone use.

Nationwide Children’s Hospital professionals want to remind those with school-aged children that being proactive about screen time can lead to healthier habits and better focus in the classroom.

Dr. Akua Amponsah Chrappah, a general pediatrician at Nationwide Children’s, said it is important to remind students how distractions from phones can affect them both in and out of the classroom.

“We want to make sure our kids are getting the best and most out of our school days so we definitely want to talk to our kids about distraction particularly with driving, while walking, while crossing the street or crosswalks…There’s a lot of different policies around cellphone use in schools nowadays and within the state of Ohio there will be a law taking effect January that will pretty much disallows cellphone usage during the instructional time in school,” Chrappah said.

Experts also recommend parents set clear expectations at home when it comes to screens and social media.

“We do recommend that families institute their own family media policy in which we sit down with our children, and we really talk about expectations. The recommendation through the American Academy of Pediatrics is no more than 2 hours per day of screen use and screen time, so these are conversations we should have within our household,” she said.

The new state law will go into effect January 2026. Until then, healthcare professionals say conversations at home can help children ease back into school while staying safe, focused and connected in the right ways.