Illinois School Cell Phone Law (SB 2427): What It Requires

Yes. Illinois has a statewide law on student phones in school. Illinois enacted SB 2427 (Public Act 104-0657) on July 28, 2026. By the start of the 2027–28 school year, every school district and charter school must ban student phone use from arrival to dismissal; high schools may allow phones at lunch and passing periods.

What SB 2427 requires

• • By the start of 2027–28, each school board adopts and implements a policy that at minimum prohibits student use of wireless communication devices during school time (arrival to dismissal, including recess, lunch and passing periods).
• • The policy must include guidance on device storage, call for uniform enforcement handled in a trauma-informed, developmentally appropriate way, and offer an alternative when a parent cannot come in person to retrieve a confiscated device.
• • It must allow use for health care needs determined by a physician, PA or nurse practitioner; IEPs, 504 plans, medical orders or other written accommodation plans; English learners; student caregivers (case by case); and as other law requires.
• • It may let high schools exclude lunch and passing periods, allow teacher-authorized educational use, and allow use in emergencies described in the district’s emergency plans.
• • It may not be enforced through fees, fines, suspensions, expulsions, or school resource officers or police.
• • Develop it with input from the teachers’ bargaining agent (if any), administrators and parents; review it at least every three years; publish it in the handbook and on the district website and share it annually.

The emergency wording for every state, D.C. and Puerto Rico is in school phone ban emergency exceptions by state.

The key provision, verbatim

“at a minimum, prohibits a student from using a wireless communication device during school time”

Source: 105 ILCS 5/10-20.88(b)(1), added by Public Act 104-0657

Timeline

1. April 9, 2025SB 2427 passes the Senate, 55–0
2. April 16, 2026Amended SB 2427 passes the House, 102–3
3. May 31, 2026Senate concurs, 55–2; bill passes both houses
4. July 28, 2026Signed by Gov. JB Pritzker; Public Act 104-0657 takes effect
5. September 1, 2026Statutory deadline for ISBE to post a model policy template
6. August 2027District and charter policies due by the start of the 2027–28 school year (start dates vary by district)
7. June 2031End of the 2030–31 school year: last year an existing majority-of-day policy may stay in place

Where phones must be kept

The policy must include guidance on device storage within the school building during school time, but the Act does not prescribe a method; districts are immune from liability for devices stored in good faith under their policy.

Because Illinois's law requires district policies to include guidance on device storage, software on a student's phone does not by itself meet the storage requirement. App-based locking, including LockedIn, can add to the storage the law calls for, not replace it.

Checklist for Illinois administrators

1. Draft the policy now; it must be adopted and implemented by the start of the 2027–28 school year.
2. Gather input from the teachers’ bargaining agent (if any), administrators and parents; student input is encouraged.
3. Decide whether high schools will exclude lunch and passing periods, and how storage will work.
4. Write the required exceptions into the policy and replace any fines, fees, suspensions or SRO enforcement with other consequences.
5. If you already limit phones for most of the day, you may keep that policy through 2030–31; plan the transition.
6. Publish the policy in the handbook and on the district website, and calendar the three-year review.

How Illinois districts are carrying it out

The law sets the floor; each district writes its own policy on top of it. Here is what one large Illinois district has adopted, from its own published policy:

• • Chicago Public Schools: No districtwide ban in 2026–27: phones are not allowed at school unless the principal approves them, and each principal sets the school’s rule.