Sample briefing from File 1
Five of 26 state phone laws filed under “bell to bell” use the phrase
Sample Gathered by AI agents. Not yet checked by a person.
Education Week files 31 jurisdictions under “Bell to bell” in its chart of state phone rules. Of the 26 texts read, five contain the phrase.
Education Week’s Bell to bell row appears to sort laws by how much of the day they reach, which would make this a gap between a label and statute wording. The count measures the words of each law. How strong a law is takes another reading.
- Status
- Sample. Draft
- Sources retrieved
- November 5, 2026
- Responsible
- SOVRINT Inc.
- Paid for by
- Nobody
AI agents gathered the sources, read them, counted them and drafted File 1, using scripts. No person has yet checked it or read a source. No SOVRINT software produced it. No client paid for it. AI agents drew this sample from that file, using only the facts in it. The file is at www.sovrint.com/files/bell-to-bell.
Download the PDFWhat was published and by whom
Part 1
The count shows where the phrase appears in the text of the laws one tracker files under that label. How often people use the phrase, what the laws do in practice and how strong they are all stay open. Many of them reach the whole day in other words.
The list comes from Education Week, state table behind its cellphone tracker, page updated October 26, 2026. Education Week’s table is used as a list only.
| The five texts with the phrase | Times found | Exact words of the rule |
|---|---|---|
| Georgia, HB 1009, as passed House and Senate | 3 times | ‘Bell-to-bell’ means the period beginning with the first bell signaling the start of instructional timePhrase in the rule |
| Oklahoma, HB 1276, enrolled, amending SB 139 of 2025 | 2 times | while on the campus of a public school district from bell to bellPhrase in the rule |
| Virginia, Code of Virginia 22.1-79.3:1, current code | 6 times | “Bell to bell” includes lunch and time in between class periods.Phrase in the rule |
| Arkansas, Act 122 of 2025 | 3 times | from the time students are required to be at school until the time students are dismissed from schoolPhrase in a title, name or heading |
| Pennsylvania, Act 117 of 2026, SB 1014, printer’s number 1697 | 2 times | PROHIBIT THE USE OF A MOBILE DEVICE DURING THE SCHOOL DAY WHILE ON SCHOOL PROPERTYPhrase in a title, name or heading |
No phrase, but a bell mentioned another way: Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Utah.
No phrase and no bell wording in the phone rule: Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas.
Twelve dated lines
The 12 lines are chosen examples with no sampling frame. They show no rate and no order of adoption, and a class-period use from December 2022 falls after the first phone use. Lines before 2019 are education sources and most later ones are news or government, so any apparent shift may partly reflect what was read. Each quoted line is Observed: the wording was on the page when retrieved for this file on November 5, 2026, whether or not any claim inside it is correct.
| Published by | Date | Words used |
|---|---|---|
| National Science Teaching Association blog (archived copy) | from the beginning of the class period to the end (bell-to-bell)One class period | |
| The Post Newspaper (Galveston County, Texas), on Texas City ISD | From bell to bell there is no cellPhones, the whole day | |
| Education Service Center Region 11 (Texas), workshop catalog | Bell-to-Bell Instruction: Designing for Student Engagement and SuccessOne class period | |
| WNYT, on Lee Middle and High School (archived copy) | No Cell from Bell to BellPhones, the whole day | |
| Fairplay, release with the Phone-Free Schools Movement | bell-to-bell phone-free policiesPhones, the whole day | |
| Virginia Department of Education bulletin | “Bell-to-bell” includes lunch and time in between class periods.Phones, the whole day | |
| Office of the Governor of Arkansas | Bell to Bell, No Cell ActPhones, the whole day | |
| Office of the Governor of New York | Statewide, Bell-to-Bell Restrictions on Smartphones in SchoolsPhones, the whole day | |
| Gilbert High School (Gilbert Public Schools, Arizona) | No Cell Bell to Bell - Student Cell Phone UsePhones, class time | |
| Ballotpedia News | commonly referred to as a “bell-to-bell” banPhones, the whole day | |
| Seattle Public Schools | “No Cell Bell to Bell” RulePhones, class time | |
| Federal Register, FCC proposed rule, document 2026-16590 | (bell-to-bell, instructional time, etc.)A type of phone ban |
Which items are copies
Part 2
One AP story on three sites and one ABC News story on eight pages count as two sources. How each group counts is written under its words.
| Where it ran | Date | Words, and how they count |
|---|---|---|
| The Star (Malaysia), Bangor Daily News, Fortune | 2025-01-16 | We will ban cellphones in our schools, bell to bellOne Associated Press storyThe Star and Bangor Daily News were confirmed in the last check. Fortune refused it, and an earlier copy carries the line. Versions on News4Jax and Voice of America leave the line out, so a wire story can differ by outlet. |
| ABC7 New York, ABC7 San Francisco, ABC30 Fresno, 6abc Philadelphia, ABC13 Houston, ABC11 Raleigh-Durham, ABC7 Los Angeles, Good Morning America | 2026-05-21 | the advisory calls for implementing bell-to-bell ban policiesOne ABC News storyEight pages, one source, dated May 21 on Good Morning America and May 22 on the seven station sites. The federal advisory it describes returned 403. That document’s own use of the phrase is Unverified. |
| Fairplay release, July 17, 2024, Education Week interview, July 18, 2024 | 2024-07-17 | bell-to-bell phone-free policiesOne group, a day apartCounted once, as the July 17, 2024 line. Any sequence rests on the July 17 release. |
| WSLS, WDBJ7 | 2024-08-15 | during the bell-to-bell school dayTwo local reports of one state draftThis file read reports of the draft and not the draft itself. The state’s use in it is Unverified. |
| Virginia Department of Education bulletin, September 17, 2024, Code of Virginia 22.1-79.3:1, Oklahoma SB 139 of 2025, Oklahoma HB 1276 of 2026, Maryland Chapter 596 of 2026, New Hampshire RSA 189:1-a | Undated | from when the first bell rings ... until the dismissal bell ringsNear-identical definitions in separate documentsQuoted from Maryland. Two undated model bill texts carry the same kind of definition and neither contains the phrase, though the Becca Schmill Foundation’s site links one of them as a “Model Bell-to-Bell Phone-Free Schools bill.” Whether that reflects shared model language is Not established. Drafting history went unchecked, and which text came first is unknown. |
What each claim’s status is
Part 3
Observed means the text was seen at its source on the stated date, saying what is quoted. Unverified means the claim appears in the text, and no primary record for or against it has been located. Not established means the material cannot settle the question.
The definitions are in the Method.
| Claim | Status | Basis, and what would change it |
|---|---|---|
| Of 26 enacted or final texts read from Education Week’s Bell to bell row, 5 contain the phrase. | Observed | Case-insensitive search for bell[ -]+to[ -]+bell in the text read, with line numbers removed. Text shown struck through is left out of the count. Would change it: The ceiling is 10 of 31, if all five uncounted instruments carried the phrase. |
| Each of the 12 quoted lines was on its page when retrieved on November 5, 2026. | Observed | This describes the text. The claim inside it may still be wrong. Would change it: A page can change after it was read. |
| August 17, 2019 is the earliest phone use found. | Observed | Earliest observed source does not establish original authorship. Would change it: A dated phone use from before August 2019. |
| Document 2026-16590 is the only document the Federal Register’s search returned for either spelling on November 5, 2026. | Observed | A type name in a question put to commenters. Would change it: A later search that returns another document. |
| The federal advisory itself uses the phrase. | Unverified | One ABC News story reports that it calls for bell-to-bell ban policies. The advisory returned 403. Would change it: Reading the advisory. |
| Virginia’s draft guidance uses the phrase. | Unverified | Reports of the draft were read, and not the draft itself. Would change it: Reading the draft. |
| The near-identical first-bell definitions reflect shared model language. | Not established | Drafting history went unchecked, and which text came first is unknown. Would change it: The drafting history of those texts. |
| A tracker’s category name need not appear in the laws it sorts, and the row may sort by how much of the day a rule reaches. | Not established | Would change it: Education Week stating how it sorts. |
| Drafters may prefer defined terms such as school day. | Not established | Would change it: Drafting manuals or committee notes on the term. |
| Unconnected schools may have reached for the same plain words. | Not established | Would change it: A shared template, vendor or conference behind the early uses. |
| The phone senses may have grown from the class-period sense. | Not established | Would change it: A dated class-time phone rule under the phrase from before 2019. |
| A campaign may have spread the phrase after 2024. | Not established | Would change it: Dated campaign material sent to legislators, or sponsors citing it. |
Part 4
What was searched and what could not be seen
Searched
43 logged web searches for discovery, run on November 5, 2026 and listed in the case file. Two earlier searches for 2022 and 2023 phone uses went unlogged. Twelve dated lines from 2011 to 2026 and 26 law texts, from legislatures, government sites, news outlets, advocacy groups and education bodies. Education Week’s table is used as a list only.
Refused or failed: GDELT (429), California and Vermont, LegiScan and several news sites. The last check also drew refusals from Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Utah and Fortune. Those five rest on copies kept from earlier passes.
Left out
- California. Not read in this pass. The state site refused the script with a 403.
- Vermont. Not read in this pass. The state site did not accept the script’s connection on three attempts.
- District of Columbia. A school system policy. Not read.
- Hawaii. A state board policy. A board draft was read and has no bell in it. The draft.
- Oregon. An executive order. Not read.
- The merits of phone rules, their effects and enforcement. Students, parents and teachers as individuals. No minors are quoted.
- This briefing makes no prediction. The one draft in the case file was declined under the Method on November 5, 2026 and never issued.
What would change the reading
Part 3 names what would change each claim. These could move the count.
- The ceiling is 10 of 31, if all five uncounted instruments carried the phrase.
- Idaho, New Hampshire and Ohio were read as current code. Any session-law title went unseen.
- Ten of the 26 are code or a late print, which can differ from the act as signed.
- Education Week can change the row. This count is for the page updated October 26, 2026.
- Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Utah refused the last automated check. Those four rest on copies kept from earlier passes.
What could not be seen
- Volume went unmeasured. GDELT returned 429 on the one request made. This file holds no figure for how often the phrase ran.
- Education Week has not stated how it sorts rows or when it adopted the category.
- Ten of the 26 texts are code or a late print: Idaho, New Hampshire, Ohio and Virginia (code), and Georgia, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island (final or late print). A law signed and later amended may read differently.
- Still unread: the federal advisory, Virginia’s draft and final guidance, Virginia’s 2025 and 2026 acts, and the final print of Georgia HB 340.
- Outside the search: newspaper archives behind paywalls, district board minutes, social platforms, broadcast transcripts and French-language sources on Quebec.
- The search for phone uses from 2010 to 2019 is thin. Thirteen logged queries found the 2019 Texas page and a 2019 student piece and nothing earlier, and web search skews recent. Earlier uses may still exist.
- A student newspaper piece dated September 23, 2019 describes a class-time phone rule under the phrase. It stays uncited and unnamed, because its authors and many of its sources are students.
- Dated class-period uses from 2023 to 2026 were left unsearched. An AI review pass reported an October 2023 teacher podcast on that sense, and that podcast is still unread.
- Published tallies of bell-to-bell states differ. This case states no count of its own and uses Education Week’s 31 only as a list.
- Two of the 12 lines link a public archived copy, and raw copies of all 12 are kept in the case folder. Pages can change, and the 2019 page and Education Week’s table have no public archived copy.
Not signed
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contact
Addresses
Every link in this document, for a reader on paper.
- Education Week, cellphone tracker: https://www.edweek.org/technology/which-states-ban-or-restrict-cellphones-in-schools/2024/06
- Education Week, state table: https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/25664184/embed
- Hawaii, board draft: https://boe.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/20251211_SAC_cellphonepolicy.pdf
- Georgia, HB 1009, as passed House and Senate: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/legislation/document/20252026/247117
- Oklahoma, HB 1276, enrolled, amending SB 139 of 2025: https://oklegislature.gov/cf_pdf/2025-26%20ENR/hB/HB1276%20ENR.PDF
- Virginia, Code of Virginia 22.1-79.3:1, current code: https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title22.1/chapter7/section22.1-79.3:1/
- Arkansas, Act 122 of 2025: https://arkleg.state.ar.us/Home/FTPDocument?path=%2FACTS%2F2025R%2FPublic%2FACT122.pdf
- Pennsylvania, Act 117 of 2026, SB 1014, printer’s number 1697: https://www.palegis.us/legislation/bills/text/HTM/2025/0/SB1014/PN1697
- 2011-07-10, National Science Teaching Association blog: https://www.nsta.org/blog/bell-bell-learning
- Archived copy: http://web.archive.org/web/20260417001043/https://www.nsta.org/blog/bell-bell-learning
- 2019-08-17, The Post Newspaper (Galveston County, Texas), on Texas City ISD: https://thepostnewspaper.net/2019/08/17/tcisd-approves-new-cell-phone-policy-for-2019-20/
- 2022-12-02, Education Service Center Region 11 (Texas), workshop catalog: https://registration.esc11.net/catalog/sessions/29687/56310
- 2024-01-22, WNYT, on Lee Middle and High School: https://wnyt.com/wnyt-commit-to-kids/lee-middle-high-schoolers-forced-to-turn-off-cell-phones-all-day
- Archived copy: http://web.archive.org/web/20250709004028/https://wnyt.com/wnyt-commit-to-kids/lee-middle-high-schoolers-forced-to-turn-off-cell-phones-all-day
- 2024-07-17, Fairplay, release with the Phone-Free Schools Movement: https://fairplayforkids.org/fairplay-phone-free-schools-movement-announce-partnership-tools-to-help-remove-phones-in-schools/
- 2024-09-17, Virginia Department of Education bulletin: https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/VADOE/bulletins/3b64e3e
- 2025-01-29, Office of the Governor of Arkansas: https://governor.arkansas.gov/news_post/governor-sanders-announces-bill-to-make-every-arkansas-school-go-phone-free/
- 2025-05-06, Office of the Governor of New York: https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/distraction-free-schools-governor-hochul-announces-new-york-become-largest-state-nation
- 2025-07-25, Gilbert High School (Gilbert Public Schools, Arizona): https://gilberthigh.gilbertschools.net/tigerfamily/announcement-details/~board/district-news-announcements/post/no-cell-bell-to-bell-student-cell-phone-use
- 2026-03-26, Ballotpedia News: https://news.ballotpedia.org/2026/03/26/kansas-becomes-thirty-third-state-to-enact-a-k-12-cellphone-ban/
- 2026-04-29, Seattle Public Schools: https://www.seattleschools.org/news/student-cellphone-procedure-effective-may-4/
- 2026-08-14, Federal Register, FCC proposed rule, document 2026-16590: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/14/2026-16590/fcc-to-review-e-rate-program-to-ensure-congresss-vision
- The Star (Malaysia): https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2025/01/16/banning-cellphones-in-us-schools-gains-popularity-in-red-and-blue-states
- Bangor Daily News: https://www.bangordailynews.com/2025/01/16/nation/banning-cellphones-in-schools-gains-popularity-in-red-and-blue-states/
- Fortune: https://www.fortune.com/2025/01/16/school-cellphone-bans-gaining-popularity-red-blue-states
- ABC7 New York: https://abc7ny.com/post/get-off-phones-surgeon-general-advisory-calls-kids-cut-screen-time/19147105/
- ABC7 San Francisco: https://abc7news.com/post/get-off-phones-surgeon-general-advisory-calls-kids-cut-screen-time/19147105/
- ABC30 Fresno: https://abc30.com/post/get-off-phones-surgeon-general-advisory-calls-kids-cut-screen-time/19147105/
- 6abc Philadelphia: https://6abc.com/post/get-off-phones-surgeon-general-advisory-calls-kids-cut-screen-time/19147105/
- ABC13 Houston: https://abc13.com/post/get-off-phones-surgeon-general-advisory-calls-kids-cut-screen-time/19147105/
- ABC11 Raleigh-Durham: https://abc11.com/post/get-off-phones-surgeon-general-advisory-calls-kids-cut-screen-time/19147105/
- ABC7 Los Angeles: https://abc7.com/post/get-off-phones-surgeon-general-advisory-calls-kids-cut-screen-time/19147105/
- Good Morning America: https://goodmorningamerica.com/news/story/off-phones-surgeon-general-advisory-calls-kids-cut-133125787
- Education Week interview, July 18, 2024: https://www.edweek.org/technology/why-many-schools-strict-cellphone-policies-may-not-go-far-enough/2024/07
- WSLS: https://wsls.com/news/local/2024/08/15/virginia-department-of-education-released-draft-guidance-for-cell-phone-policies
- WDBJ7: https://www.wdbj7.com/2024/08/15/department-education-issues-draft-guidance-cell-phone-free-education/
- Oklahoma SB 139 of 2025: https://oklegislature.gov/cf_pdf/2025-26%20ENR/SB/SB139%20ENR.PDF
- Maryland Chapter 596 of 2026: https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2026RS/Chapters_noln/CH_596_hb0525e.pdf
- New Hampshire RSA 189:1-a: https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/XV/189/189-1-a.htm