Away For The Day National Survey of Middle-School Cell Phone Policies
This is the original survey report behind Away For The Day, the phone-free-schools initiative that physician-filmmaker Delaney Ruston and her Screenagers team launched after concluding there was no existing data describing actual U.S. middle-school cell phone policies. Between late May and mid-June 2017 the team surveyed more than 1,200 parents of middle-schoolers, drawn mainly from people who had seen or followed the Screenagers documentary. The survey found a majority of respondents' schools allowed students to carry phones throughout the day, while a much larger majority of parents said they would prefer schools kept phones stored away during class time, with public schools notably more permissive than private schools. TechKids Foundation cites this report as an example of an advocacy organization generating its own original data, rather than relying solely on outside research, to argue for stricter school phone policies.
In the Away For The Day team's 2017 survey of more than 1,200 U.S. middle-school parents, 56% reported their child's school allows students to carry cell phones with them all day.
82% of surveyed parents said they do not want their middle schoolers using cell phones during the school day.
64% of public-school parents versus 31% of private-school parents reported their child's school allows carrying phones all day.
Ruston, Delaney, MD, and the Screenagers team. Away For The Day national survey of U.S. middle-school parents on cell phone policies. Away For The Day / MyDoc Productions, 2017.