With days left before winter break for public school students across Texas, one North Texas school district gave a mid-year update on how the controversial cellphone ban is doing so far.  

The Texas cellphone ban was a result of House Bill 1481, which the Texas legislature passed over the summer, prohibiting all public-school students from having personal communication devices on them during the school day. That includes phones, smart watches and personal tablets.

In Arlington ISD, Superintendent Matt Smith said their district has been pleasantly surprised by the success so far this school year.

"It's gone really well," said Smith. "For the most part, the feedback we've gotten from principals is that it is creating a distraction-free learning environment for our kids in the classroom, and we know that's important. I think one of the most important things for me is the socialization pieces. We've had kids at lunchtime, suddenly actually forced to talk with each other again."

Though there are hesitations. Some educators across North Texas said taking cellphones away from students takes away the opportunity to teach them to use devices safely, especially with the greater emergence of artificial intelligence.   

Arlington ISD is working to smooth that over.   

"That's one of the biggest concerns that I shared with you in the fall," Smith said. "We must figure out ways to educate our students about how to use technology well for the future and keep them safe.

"We're working on our district improvement plan to really hone in on how we teach students how to use AI," he continued. "Obviously, when we have mobile devices in our schools, Chromebooks, etc., we have access to some AI tools. But the cell phone things at home, that's going to be a whole different story for parents, so we're working on that and we'll have more over the next year."

HB 1481 regards personal communication devices. Most students are still issued district-owned Chromebooks that are used during class time with certain internet restrictions and AI-use.

Arlington ISD will be looking at end of semester grades and see if there are improvements that could be linked back to the cellphone ban.