A phone lock app for schools that locks the phone as students arrive.
Consumer lock apps depend on the student choosing to use them. LockedIn doesn’t: the apps your school blocks lock when a student arrives on campus during school hours (at most schools on their own; where students lock in with Guided Access, the dashboard shows who hasn’t) and unlock after the last bell, on iPhone and Android, with a dashboard for your deans.
No hardware. Live within a week. Pilots for one grade or one campus.
Built for a school, not for self-control.
Screen-time apps were built for one person who wants to cut back. A school needs a lock that applies to every student, and tells someone when it doesn’t.
It locks without a tap
No “lock in now” button. The lock starts when a student crosses your campus boundary during school hours and lifts after the last bell.Your schedule, your boundary
We draw your campus boundary on a map and set up your bell schedule with you, including rotating days, early release and free periods.A dashboard, not a parent report
Deans see who is locked in and why a student needs attention, with real reasons like Fake Device, Possible Uninstall and Never Installed.iPhone and Android, no MDM
Students install LockedIn from the App Store or Google Play and sign in with their school email. No device-management profile goes on the phone.
LockedIn and the other ways to lock a phone.
Consumer lock apps and an honor policy, beside LockedIn.
| Question | LockedIn | Consumer apps or honor policy |
|---|---|---|
| Who turns it on | At most schools, nobody: it locks on its own on campus during school hours. Where students lock in with Guided Access, the dashboard shows who hasn’t. | The student, or nobody |
| Who sees what happens | Your deans, on a live dashboard | The student, or a parent |
| A decoy phone | Flagged until you approve it | Unnoticed |
| Deleting the app | Flagged as a Possible Uninstall | Nobody at school finds out |
| Personal phones | An app, signed in with a school email. No profile. | Each family decides whether to install one |
| Teacher workload | Alerts go to a dean, not a teacher | Confiscate, document and return, every period |
| Calling home | Students can always call home or 911 | Depends on the app |
| After school | Off. The phone is the family’s again after the last bell. | Consumer apps can keep working at home |
Who turns it on
- LockedIn
- At most schools, nobody: it locks on its own on campus during school hours. Where students lock in with Guided Access, the dashboard shows who hasn’t.
- Consumer apps or honor policy
- The student, or nobody
Who sees what happens
- LockedIn
- Your deans, on a live dashboard
- Consumer apps or honor policy
- The student, or a parent
A decoy phone
- LockedIn
- Flagged until you approve it
- Consumer apps or honor policy
- Unnoticed
Deleting the app
- LockedIn
- Flagged as a Possible Uninstall
- Consumer apps or honor policy
- Nobody at school finds out
Personal phones
- LockedIn
- An app, signed in with a school email. No profile.
- Consumer apps or honor policy
- Each family decides whether to install one
Teacher workload
- LockedIn
- Alerts go to a dean, not a teacher
- Consumer apps or honor policy
- Confiscate, document and return, every period
Calling home
- LockedIn
- Students can always call home or 911
- Consumer apps or honor policy
- Depends on the app
After school
- LockedIn
- Off. The phone is the family’s again after the last bell.
- Consumer apps or honor policy
- Consumer apps can keep working at home
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.
Three things a consumer app can’t give you: a lock every student is held to rather than one they opt into, a dashboard that tells your deans when someone gets around it, and a way to reach every student in an emergency. LockedIn locks on campus during school hours (at most schools on its own; where students lock in with Guided Access, the dashboard shows who hasn’t), flags workarounds like a second phone or a deleted app, and unlocks every phone on campus with one tap in an emergency.
Consumer apps like Opal, Brick and Apple’s Screen Time setting are built for a person who wants to limit their own use, and they report to that person. LockedIn is built for a school: it locks the apps your school blocks on campus during school hours, for every enrolled student, and reports to your deans.
Yes. LockedIn needs no device-management profile on a student’s phone. Students install the app and sign in with their school email, and it locks only on campus during the hours you set.
Look for one that shows you each student, not a total. LockedIn’s dashboard shows who is locked in and why a student needs attention, files violations to the dean’s inbox, and lets you download the student list with each student’s status.
LockedIn works by campus and schedule rather than room by room: phones lock inside your campus boundary during the hours you set. You can mark periods as free, for everyone or for one student, and allow specific apps for a group, like a design app for a media class.
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.
Parental-control and screen-time apps are built for a parent managing one child’s phone at home. They rely on schedules the user can change, and they report to a parent, not to the school. Limiting phone use across a school needs a lock the school sets, rolled out centrally, with reporting for staff, which is what LockedIn provides.
You choose. At most schools, your school decides which apps stay available during the day, like Phone and a calculator, and everything you block stays locked until the last bell; the Phone app is never locked. At schools that use Guided Access, the student locks into LockedIn and can step out at any time to call home or 911, and the dean sees that they did.
Further reading
- Phone-free school app for K-12The main page for schools comparing phone-free school apps, and how LockedIn locks student phones on campus.
- How to enforce a cell phone ban in schoolEnforcement methods compared, with a deployment checklist.
- Student phone management software guideAn RFP-ready overview for technology committees.
- Classroom phone management ideas15 practical tactics for teachers and department chairs.
- Phone-free school solutions for 2026, comparedApp-based locking beside pouches, lockers and honor policies.
- 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