Aurora Public Schools is getting ready to lock in a new student communication-device policy after more than a year of targeted pilots meant to keep phones out of classrooms. The district's "Away for the Day" pilot, first rolled out in March 2025, is designed to cut down on distractions and help students regulate their emotions during the instructional day. The work is unfolding as Colorado requires every district to adopt and publish a communication-device policy by July 1.
Pilot results and teacher views
Teachers in pilot schools report that classrooms feel calmer and that students stay locked in on lessons longer. Aurora Hills Middle School teacher Tracie Jansen told Sentinel Colorado that her students "are more engaged and enabled to access learning without distraction," a shift district leaders say they are hearing across multiple campuses. District survey data cited by officials showed about a 7% rise in students' reported emotional regulation between October 2025 and January 2026, which they see as a hopeful early sign rather than a final verdict.
The national context is also shaping Aurora's choices. The National Center for Education Statistics reports that roughly three-quarters of U.S. public schools already prohibit nonacademic cellphone use during school hours, so local leaders say Aurora is not exactly leaping into uncharted territory.
What the research says
Large new research suggests that phone bans do what they promise on the most basic level: they sharply reduce in-school phone activity. A National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, available from NBER, found teacher reports of in-class phone use fell from about 61% to 13%, and campus device pings dropped roughly 30% by year three of a ban. The same study reported that suspension rates rose nearly 16% in the first year before easing in subsequent years.
The authors note that many of the discipline and well-being effects fade over time and that the average effects on standardized test scores were "consistently close to zero." In other words, keeping phones out of sight may calm classrooms without magically boosting test scores.
State rule forces districts to act
Colorado's House Bill 25-1135 requires each district to adopt, implement, and post a policy governing student communication devices by July 1, 2026, but it stops short of laying out a single model everyone must copy. Instead, the law directs districts to spell out exceptions for emergencies and instructional uses, which is why local boards are now hammering out what "away for the day" actually looks like on the ground.
That flexibility gives Aurora officials room to keep tighter rules for younger students while allowing more leeway at the high school level. District leaders say grade-level nuance is built into the draft so that a second grader and a senior are not treated as if they use phones in the same way.
Safety, parents and pushback
Parents in Aurora Public Schools focus groups told district leaders they still want reliable ways to reach their children in an emergency, even if phones are tucked away most of the day. The Aurora Police Department's school resource officer team warned that mass simultaneous messaging can strain cell service and school Wi-Fi, potentially affecting safety equipment, according to reporting by Sentinel Colorado.
APS Director of High School Operations Jason Maclin said parent feedback heavily shaped the proposal's language. District officials also stress that implementation will not look identical everywhere. Some smaller P-8 sites are keeping phones in backpacks, while larger middle schools are turning to magnetic pouches as an enforcement assist. The basic idea is the same, they say, but the hardware can change from campus to campus.
What's next
The Aurora Public Schools Board of Education posts agendas and streams meetings online for public review, and BoardDocs contains the agenda materials that will show final language and recommended motions. If the board approves the student communication-device policy, the district will publish it on its website, and campuses will begin wider implementation ahead of the July 1 deadline, in line with state law and district postings.
That will not be the end of the conversation. Expect more campus-level debate over pouches, backpacks, and safety exceptions as Aurora shifts from a pilot project to a systemwide policy and families test how "away for the day" works in real life.
