The Senate Bill 78 is a “bell-to-bell” school cell phone ban. It was passed in early March 2026 and will take effect in the upcoming school year. The bill means that personal devices like phones must be powered off and away, from the first to the last bell. Since most students here do not have lockers, the next best secure location would be a backpack or purse, though students can request a locker.
“What that simply means is [phones] need to be up and secure in a place and not accessed from the beginning of the school day to the end of the school day,” Principal Masimba Taylor said, explaining the new policy. “That includes in the hallways, restrooms, classrooms, et cetera.”
Furthermore, even though this bill is primarily geared towards eliminating phone usage in schools, it applies to all wireless communication devices. Along with cell phones, other banned devices include smart watches, tablets, personal laptops and gaming devices.
This ban will look different than Warren’s current policy, which leaves phone use up to personal teacher preference.
“You may see in some of the classrooms, there's the red and the green sign if teachers are using that,” Taylor said. “That's not even an option. It's not an option for a teacher to say, ‘I don't mind you having them here.’ There's no phones.”
There will be some exceptions to the ban, such as medical reasons, special education needs and other education-specific needs. The bill's purpose is to reduce classroom distractions and bullying, according to the lawmakers who created it.
“If I compare this year’s goals and credits earned and discipline issues connected to social media to next year’s, it’ll be interesting [to see],” Taylor said. “Do we have less referrals that are connected to social media or texts or things like that? Or do we see an increase in credits earned or grades increased? It’ll be interesting to see what [lawmakers] think is going to happen.”
Just because the bill’s initiative is to help schools become a better learning environment, however, doesn’t mean everyone will be a fan of this new rule.
“I feel like it makes more sense to teach students how to use phones correctly and how to manage them than it does to just eliminate them,” speech teacher Susan Kalberer said.
According to Kalberer, learning to implement more self-control, especially when it comes to cell phones, would be more beneficial.
“I think it’s more important for all of us, not just students, but for everybody to learn how to manage them in a healthy and productive way,” Kalberer said. “I understand why the state wants to put the ban on the phones, but I don’t think they understand, necessarily, how hard it’ll be to manage.”
As of now, students feel conflicted about the bill, unsure of what the upcoming year will look like without their phones.
“There are better solutions,” sophomore Nery Garcia said. “Like, it could’ve been a program or app that restricts students from using social media and AI but allows students to contact parents and [use] school-related apps during school hours.”
Some people are in favor of the new attempt to bring attention back to the lessons at hand.
“I am in for it, because I’ve noticed students don’t remember as well as they used to,” English teacher Ann Kitchen said. “My hope is that if they just focus more and aren't on their phones, then what we learn they’ll remember better.”
Whether people agree or disagree with the bill, it has to be implemented in schools all around Indiana soon. Districts have to comply and figure out the best way to adopt the bill into school routines.
“There has to be consistent implementation across the school,” Taylor said. “All adults in the building have to be on the same page, sharing the same expectations and enforcing the same expectations. The communication to parents and parents’ support will need to be big because, believe it or not, there are a lot of parents who are opposed to this,”
The bill will go into effect on July 1, 2026, so administrators are working to solidify how they will go about communicating and enforcing the new rules.