Cell phone use to be banned all day for MCPS high schools

District to release new regulations around when students can use mobile devices

July 27, 2026 5:33 p.m.

cell phone pouch — Rockville High School, one of the schools participating in the "Away All Day" pilot program in 2024, used magnetic pouches to restrict phone access when students violate the new cell phone policy. Photo credit: Ashlyn Campbell

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) is updating its cell phone regulations to ban the use of mobile devices all day for all students, including high schoolers, for the 2026-2027 school year, MCPS staff told the County Council Education and Culture Committee Monday.

“Our goal is simple: provide every student with a distraction-free learning environment while ensuring consistent expectations across every school,” MCPS Chief of Schools Peter Moran told the committee on Monday at its meeting in Rockville. “Students are expected to keep personal mobile devices away and not in use throughout the instructional day.”

Moran said the 2026-2027 Student Code of Conduct—coming out to parents “soon” —would reflect the changes. MCPS spokesperson Liliana López said the new regulation would be released in August, and said the change will go into effect the first day of school, scheduled for Aug. 25.

“We will make sure to communicate with students and families once the regulation is finalized,” López said in a text to Bethesda Today.

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The change to regulations, which largely will impact high school students, comes roughly one year after the district updated its cell phone regulations to primarily increase the limits on student cellphone use in middle schools. It also comes after the Maryland legislature passed a bill requiring each county school board to create “a policy prohibiting the use of an electronic communication device by a student during the school day except under certain circumstances.” The bill was signed into law by Gov. Wes Moore (D) on May 26.

Previous MCPS regulations released in May 2025 implemented for the 2025-2026 school year required elementary and middle school students to keep their phones and personal devices turned off and put away during classes, lunchtime and transitions between classes.

High school students were allowed to use their phones during lunch and between classes, but not during instructional time. All students were allowed to use personal mobile devices on MCPS buses.

MCPS released a revised edition of its regulations on July 20, 2026, to its website, which dictates that students are prohibited from using cell phones and other personal mobile devices during the academic day, with certain exceptions. However, López said the regulation was not the most up-to-date and that a new one is set to come out.

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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine