HARRISBURG, Pa. — The state House voted 141-62 Monday to ban students’ phones in Pennsylvania schools from the first bell to the last, with seven of the Lehigh Valley’s 11 members voting no.
The bill would require every public and private school to bar students from using their phones all day, including lunch and hallways, starting in the 2027-28 school year. Only three of the Valley’s 17 school districts already go that far in every grade, their policies show.
It is not law yet. The Senate, which passed an earlier version 46-1 in February, must accept the House’s changes before the bill can go to the governor, and the Senate has three session days left this year.
The Valley’s no votes came from Republican Reps. Gary Day, Ann Flood, Milou Mackenzie and Zachary Mako and Democratic Reps. Jeanne McNeill, Steve Samuelson and Ana Tiburcio, according to the House roll call. Republican Rep. Joe Emrick and Democratic Reps. Robert Freeman, Michael Schlossberg and Peter Schweyer voted yes. Statewide, 37 Republicans and 25 Democrats voted no.
Where Valley schools stand
Allentown, Easton Area, and Whitehall-Coplay already bar students from using phones all day in every grade, according to each district’s posted policy or handbook.
Bethlehem Area, Catasauqua Area, Northwestern Lehigh, Parkland and Southern Lehigh do the same through middle school but let high school students use phones outside class, such as at lunch or between classes. Wilson Area bars use in kindergarten through eighth grade.
Bangor Area, East Penn, Nazareth Area, Northampton Area, Northern Lehigh and Saucon Valley mainly limit phones in class and allow them at lunch and in hallways. Pen Argyl Area and Salisbury Township leave the rules to each principal.
Districts that allow phones at lunch or between classes would have to change their rules by 2027-28 if the bill becomes law.
What’s next
The bill, Senate Bill 1014, went to the Senate Rules and Executive Nominations Committee on Monday. The Senate met Tuesday without voting on it and meets again Wednesday and Nov. 17 and 18, according to its calendar.
State Sen. Lisa Boscola, a Democrat from the 18th District, co-sponsored the bill and voted for it in February. “We are reviewing what the House did now,” Kurt Derr of Boscola’s office said in an email Tuesday.
Schlossberg, D-Lehigh, the House majority whip, said the House has sent the Senate two phone bans, its own House Bill 1814 in June and SB 1014 on Monday, so senators have options and it doesn’t matter which one passes. Asked whether the House has a fallback if the Senate rejects its changes, he said in an email: “No. The process will reset next session.”
What’s in the bill
Besides public school districts, the ban would cover charter and cyber charter schools, career and technical schools, intermediate units, and private and other nonpublic schools.
Students could still use a phone for a documented medical condition of their own or an immediate family member, when a special education or disability plan includes it, for translation while learning English, or for a lesson a principal approves. Schools would also have to tell parents each year how to reach their children during the day, such as a staffed school phone line or email.
The House changed the Senate’s February version, which covered only public schools and required school boards to take public comment before adopting a policy. The House added private schools, extended the medical exception to family members, dropped the public-comment step, and let principals approve one-day exceptions on their own, then tell the superintendent afterward.
The debate
Only two members spoke before Monday’s vote. “Colleagues, this is a massive public health crisis, the likes of which we have never seen,” said Rep. Mandy Steele, D-Allegheny, who sponsored the House’s own ban.
Rep. Scott Barger, R-Blair, who voted no, said his problem was the exceptions. “I hate cell phones in the hands of our children,” he said. He told colleagues he would support a ban with no exceptions, arguing that special education plans and principals’ power to grant exceptions would open loopholes and that teachers would struggle to enforce the rules.
Statewide education groups have differed on how far the state should go. At an October 2025 Senate hearing, the Pennsylvania State Education Association, which represents about 177,000 educators and school workers, backed the Senate’s version and asked that students, parents and staff get a say before districts adopt policies. “Mobile devices disrupt students from learning,” PSEA President Aaron Chapin said then.
At the same hearing, the Pennsylvania School Boards Association asked lawmakers to leave room for local choices. Laura Morton, its director of policy services, said in written testimony that elected school directors are best suited to hear from students, parents and teachers and set a policy that works for their schools.
