High school students in Broward County may soon be allowed to use their cellphones during lunch, as the School Board prepares to vote on a possible change to its current all-day ban.
The district’s current policy, passed last year, prohibits cellphone use from the first bell until dismissal for all students. While the rule was intended to improve student mental health and academic focus, it has been met with mixed reviews—particularly from high schoolers and their parents. Broward’s student population includes a large number of Caribbean-American students, many of whom have voiced concerns over the restrictive rule.
This year, a new state law made cellphone bans mandatory for students in kindergarten through eighth grade but gave school districts discretion over rules for high schoolers. The law permits high school students to use their devices during non-instructional time, such as lunch, but allows districts to adopt stricter rules—like Broward’s.
Now the district’s policy is back up for review as the School Board considers changes to the Student Code of Conduct for the 2025–26 school year. A vote is scheduled for Tuesday.
Superintendent Howard Hepburn is recommending that the current full-day ban remain in place. “So there’s tons of data that support restricting cell phones during the school day actually helps our kids,” Hepburn said. “We saw a lot of positives out of that—student conflict issues went down, more engagement in our classrooms, more engagement during lunch, more engagement during the hallway, students actually talking to each other.”
Still, a majority of board members—Lori Alhadeff, Adam Cervera, Debbi Hixon, Jeff Holness, and Rebecca Thompson—have expressed support in recent meetings for giving high school students access to their phones during lunch.
“Our students are overwhelmed. Using their phone during lunch to unwind and text their friends memes is not detrimental to all students,” Thompson told the board on June 24. “I would like to give our high school students the freedom of their 30 minutes where they’re not structured by an adult, and they can do what they want within legal parameters.”
Lisa Maxwell, executive director of the Broward Principals and Assistants Association, said most high school principals also support lifting the lunch ban. “Some of these reasons relate to issues around social interactions and allowing some students who use music or other apps during lunch time to relax and serve as means to feel less anxious,” she wrote in a recent email to board members.
“Other reasons include the need of some students to contact their parents or siblings to coordinate afterschool activities, or to inform them of plans which may change during the day, arrange for transportation, and general communications with family and friends,” she added. “This helps to lighten the considerable load on the front office staff.”
Maxwell also noted the challenges of enforcement. “It requires enormous resources to enforce a no cell phone policy during lunch time where students may be spread out across a campus and even in the lunchroom,” she wrote.
But not everyone agrees. Board members Sarah Leonardi, Nora Rupert, and Allen Zeman remain firmly opposed to changing the rule, citing concerns over mental health and what they view as increased student well-being in cellphone-free environments. They argue that many students have become more social during lunch since the ban went into effect, even if compliance hasn’t been perfect.
The School Board will take up the issue at its meeting on Tuesday at 8:30 a.m.
