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Stop being the phone police.

Phones lock when students arrive on campus and unlock after the last bell. There’s nothing for you to collect, check or hand back, and if a student tries to get around it, the dean hears about it, not you.

Send this page to your principalQuestions teachers ask

What changes in your classroom.

You’re not imagining it. In a Pew Research Center survey, 72% of high school teachers called cellphone distraction a major problem in their classroom, and 60% of those whose school had a phone policy said it was hard to enforce.

Source: Pew Research Center, 2024

  1. 8:05

    First period starts

    Nothing to collect. Phones locked as students walked onto campus (at Guided Access schools, students lock in with a triple-click), so the period starts with the lesson, not a phone check.

  2. 9:40

    A phone comes out under a desk

    Open a blocked app and LockedIn’s lock screen is all that comes up. The apps your school blocks stay locked until the last bell, so there’s nothing on it to argue about.

  3. 11:20

    “I need to call my mom.”

    They can. A student can always call home or 911, and you don’t have to decide whether it’s an emergency.

  4. 1:15

    A student tries a decoy phone

    It’s flagged as a Fake Device and doesn’t count until an administrator approves it. Until then the dean’s dashboard marks it. Catching it isn’t your job.

  5. 3:10

    Last bell

    Phones unlock (at Guided Access schools, students step out the way they locked in). Nothing to hand back and nothing to write up.

No new work for you.

Teachers don’t get a dashboard to watch or an app to install. The training is for the deans and front office who handle the alerts.

What you stop doing

  • Collecting phones at the door, or running a pouch line
  • Asking a student to put it away, then asking again
  • Taking a phone from a student in front of the class
  • Deciding whether a call home is really an emergency
  • Being stricter, or looser, than the room next door

Need an app for a lesson? Ask your administrator. They can allow it for every student or only the students who need it: at any time, for one day, or at the same time each week.

Students will test it. The dean handles it.

Students test every phone policy in its first week. When LockedIn flags something, it carries the student’s name and goes to the administrators your school chose, so the follow-up is a conversation with facts in it, and you’re not the one having it.

  • A decoy phone

    A decoy phone is flagged as a Fake Device, and it doesn’t count until an administrator approves it.
    Dashboard alert: Fake Device

  • Deleting the app

    A phone that stops checking in is flagged as a possible uninstall, and a confirmed removal shows up as App Uninstalled.
    Dashboard alert: Possible Uninstall

  • Faking location

    Location access switched off for the app shows up on the dashboard, on any phone, and so does Location Services switched off on an iPhone. On Android, a faked GPS position shows up too.
    Dashboard alert: Location Issues

  • Never installing it

    A student who never installs LockedIn gets a reminder email every school day, and from launch day each school day without it is a violation.
    Dashboard alert: Never Installed

In a lockdown, every student’s phone unlocks.

A phone sealed in a pouch is out of reach when a student needs it most. With LockedIn, your school unlocks every phone on campus with one tap.

  • Every student can answer

    Each phone shows what’s happening and two buttons: I’m safe, or I need help. A help request reaches the school’s admins with where the student is, and they can chat.

  • Then it locks again

    Phones lock again when the emergency ends, and drills run the same way.

LockedIn doesn’t replace 911, and students can always call it.

Questions teachers ask.

  • No. Teachers stop confiscating phones. Alerts go to the administrators your school chooses, usually a dean or assistant principal, and follow-up emails go out automatically. There’s no dashboard for teachers to watch.

  • Ask your administrator. At most schools they can allow an app for every student or only the students who need it, at any time, for one day, or at the same time each week, and the Phone app is never locked. At schools that use Guided Access or screen pinning, the apps they can allow are websites that open inside LockedIn.

  • Yes. Students can always call home or 911. At most schools the Phone app is never locked; at schools that use Guided Access or screen pinning, a student can step out of LockedIn at any time, and the dean sees that they did. Everyday messages go through the front office, and your school decides whether students can text.

  • Your school can unlock every phone on campus with one tap. Each phone shows what’s happening and two buttons: I’m safe, or I need help. A help request reaches the school’s admins with where the student is. Phones lock again when the emergency ends. LockedIn doesn’t replace 911, and students can always call it.

  • At most schools, administrators can put a student on a 504 plan in LockedIn, which blocks only social media, games and entertainment for them, so a glucose monitor or another medical app keeps working. At schools that use Guided Access, they exempt the student from one rule instead, such as keeping Bluetooth on for a glucose monitor or hearing aid.

  • Your administrators opt them out from their row on the dashboard, or leave them off the roster, and nothing changes for them. A student left on the roster without the app shows up as Never Installed.

  • They will try, usually in the first week. At most schools phones lock on their own, so there’s no lock-in to skip; where students lock in with Guided Access or screen pinning, stepping out early shows up on the dashboard. A student who never installs the app, deletes it or fakes their location is flagged on the dashboard by name, and a decoy phone is flagged until an administrator approves it. None of it lands on you.

  • Very little. During school hours it checks whether the phone is on campus and whether it is locked, plus a few device signals that give away a workaround. It never collects texts, calls, the photo library, browsing, contacts, or which apps a student opens.

Guides for your classroom.