The phone-free school app your teachers don’t have to enforce.
A phone-free policy on paper still leaves every teacher to enforce it. LockedIn moves that job to the phone: it locks when students arrive on campus during school hours and unlocks after the last bell, and your dean sees who tried to get around it.
No hardware. Live within a week. Pilots for one grade or one campus.
From a phone-free policy to a phone-free school.
The difference is who does the enforcing. With LockedIn, it’s the phone, with a dean watching the exceptions.
Teachers teach
No collecting, no confiscating, no confrontations in front of the class. Phones are locked before students reach the room.Your campus and your bell schedule
We draw your campus on a map and set your schedule with you, including rotating days, early release and free periods.Proof that it’s working
A live dashboard shows who is locked in and who needs attention, with real reasons like Fake Device and Never Installed.One app, iPhone and Android
Students install it from the App Store or Google Play and sign in with their school email. No device-management profile.
LockedIn and the other ways to go phone-free.
Pouches, lockers and honor codes, beside LockedIn.
| Question | LockedIn | Pouches, lockers or honor codes |
|---|---|---|
| Who enforces it | The phone, with alerts to a dean | Staff at the door, or every teacher, every period |
| Daily staff time | Minutes, for whoever handles alerts | Handing out, collecting and refereeing |
| A decoy second phone | Flagged until you approve it | Goes unnoticed |
| Who’s compliant right now | Live dashboard and reports | No way to know |
| Calling home | Students can always call home or 911 | Phone sealed, stored or confiscated |
| In an emergency | One tap unlocks every phone on campus | Phones in pouches or lockers |
| What you pay for | A per-student license, quoted for your enrollment | Pouches, lockers, replacements and staff time |
Who enforces it
- LockedIn
- The phone, with alerts to a dean
- Pouches, lockers or honor codes
- Staff at the door, or every teacher, every period
Daily staff time
- LockedIn
- Minutes, for whoever handles alerts
- Pouches, lockers or honor codes
- Handing out, collecting and refereeing
A decoy second phone
- LockedIn
- Flagged until you approve it
- Pouches, lockers or honor codes
- Goes unnoticed
Who’s compliant right now
- LockedIn
- Live dashboard and reports
- Pouches, lockers or honor codes
- No way to know
Calling home
- LockedIn
- Students can always call home or 911
- Pouches, lockers or honor codes
- Phone sealed, stored or confiscated
In an emergency
- LockedIn
- One tap unlocks every phone on campus
- Pouches, lockers or honor codes
- Phones in pouches or lockers
What you pay for
- LockedIn
- A per-student license, quoted for your enrollment
- Pouches, lockers or honor codes
- Pouches, lockers, replacements and staff time
Pouch pricing runs about $25–30 a student before replacements, from public reporting. Model five years of pouches
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.
It has to enforce the policy without a teacher doing it, and tell you when it isn’t working. LockedIn locks the apps your school blocks when students arrive on campus during school hours, unlocks them after the last bell, and shows your deans who needs attention and why.
By putting the lock on the phone. LockedIn locks the apps your school blocks when a student is on campus during school hours and unlocks them after the last bell. Because the lock is on the phone, a phone in a student’s hand still can’t open them, which pouches, lockers and honor codes can’t promise.
Yes, with the same campus boundary and the same dashboard. Students install it from the App Store or Google Play; no device-management profile is needed.
Students will try, and LockedIn is built to catch the common attempts. Signing in on a decoy phone is flagged as a Fake Device until you approve it. A phone that stops checking in is flagged as a Possible Uninstall. Turning off the app’s location access shows up as Location Issues, and on Android a faked GPS position shows up as Mock Location. Each flag carries the student’s name.
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. In an emergency, one tap on the dashboard unlocks every phone on campus, each phone shows two buttons, I’m safe and I need help, and help requests reach your staff with where the student is. Phones lock again when the emergency ends.
Live within a week: a kickoff call where we map your campus boundary and bell schedule with you, a roster sync from Clever, Veracross, Blackbaud or OneRoster (or a CSV), a 30-minute training for the deans who will see the alerts, the letter to families, and then students install the app and sign in with their school email. We watch the dashboard with you through launch week.
Consumer screen-time apps like Apple’s Screen Time setting and Opal are built for a person who wants to monitor and limit their own use. They’re voluntary, easy to change, and report to that person. LockedIn is built for schools instead: it locks the apps your school blocks whenever students are on campus during school hours, unlocks them after the last bell, and gives staff a dashboard of who is locked in.
Further reading
- Phone-free school solutions for 2026, comparedLockedIn, Yondr, lockers, device management and honor systems, side by side.
- Software to keep students off their phonesHow school-day enforcement works on students’ own phones, with no pouches or lockers.
- Phone lock app for schoolsFor schools comparing phone lock apps and enforcement systems.
- How to enforce a cell phone ban in schoolEnforcement methods compared, plus how to handle lunch and passing periods.
- How students bypass phone bansSecond phones, deleted apps and more: what to plan for.
- Phone pouches vs. phone appsMagnetic pouches and a software-based app, compared.
- 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