The School Phone Ban Becomes Law on 29 June: What It Actually Means for Your Child

On 29 June 2026, a piece of statutory guidance that has been sitting on headteachers' desks since 2024 finally acquires legal teeth. From that date, every state-funded school in England must — by law — have regard to the Department for Education's guidance on mobile phones, under section 36 of the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026. Most schools already operate some form of phone restriction. What changes on 29 June is that ignoring the guidance is no longer an option, and the way your child's school handles phones may shift visibly before the end of the summer term.

Here is what the law actually says, what it does not say, and what to expect from your child's school over the next few weeks.

What the law changes — and what it doesn't

Section 36 of the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 requires state-funded schools in England to have regard to published guidance on mobile phones. This gives the guidance on mobile phones in schools the force of law. The provision comes into force on 29 June 2026.

Two points are worth being clear about, because there has been some confused reporting.

First, this is not a new blanket ban written into statute. The Act elevates the existing DfE guidance — first published in February 2024 — to statutory status. Existing guidance on mobile phones that states that schools should be mobile phone free by default is now to become statutory from September 2026. The guidance does not require schools to ban phones from the school site, instead they may choose from a range of approaches.

Second, the guidance itself sets a clear expectation. The Department for Education (DfE) expects schools to implement a policy whereby pupils do not have access to their mobile phone throughout the school day including during lessons, the time between lessons, breaktimes and lunchtime. In practice, that means a school cannot simply say "phones off in class" and consider the matter settled.

Schools can decide how to deliver that outcome. The Department for Education sets out broadly four options:

• Phones banned from the school site altogether.
• Phones handed in on arrival and returned at the end of the day.
• Phones stored in a locker or secure pouch the pupil cannot access during the day.
• Phones kept on the pupil but never seen, heard or used — with clear sanctions if they are.

The first three are the routes most secondary schools are now moving towards. The fourth — relying on pupil self-discipline — is the option Ofsted and the DfE have been quietly steering schools away from.

The £60 million pouch framework

You may have read about lockable pouches, and parents understandably want to know whether their child will be expected to use one.

According to Tes, the national commercial body for policing in England and Wales, BlueLight Commercial, has been awarded an open framework with an estimated value of £60 million over eight years, for the supply of the pouches, "unlocking bases" and support services.

In plain terms: the government has not bought a pouch for every child. It has set up a purchasing framework that schools (and, in principle, other public bodies) can buy through if they choose. The £60 million figure is the estimated total value of orders that might be placed through the framework over its eight-year life, not a sum being handed to schools.

The best-known supplier in this market is Yondr. The pouches are produced by Yondr, a company which has already supplied more than three million to schools in over 55 countries. They are also used at some events, such as concerts and comedy shows, to stop interruptions or video recording. Organisations typically pay £15 to £25 per pouch, which gives a sense of the unit cost your school would face if it went down this route.

Whether your child's school adopts pouches will depend on cost, the age group involved, and the head's view of how disruptive phones currently are. Many primaries will not need them at all. Many secondaries will look at them seriously.

Confiscation and search powers

A common parent question: can a teacher actually take my child's phone away? The answer is yes, and that has been true for some time. The statutory status of the guidance reinforces, rather than creates, these powers.

Under the Education Act 2011, headteachers already have the power to search pupils and confiscate mobile phones that are used in breach of school rules. The new guidance pushes schools to use those powers confidently and consistently. As Schools Week has reported, staff can confiscate phones and are legally protected from liability if an item is lost or damaged while being held as a disciplinary measure.

What this means in practice for your family:

• A teacher can take a phone seen or heard during the school day, and the school can hold it until the end of the day — or, in some policies, until a parent collects it.
• A senior member of staff can search a pupil for a phone if they have reasonable grounds, though the bar for a physical search is high and the circumstances strictly defined.
• The school is not legally responsible if a confiscated phone is damaged or lost while being stored in line with the policy.

If a sanction feels disproportionate, the right route is the school's complaints procedure, not a stand-off at the school gate.

What to expect from your child's school before the end of term

The 29 June commencement date falls inside the summer term, which is deliberate. The DfE wants schools to communicate any changes before the September 2026 academic year, when most new policies will take effect in full.

Realistically, you should expect one or more of the following to land in your inbox between now and the end of term:

• A revised mobile phone policy, usually appearing on the school website and referenced in a letter home.
• A clear statement of which of the four DfE approaches the school is adopting.
• Information about storage — whether phones are handed in, locked in pouches, kept in lockers, or simply expected to stay out of sight.
• Sanctions for first, second and repeat breaches. Most schools tier these: confiscation until end of day, then parent collection, then a more formal sanction.
• A way for parents to contact the school urgently during the day if needed. This is the question parents ask most often, and a good policy will answer it explicitly.

If your child's school has not communicated anything by the last week of June, it is reasonable to email and ask. The statutory duty applies from 29 June, so by then the policy should at least be drafted.

A note on primary and secondary

The conversation is dominated by secondary schools, but most primaries have had de facto phone bans for years. If your child is in Year 6 and moving up in September, the transition meetings at their new secondary are the right place to ask exactly how phones will be handled. Policies vary widely between schools in the same town.

For families in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland: this Act applies to England only. The devolved nations are watching closely, and Scotland in particular has issued its own non-statutory guidance, but the legal position is different and your school will follow its own national framework.

The practical takeaway

Nothing your child does at school on 29 June 2026 will look dramatically different from 28 June. The legal change is real, but the visible change has been happening for two years already. What is worth doing as a parent:

• Read the policy when it arrives. Don't skim it.
• Talk to your child about what is expected before September, not on the first morning back.
• Agree a plan for after-school contact that does not depend on a phone being reachable during the day.
• If the school is moving to pouches or hand-in systems, ask what happens if a pupil genuinely needs a phone for a medical reason or a safeguarding concern. Good policies have a named exemption route; if yours doesn't, raise it.

The law is now settled. The conversation at home is the bit that still needs doing.