Ohio School Cell Phone Law (HB 96): What It Requires

Yes. Ohio has a statewide law on student phones in school. Ohio requires every school district to prohibit all student cellphone use during the instructional day (R.C. 3313.753, as amended by HB 96 in 2025). Policies were due Jan. 1, 2026. HB 96 was signed by Gov. Mike DeWine on June 30, 2025.

What HB 96 requires

• • Each school district board adopts a policy, by Jan. 1, 2026, that prohibits all student cellphone use during the instructional day.
• • The board may allow use for learning or to monitor or address a health concern, and use included in an IEP or Section 504 plan.
• • The board must allow use to monitor or address a health concern when it receives a written statement from the student’s physician.
• • Use may be allowed as permitted under the building’s comprehensive emergency management plan.
• • A policy adopted after Sept. 30, 2025 must be adopted at a public board meeting, and every policy must be posted prominently on the district website.

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

The key provision, verbatim

“The policy shall prohibit all cellular telephone use by students during the instructional day”

Source: Ohio Rev. Code § 3313.753(C)(1)

Timeline

1. August 14, 2024HB 250 version takes effect: district policies must keep phone use “as limited as possible”
2. June 30, 2025HB 96 signed: policies must prohibit all cellphone use during the instructional day
3. September 30, 2025Policies adopted after this date must be adopted at a public board meeting
4. January 1, 2026Deadline for every district board to adopt its policy
5. July 10, 2026Gov. Mike DeWine signs HB 455, which makes technical amendments to § 3313.753
6. October 9, 2026HB 455 takes effect: a board’s optional carry-ban policy may be posted on the district website instead of in each building; the instructional-day ban is unchanged

Where phones must be kept

The statute bans use, not possession, and does not set a storage method; a board may separately prohibit students from carrying devices on school grounds.

Some schools back a written policy with phone-management software such as LockedIn: students' own phones lock automatically on campus during school hours and unlock after school, with no pouches or hardware; the admin dashboard flags workarounds by student name, such as a possible uninstall or a new device awaiting approval; and in an emergency, one tap from an administrator starts Emergency Mode on every phone on campus. Software does not replace the policy HB 96 requires, and it should be set up around the exceptions the law lists; have counsel review any tool that handles student device data.

Checklist for Ohio administrators

1. Confirm the board adopted the policy (at a public meeting if after Sept. 30, 2025) and posted it prominently on the district website.
2. Define “instructional day” in your policy, since the statute does not.
3. Write the physician’s-statement health exception into the policy; it is mandatory.
4. Align the policy with each building’s comprehensive emergency management plan.

How Ohio districts are carrying it out

The law sets the floor; each district writes its own policy on top of it. Here is what large Ohio districts have adopted, from their own published policies:

• • Columbus City Schools: No phone use at any time during the instructional day, which the district defines to include class changes, recess, meals and field trips (Policy 5136.02).
• • Cleveland Metropolitan School District: The Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) reported 33,143 students in 2024-25, according to federal data.