Indiana School Phone Law (SEA 78): What It Requires

Yes. Indiana has a statewide law on student phones in school. Indiana's SEA 78 extends the student device ban to the whole school day from July 1, 2026. Each school corporation and charter school must either bar devices from school or require them to be stored away, powered off and inaccessible.

What the Indiana phone law requires

• • Each school corporation and charter school must prohibit student use of wireless communication devices during the school day
• • Each must adopt either a no-device policy or a storage policy under which devices are stored away, powered off and inaccessible throughout the school day
• • Teacher-directed use must be on school-supplied devices; until July 1, 2028, a school that supplies none may use school-sanctioned devices on managed networks
• • Policies may not bar use included in an IEP or 504 plan, needed for a documented medical condition under a provider order, authorized by the superintendent in an emergency, or needed for language translation
• • Each school must publish its policy on its website
• • IDOE must publish model policy language and implementation guidance

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

The key provision, verbatim

“A storage policy under which wireless communication devices may be brought to school, but must be stored away, powered off, and inaccessible to a student throughout the school day.”

Source: IC 20-26-5-40.7(d)(3)(B), as amended by SEA 78 (2026)

Timeline

1. March 2024SEA 185 (P.L. 24-2024) bans student device use during instructional time
2. March 5, 2026Gov. Mike Braun signs SEA 78 (Public Law 107)
3. July 1, 2026SEA 78 takes effect: the ban covers the whole school day
4. July 1, 2028School-sanctioned student devices may no longer be used for teacher-directed instruction

Where phones must be kept

IC 20-26-5-40.7(d)(3): schools must adopt a no-device policy or a storage policy under which devices "must be stored away, powered off, and inaccessible to a student throughout the school day."

Because Indiana's law turns on where the phone physically is, software on a student's phone does not by itself satisfy it. App-based locking, including LockedIn, can only add to the storage the law requires, not replace it.

Checklist for Indiana administrators

1. Choose and document your model: a no-device policy, or a storage policy that keeps devices stored away, powered off and inaccessible all day
2. Update the policy to cover the whole school day, not only instructional time
3. Limit teacher-directed use to school-supplied devices (school-sanctioned devices only if you supply none, and only until July 1, 2028)
4. Write in the five exceptions: IEP, 504, provider-ordered medical need, superintendent-authorized emergency use and language translation
5. Publish the policy on your website and check it against IDOE model language

How Indiana 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 Indiana district has adopted, from its own published policy:

• • Indianapolis Public Schools: No phone or personal device use for the whole school day, including class, lunch and hallways; devices brought to school stay in secure storage.