Florida requires phones off and social media blocked in class

The short answer

Since 1 July 2023, Florida law has barred public school students from using a phone or similar device during instructional time, unless a teacher directs its use for a specific lesson, and has required districts to block social media on school-owned devices and school internet connections. It also requires schools to teach students in grades 6 through 12 about social media's effects. None of this bans phones from campus outright; students may still carry them and use them outside instructional time.

What the evidence says

The Florida Legislature passed HB 379 unanimously, 110 to 0 in the House and 39 to 0 in the Senate, and the Governor signed it on 9 May 2023 as Chapter 2023-36, effective 1 July 2023, according to the bill's legislative record. The enrolled statute amends section 1003.42 of the Florida Statutes to say a student may possess a wireless communications device on school property or at a school function, but may not use it during instructional time except when a teacher expressly directs its use for educational purposes; each teacher must designate an area for devices during that time, and each district school board must adopt its own rules governing device use. The same statute adds a required unit, for grades 6 through 12, on the social, emotional and physical effects of social media, covering the negative mental-health effects of social media including addiction, the spread of misinformation, behavioural manipulation, the permanence of shared material, personal security, and recognising cyberbullying, predatory behaviour and human trafficking online; the Department of Education must publish the instructional materials online and districts must tell parents where to find them. A separate amendment to section 1003.02 requires each district's Internet safety policy to prohibit and prevent student access to social media through school-provided internet, with an exception, and to prohibit certain platforms on district-owned devices, with the State Board of Education directed to adopt implementing rules.

For context

The law leaves substantial discretion to teachers and districts: it does not specify where a designated device area must be, what counts as a permitted educational use, or which platforms count as social media for the network-blocking requirement. It regulates instructional time and school-provided infrastructure, not a student's own data connection, and does not address phone use outside instructional time or off school property. The unanimous vote suggests broad agreement on the goal, which does not by itself tell you how consistently it is applied classroom to classroom.

A practical next step

You could ask your child's school where its designated device area is and what the school considers a teacher-directed educational use, since the statute leaves both to local implementation.

• Does your child's school have a published rule on where devices go during instructional time?
• Have you seen the grades 6 through 12 social media curriculum your district uses to meet this requirement?
• Do you know whether your child's school blocks specific platforms on its network, or only on district-owned devices?

The statute sets a clear instructional-time rule and a curriculum mandate; how each district turns that into daily practice is the part worth checking locally.