by Jonny Coker
Southern New Mexico Journalism Collaborative
Earlier this year, New Mexico lawmakers passed a bill requiring school districts to develop rules restricting the use of cell phones in schools.
There’s a growing sentiment across the country that this type of legislation is needed. Going into the 2025 fall semester 31 states now have implemented some type of anti-distraction policy.
So what’s leading to this legislative action?
According to nationwide data from the Department of Education, in 2013, 77% of 8th graders scored at or above basic reading proficiency. In 2024, that number dipped to 66%. On top of this, the nation’s youth are experiencing declining mental health seemingly across the board. According to a 2024 report from the CDC, “Nearly all indicators of poor mental health and suicidal thoughts and behaviors worsened from 2013 to 2023.”
This time frame corresponds to the widespread rise of smartphone use – and social media – by Gen Z kids.
So what does this new policy mean for New Mexico school districts? Well, we have our own data sets to dig into. Even though New Mexico’s anti-distraction policy was instituted a few months ago, Cloudcroft Municipal Schools was ahead of the curve, requiring the use of Yondr Pouches in the Fall of 2024.
The Yondr pouch is, essentially, a magnetic case that locks a child’s phone away for the day, allowing them to keep possession of their property, but restricting access until they leave the building. Cloudcroft Middle School Principal Nolene Adams said it’s changed the behavior and habits of kids during school hours.
“I taught middle school for 10 years before I became the principal. It was a daily struggle with kids in my classroom. Not because of anything other than that they were addicted to cell phones,” Adams said. “Being able to put the Yondr pouches to use has helped a lot. I see them socially interacting more, they’re more professional in their communication with teachers, they’re nicer to each other, we’ve seen cyber-bullying decrease greatly in the last two years. I was dealing a lot with cyber-bullying, and then the very next year we implemented Yondr pouches, and I rarely have to do that anymore, so it’s really helped a lot.”
What can we learn after over a year of phone-free in Cloudcroft?
According to the latest data from the New Mexico Public Education Department, Cloudcroft Middle School saw a significant jump in academic proficiency rates, with math proficiency jumping around 18 percentage points, while reading and science also saw demonstrable upticks. So, for this small middle school nestled in the Sacramento Mountains of south-central New Mexico, the data show that there is correlation between the cellphone bans and rising proficiency scores.
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But does correlation equal causation, and is this a true solution to the negative outcomes that young people are experiencing? According to Kris Perry, executive director of Children and Screens at the Institute of Digital Media and Child Development, the answer is a bit more complicated.
“We can’t go so far as to say there’s a correlation or that there’s causation, but [because] we’re establishing this baseline right now as these policies are being put in place right now, that this is a critical time to invest in researching their impact,” Perry said. “So, if we ever wanted a federal policy, it’d be nice to know which states’ policies have the greatest impact on academic performance and mental health. But I also want to caution us. Smartphone policies are great, but they are not the only solution to what’s been hard for kids over these last many years, really since the pandemic. Just the struggle with mental health and the struggle with digital safety, the struggle with academic performance, those all preexisted.”
While Perry said that more research is critical right now as these policies are in their infancy, the preliminary data is encouraging.
“Even within one semester, we’re seeing some of these improvements around mental health and academic performance, one can assume that over many semesters you would see those improvements grow,” Perry said. “That is the business model, of course, to keep us online. These products weren’t designed as child centered or child positive products. They’re designed essentially to support the companies who made them. So I think there is a moment here where parents are reaching kind of the breaking point, and teachers, too. I think that we all can see what’s going on and how painful it is for individual children and families to cope with these devices and products that really are intended to keep their attention.”
But Cloudcroft Middle School has a small student body, under 100 students last semester. And this anti-distraction policy is now a statewide mandate. Enforcing a policy like this in larger school districts could be difficult.
Other models
Stephanie Behning, head administrator at Turquoise Trail Charter School in Santa Fe, said her classrooms had exactly that problem when implementing Yondr pouches a few years ago, to the point that they dropped the policy.
“We’re an arts integration school, so we encourage creativity and creative problem solving and critical thinking. Well, those Yondr pouches brought on a lot of that with our students [getting] into the pouch after it was locked,” Behning said. “I think as schools are bigger, it’s harder to manage all of those phones and [what] you’re actually putting into the pouch.”
Since the mandate came down from the state, Turquoise Trail doesn’t use the Yondr Pouches, and instead has kids lock their devices away in their lockers. Behning said that she has seen positive improvement since the mandate, but that more emphasis should be put on teaching kids to build a healthier relationship with their devices.
“We can take away and put things away and lock things up as much as we want. But if we don’t actually give them the tools, then they’re not going to be able to know how to use it responsibly when they’re out of school.”
So we know what the data say, and we know that enforcement can get tricky, especially as the schools get bigger. But what about anecdotes on the ground about in-class participation, social events, and even mental health outcomes?
“Game-changer”
According to Cloudcroft’s eighth-grade science teacher, Bryan Casinger, the Yondr pouches have been a game-changer.
Casinger said that beyond increased classroom participation, children are socializing more, the lunchroom is louder, and that cyberbullying incidents have gone down. Now that anti-distraction policies have been mandated across the state, he said other districts should expect similar outcomes.
“It was a battle for teachers, because not only do we have to teach a lesson, but we were stuck trying to watch for those phones. And when we tried to take them, usually the kid would try to argue, so that was conflict in the class. To deal with that was an issue, to take the phones, to send them to the office, to worry about the liability of taking the kid’s phone – all those things have gone away for us.”
So teachers and other school staff seem to support anti-distraction policies, but what about the kids? Manasseh Newton, a Cloudcroft eighth grader, said after initially being upset, he started to see quite a bit of changes in his peers.
“I think a lot of people will be upset. I know I was, and a lot of my peers [were], but in the end, I ultimately think it can benefit us.”
“When I was in sixth grade, this was like a year before they had Yondr Pouches, every period or so, especially boring ones, I would see kids on their phone or just hanging out in the bathroom trying to skip school,” he said. “During lunch time [and] recess, a lot of people would just be staring at their phones and not really paying attention to anything else. And now we have conversations, and we communicate a bit more instead of staring at a phone for the entire lunch period.”
The district pays for a student’s first Yondr pouch. But if it’s damaged or tampered with, a student’s parents must pay around $30 to replace it, according to school officials.
Newton said that even though many people weren’t on board with Cloudcroft’s policy initially, he feels that the impact on him and his peers has been mostly positive, and that the policies will do the same across the state’s school districts.
“I think a lot of people will be upset. I know I was, and a lot of my peers [were], but in the end, I ultimately think it can benefit us, especially because it’ll keep us focusing on school a bit more,” he said. “So not only are we paying more attention in school, but we’re not staring at our phones and harming our eyes, and just doomscrolling, so to speak.”
And Principal Adams echoed Newton’s sentiments that these policies are not popular at first, but that they become easier to enforce over time, and that it helps to get faculty buy-in.
“They’re very addicted to their cell phones and their devices in general. So at first there is going to be a struggle, it’s going to be tough to start it. But I think as long as the administration and the teachers are both on the same page, and that everybody is aligned in the mentality of [the] zero tolerance policy, then that’s the safest way to go. Otherwise, kids will take advantage of it.”
Adams said Cloudcroft Middle School caught students using their phones when they shouldn’t have been only 12 times in the past year, and those instances weren’t in the classroom – a significant improvement over past years.
As more states move to limit phone use in schools, New Mexico’s classrooms are becoming a testing ground for how much policy can actually reshape student behavior and learning. Whether these restrictions mark a significant turning point is yet to be seen, but the next few years may reveal just how much difference a locked pouch can make.
Jonny Coker is a Multimedia Journalist with recent reporting for KRWG Public Media and the Southern New Mexico Journalism Collaborative. He has lived in Southern New Mexico for most of his life, growing up in Cloudcroft—where he now lives. Jonny earned a degree in Journalism and Media Studies at New Mexico State University.
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