Bell-to-bell phone ban software that follows your bell schedule.
43 states and D.C. now have a statewide rule on phones in school, by law, executive order or state board policy, and a bell-to-bell rule is easy to adopt and hard to keep. LockedIn keeps the apps your school blocks locked from the time students arrive on campus until the last bell, with a record you can show your board.
No hardware. Live within a week. Pilots for one grade or one campus.
A bell-to-bell rule needs more than a poster.
When phones are away from first bell to last, someone has to know whether they actually were. LockedIn gives you that answer for every student, every day.
Runs on your real schedule
Your bell schedule, rotating cycle days, early release and free periods, set up with us on the kickoff call.Covers lunch and passing periods
Phones stay locked wherever students are on campus during the hours you set, not just in class. Mark a period as free and phones unlock for it.A record your board can read
The dashboard shows who is locked in and who was flagged, and the student list downloads as a spreadsheet when your board or the state asks.The same rule for every student
Every student’s phone follows the same schedule, so enforcement doesn’t depend on which teacher noticed.
LockedIn and a policy on paper.
What changes when the law asks how you know phones were away.
| Question | LockedIn | Policy alone |
|---|---|---|
| Who enforces it | The phone, with alerts to a dean | Every teacher, every period |
| Lunch and passing periods | Covered, unless you mark them as free | Hard to supervise, often left out |
| How you know it’s working | Live dashboard and reports | Referrals and hallway spot checks |
| Consistency | The same schedule for every student | Depends on which teacher noticed |
| Calling home | Students can always call home or 911 | Phones are out, or confiscated |
| In an emergency | One tap unlocks every phone on campus, and students answer I’m safe or I need help | Phones already out |
| Daily staff time | Minutes, for whoever handles alerts | Constant |
| What you pay for | A per-student license, quoted for your enrollment | Teacher time and goodwill |
Who enforces it
- LockedIn
- The phone, with alerts to a dean
- Policy alone
- Every teacher, every period
Lunch and passing periods
- LockedIn
- Covered, unless you mark them as free
- Policy alone
- Hard to supervise, often left out
How you know it’s working
- LockedIn
- Live dashboard and reports
- Policy alone
- Referrals and hallway spot checks
Consistency
- LockedIn
- The same schedule for every student
- Policy alone
- Depends on which teacher noticed
Calling home
- LockedIn
- Students can always call home or 911
- Policy alone
- Phones are out, or confiscated
In an emergency
- LockedIn
- One tap unlocks every phone on campus, and students answer I’m safe or I need help
- Policy alone
- Phones already out
Daily staff time
- LockedIn
- Minutes, for whoever handles alerts
- Policy alone
- Constant
What you pay for
- LockedIn
- A per-student license, quoted for your enrollment
- Policy alone
- Teacher time and goodwill
Students will test it. Your dean will know.
Every phone policy gets tested in its first week. These are the workarounds schools ask us about most, and what the dashboard shows when a student tries one.
Signing in on a decoy phone
Dashboard alert: Fake DeviceA phone flagged as a decoy doesn’t count as the student’s until you approve it. Until then, the dashboard marks it.
Deleting the app
Dashboard alert: Possible UninstallA phone that stops checking in for about two school days is flagged as a possible uninstall. A confirmed removal shows up as App Uninstalled.
Never installing it
Dashboard alert: Never InstalledA student on your roster without the app gets a reminder email every school day. From your launch date, each school day without it is filed as a violation.
Faking or switching off location
Dashboard alert: Location IssuesTurning off the app’s location access is flagged as Location Issues, and so is an iPhone with Location Services off. On Android, a faked GPS position is flagged as Mock Location.
Each flag carries the student’s name, so the follow-up is a conversation with facts in it.
What “bell-to-bell” actually requires
A growing number of state laws bar student phone use for the whole school day, first bell to last, rather than only during class. Texas and New York are two of them (New York also requires on-site storage); the phone-free school laws by state show what yours says. The phrase is easy to write into board policy and hard to carry out, because the practical question a bell-to-bell rule raises is documentation: not whether your policy says phones are away, but how you know they were.
That is the gap posters and honor systems can’t close. A policy that depends on each teacher noticing, confronting and writing up every phone is uneven by design: enforcement varies from room to room, referrals arrive late and land on whoever got noticed, and a superintendent has no school-wide picture to show the board. Bell-to-bell phone ban software exists to turn the rule into a system that keeps its own records.
How LockedIn carries out the law
LockedIn follows the structures that actually run your day. The schedule mirrors your bell schedule, including rotating cycle days, early release and free periods, so the hours phones are locked match what your policy puts in scope, lunch and passing periods included. The campus boundary is drawn on a map of your own school, so portable classrooms and the far field count as campus.
It also keeps a record. Instead of discipline referrals filed after the fact, the dashboard shows who is locked in and who was flagged, school day by school day. A student with a 504 plan or a medical need is exempted by name, without opening anything to everyone: at most schools a 504 plan blocks only social media, games and entertainment for that student, and at schools that use Guided Access the student is exempted from one rule instead, such as keeping Bluetooth on for a glucose monitor.
- Scope you control: the hours you mark, including lunch and passing periods.
- Each campus on its own: its own boundary and schedule, and district administrators can see each of their schools.
- Records you can share: a live dashboard, and a student list that downloads as a spreadsheet.
- Exemptions by name: a 504 or medical accommodation for one student doesn’t become a loophole for all.
The cost of getting it wrong
For a school, the risk is lopsided. Under-enforcing a bell-to-bell law costs more than classroom distraction: without a record, it is hard to answer a parent, a board member or a state agency about what actually happened. Software that enforces and records the rule is a predictable line in the budget by comparison.
LockedIn enforces and records; your counsel interprets the statute, and we set LockedIn up to match. Where a law requires phones to be stored away, as Kansas’s does, LockedIn complements the storage rather than replacing it. Start with our state-by-state guide to phone-free school laws, then read the superintendent’s guide to a phone-free district and our guide to enforcing a cell phone ban, including lunch and passing periods.
Questions schools ask us.
No software can. LockedIn enforces and records the schedule you set; your counsel interprets the statute. We set LockedIn up to match the policy your board adopts.
Yes. At most schools a student who needs an app during the day for a 504 plan or a medical reason, like a glucose monitor, can be allowed it individually (a 504 plan blocks only social media, games and entertainment), while it stays blocked for everyone else. At schools that use Guided Access, exempt the student from one rule instead, such as keeping Bluetooth on for a glucose monitor, or opt them out with a note.
Phones lock only during the hours you set. Add Saturday school to the schedule if it should be phone-free; leave evening events out and phones work normally.
We give you the family letter and our parent FAQ, and families get their own page that explains what LockedIn sees, what it never collects, and how their child can always reach them. The page for families
Further reading
- Phone-free school laws by stateWhat each state’s law requires and when it takes effect, with the official sources.
- How to enforce a cell phone ban in schoolEnforcement methods compared, plus how to handle lunch and passing periods.
- The superintendent’s guide to a phone-free districtStrategy for cabinet-level decisions.
Yondr alternativePhone-free campusSchool phone policyAll guides