Cell phone cheating prevention for class time and test days.
Answers now come from AI apps and group chats. LockedIn keeps the apps your school blocks locked whenever students are on campus during school hours, so a phone under the desk can’t open them, and students can always call home or 911.
No hardware. Live within a week. Pilots for one grade or one campus.
Make the phone useless for cheating.
An honor pledge asks students not to look. LockedIn keeps the apps they’d look at locked.
AI and messaging apps stay locked
At most schools, your school chooses which apps stay available, like Phone and a calculator. Everything it blocks stays locked until the last bell, even with LockedIn closed.Test days run like any other day
There’s nothing to collect before a test and hand back after. Phones are already locked when students walk in.Workarounds come with names
A second phone signed in, a deleted app or a faked location shows up on the dashboard with the student’s name, so a hearing starts from facts.One standard in every room
Every student’s phone follows the same rules, so integrity doesn’t depend on which teacher is proctoring.
LockedIn and collecting phones.
What changes when you treat phone cheating as a systems problem, not a proctoring one.
| Question | LockedIn | Collecting phones and signs |
|---|---|---|
| Teacher effort | None in the room. Alerts go to a dean. | Collect phones, patrol rows, watch for a second phone |
| A decoy phone | Flagged until you approve it | Goes unnoticed if the first one was handed in |
| Messaging and AI apps | Locked, if your school blocks them | Available the moment a phone comes out |
| After the test | Phones unlock after the last bell | Phones handed back, often mid-period |
| Evidence for a hearing | The student’s dashboard record and flags | A teacher’s account |
| Calling home | Students can always call home or 911 | Phone confiscated |
| Watches and calculators | Not covered. LockedIn locks phones, so keep your rules for watches and calculators. | Covered by your testing rules |
Teacher effort
- LockedIn
- None in the room. Alerts go to a dean.
- Collecting phones and signs
- Collect phones, patrol rows, watch for a second phone
A decoy phone
- LockedIn
- Flagged until you approve it
- Collecting phones and signs
- Goes unnoticed if the first one was handed in
Messaging and AI apps
- LockedIn
- Locked, if your school blocks them
- Collecting phones and signs
- Available the moment a phone comes out
After the test
- LockedIn
- Phones unlock after the last bell
- Collecting phones and signs
- Phones handed back, often mid-period
Evidence for a hearing
- LockedIn
- The student’s dashboard record and flags
- Collecting phones and signs
- A teacher’s account
Calling home
- LockedIn
- Students can always call home or 911
- Collecting phones and signs
- Phone confiscated
Watches and calculators
- LockedIn
- Not covered. LockedIn locks phones, so keep your rules for watches and calculators.
- Collecting phones and signs
- Covered by your testing rules
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.
Questions schools ask us.
No. LockedIn handles the phone. Keep your proctoring and LMS settings for the laptop or Chromebook the test runs on.
LockedIn locks phones only. Pair it with clear rules for calculators and watches; our smartwatch and earbuds policy guide can help you write them. Smartwatch and earbuds policy guide
Ask us on the demo. Students can be grouped by grade, homeroom or another roster field and each group assigned to the dean who handles it; we’ll show you what that would look like for your coordinators.
A school is live within a week of the kickoff call. For spring testing windows, start a few weeks early so launch week isn’t test week.
Further reading
- Cell phones during standardized testingA coordinator’s checklist for state assessment days.
- How students bypass phone bansThe workarounds to plan for before they reach your dean’s office.
- The hidden cost of phone distractionThe academic case, beyond cheating.
- Phone-free school laws by stateWhat your state requires during the school day, with links to the statute or order.
- California’s phone-free school law (AB 3216)What the Phone-Free School Act asks of districts, with a link to the bill.
Yondr alternativePhone-free campusSchool phone policyAll guides