As public schools across New Jersey settle into the 2026–2027 academic year, state residents have voiced decisive approval for a new mandate restricting personal digital devices in classrooms.
More than eight in 10 New Jersey adults support the state’s ban on non-academic cellphone use for K-12 students throughout the entire school day, according to the latest Rutgers-Eagleton Poll released Monday.
The policy, which officially took effect for the current school year, requires school districts to implement “bell-to-bell” restrictions on personal internet-enabled devices. Public consensus behind the measure is notably lopsided: 59% of residents strongly back the policy and 24% somewhat support it. By contrast, only 4% are strongly opposed and 9% somewhat opposed, with 4% remaining undecided—meaning supporters outnumber opponents by more than six-to-one.
“There is very little in New Jersey politics that more than 8 in 10 residents agree on, and even less that Democrats and Republicans agree on this closely,” Ashley Koning, assistant research professor and director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, said. “Support for the state’s school cellphone ban is not just broad, it is lopsided, and it holds in every single group we measured.”
In a political landscape often marked by sharp divides, the cellphone restriction stands out as a rare point of universal alignment. Support crossed every demographic line evaluated by researchers, clearing at least 70% in every sub-group and keeping total opposition below 25% statewide.
Party identification showed virtually no impact on opinion:
- Republicans: 87% supportive
- Democrats: 85% supportive
- Independents: 79% supportive
The 8-point spread between Republicans and independents falls within the poll’s margin of error, indicating no statistically significant difference along partisan lines.
The most distinct divergence in the survey data appeared across age brackets. While a majority of every age group favors the ban, enthusiasm climbs significantly among older generations.
| Age Group | Total Support | Strongly Support |
| 65 and older | 94% | 77% |
| 50 to 64 | 85% | Not specified |
| 35 to 49 | 81% | Not specified |
| 18 to 34 | 72% | 39% |
While nearly all residents aged 65 and older support the ban, young adults aged 18 to 34—who recently experienced high school classroom environments firsthand—are more reserved. Only 39% of the youngest adults express strong support, creating a 38-percentage-point intensity gap compared to seniors.
“The one stark divide here is generational,” Koning noted. “Older residents back this almost unanimously. The youngest adults who are the closest to having lived it, however, are the most hesitant, and even they support it by 3-to-1. This is a policy whose least enthusiastic constituency is still nevertheless in favor.”
Whether a household includes school-aged children makes little difference in how residents view the classroom phone restrictions.
Eighty percent of parents or guardians of children under 18 support the requirement, compared to 84% of non-parents—a gap within the survey’s margin of error. Fifty-five percent of parents strongly back the ban compared to 60% of non-parents, which is similarly within statistical margins. Furthermore, household size played no major role, with support ranging between 78% and 85% regardless of whether a home had zero, one, or multiple children.
The Rutgers-Eagleton Poll was conducted from Sept. 24 to Sept. 27, 2026, surveying 1,004 New Jersey adults via the probability-based Rutgers-Eagleton/SSRS Garden State Panel. The full sample carries a margin of error of +/- 4.1 percentage points.
