Three years ago, at the behest of teachers, the Santa Barbara Unified School District and the Santa Barbara Teachers’ Association implemented “Off and Away,” a policy banning cell phones in classrooms.

“It became a power struggle between the device on the one hand and the teacher and the student on the other,” said Shakenya Edison, SBUSD’s assistant director of student services.

Esther Limon, a third-year Spanish teacher in San Marcos, says the school year has had a big impact just one week after it started.

“The classroom culture and the community that develops there is much better than before because students are no longer connected to their devices,” Limon said.

According to a study from the University of California Irvine, it takes about 23 minutes to regain concentration after reading a notification, which is about half the length of a typical class period.

Less distraction and more engagement are the goals of Off and Away, and headteacher Dare Holdren says it’s working.

“It’s had a really big impact on our students. I see every day how engagement in the classroom continues to increase,” Holdren said.

The district-wide policy was fully implemented last school year. Students place their devices in “phone hotels” at the start of each class and have no access to them unless a student has a health exception.

“Hopefully we’re moving toward a future where we’re not all looking at our phones every few minutes. And this helps give kids the tools to accomplish things in life that they might not otherwise be able to accomplish if they had their noses buried in TikTok,” Holdren said.

Holdren adds that if there is non-compliance, the administration will contact parents.