Aurora schools trial run phone-free classrooms
AURORA, Colo. — A map of the United States filled the digital whiteboard inside Jasmine Baker’s classroom at Mrachek Middle School. As Baker asked students questions about annexation, she flipped back and forth from the map to Google Translate, so that Spanish-speaking students could follow along too.
“When I’m annexing something, what does that mean I’m doing?” Baker asked the class.
One student murmured a response.
“I only hear one person, but we all have the same map pulled up. Let’s try it again,” Baker said. She asked the question again, and this time, multiple students raised their hands to answer.
Baker still sometimes has to prod her students to participate in class, but she no longer has to compete with a small, rectangular screen also vying for their attention. This school year, Mrachek implemented a no cellphone policy for students. The campus is one of eight pilot schools in the Aurora Public Schools system testing new phone policies to finalize its district-wide cellphone policies by the summer.
Last year, state lawmakers passed House Bill 25-1135, requiring all Colorado school districts — except non-district charter schools — to adopt, implement and publish policies concerning “communication devices” during the school day. School districts must meet this deadline before July 1, 2026.
School districts across the state have worked on banning phones or putting restrictions on phones in schools since 2019. The Boulder Valley School District voted in November 2024 to ban cellphones during school hours at its high school campuses.
Last school year, APS implemented Yondr pouches at three schools in the district: Murphy Creek P-8, Columbia Middle School and Aurora Hills. These magnetic pouches lock up phones to reduce distractions and create phone-free spaces. They are popular at comedy shows, concert venues and schools. (The New York Times reported last month that the pouches are no match for teenage ingenuity)
At the beginning of this school year, all six middle schools in APS, including Mrachek, started using the pouches, too. Two P-8 schools are participating as well.
Attorney General Weiser awarded grants to seven school districts at the beginning of 2025 to help schools test their cell phone policies. “These grants will help schools implement creative solutions to reduce distractions, foster better learning environments and support student well-being,” Weiser said in a press release.
APS received $50,000 from the grant and paid a total of $123,564 to implement the Yondr pouches in its middle schools, enforcing bell-to-bell cellphone bans.
“There’s been a relief, a sigh of relief amongst our teachers that [smartphones] aren’t a battle that they need to engage in — that they can really focus on learning and education, having their students being fully present,” said Marissa Vasquez, operations director for middle schools at APS.
Students at Mrachek come to school with a Yondr pouch. When the school day starts, they slip their phones into the pouches before staff members lock them with magnets. The phones stay in the pouches throughout the school day, and staff members unlock them when students leave school.
Vasquez said many parents had concerns about reaching their children in emergencies if students can’t access their phones throughout the day.
It’s actually safer for students to pay attention and follow protocols put in place by building leaders in emergency situations rather than to utilize their phones, Vasquez said. Every APS classroom has a RedBag safety system so they can communicate with responding authorities, school leadership and emergency personnel.
As for contacting students for personal reasons, Vasquez said the district connects parents with students the way they did before kids had cellphones — through classroom phones, intercoms and office staff.
This year, the school is starting quarterly student regulation surveys to gauge how students feel about the new policies. From October 2025 to January 2026, students from the pilot schools self-reported a 7.1% increase in positive regulation of their emotions, according to data from APS.
“I feel like my attention span has definitely grown. Everybody is paying attention way more and is more social now,” eighth grader Natalia Tamayo said.
Tamayo typically uses her phone during the school day to communicate with her family and friends. However, she admits that there are times when she’s distracted.
“On my phone, I could be seeing something happening online in a notification when I’m using it for something else,” she said.
Lawmakers and school districts alike point to many studies, indicating that with the rise of social media usage, adolescents are more likely to develop anxiety, depression or loneliness.
“There’s been a clear increase in the number of mental health concerns that we’re seeing from students and they’re frequently connected to social media usage and access to their smartphones during their days,” Vasquez said.
Eighth grader Raylene Heredia-Ruiz said that students are chatting more than ever during lunch periods. Prior to the Yondr pouches, many of her friends would be on their phones during lunch.
“People are more engaged, and there’s less drama, tea, during the school day,” Heredia-Ruiz said.
However, there are certain social aspects that the students miss.
“It’s our last year of middle school, and we have no memories of it. Really, like, no pictures, or videos,” Heredia-Ruiz said.
Both Heredia-Ruiz and Tamayo said that they used to take pictures, videos and make TikToks throughout the school day, but now there’s a gap in their phone’s gallery. To students in school right now, Snapchat albums and Instagram feeds are a way to document their social experiences, they said.
“Students are definitely more engaged in the classroom, but going out to lunch can be hard,” admitted Baker. “Sometimes the girls would make TikToks during lunch and that’s their way of being social.”
Heredia-Ruiz and Tamayo think having phones out during lunch could be a good middle ground.
Prior to the implementation of the Yondr pouches, schools in APS had a more relaxed, less consistent approach to cell phone usage. While one teacher made all students put their phones in plastic pouches when they walked into a classroom, another would let students use their phones as calculators for a math problem.
“Everything was chaotic, leadership was a mess, teachers were worse than the kids,” said Baker, who has taught eighth grade social studies for seven years.
Baker said that with the new cell-phone policy, everyone is now on the same page, including teachers.
Kenyatta Driver, culture and climate coordinator at Mrachek Middle School, said that she’s dealt with minimal disciplinary issues this year relating to social media drama and cell-phone usage.
Until the end of the year, APS will continue to develop and solidify its policy for the next academic year.
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