Two Santa Barbara Unified Junior Highs Go All In on Phone-Free Days

Last year, Santa Barbara Unified’s “Off and Away” meant phones parked in classroom “cell hotels” during lessons and set free at lunch. This year, at Goleta Valley and La Colina junior high schools, it means no phones, period. From first bell to 2:53 p.m., students’ cells are sealed in signal-blocking pouches that stay in backpacks. Notifications can’t buzz, pings can’t alert, and rings can’t intrude.

Governor Gavin Newsom praised the early policy last year and later signed Assembly Bill 3216, requiring every California district to limit student phone use by July 1, 2026. S.B. Unified got there early, then pushed further.

Superintendent Hilda Maldonado said the shift started with teachers. “We really need to have phones put away,” she recalled. Early versions focused on classrooms. High schools adopted cell hotels; junior highs asked to go all day. “Two of the four junior high school principals agreed to do it, deciding to use the pouches this time … the other two are watching closely.”

So far, violations have been rare. Out of about 740 students at Goleta Valley, only 34 have had first violations, four reached a second, and none a third. “Students are more talkative, doing more active things at lunch,” Maldonado said. “We want kids active, joyful, moving, engaging, socializing, and getting their heads out of the screens.”

Goleta Valley Junior High Principal Clancy Chiu called last year’s cell hotel policy “a good stepping stone,” but said the consistency of pouches helps. Families were on board, especially after COVID. “Thirteen and 14 year olds are all at different spaces and still very much struggle with self-regulation,” Chiu said.

Jamie Carpio, Goleta Valley Junior High’s dean of student engagement, has noticed changes at lunch. “You see less of kids just sitting off by themselves. They’re engaging more with each other,” she said. The after-lunch transition has also improved: “We’re seeing more engagement in classes after lunch because they’re not having to pull themselves away from scrolling.”

La Colina’s principal, Jennifer Foster, echoed the sentiment. “Students are participating in clubs more during lunch, talking and playing with their friends,” she said. “Overall, campus seems more calm and fewer incidents of conflict over social media/text messages during the school day.”

Students still get lessons in “digital citizenship,” Carpio said, covering social media use, digital footprints, and online behavior.

Goleta Valley Junior High 8th-grader Stella Valentine has experienced both versions. “It’s a lot different. And I feel like a lot of people don’t like it,” she said. “A lot of people like having their phones just so they can communicate with their families … I know I would do that.”

The signal-blocking pouches are the sticking point. “People don’t like the signal blocking thing,” she said. Tracking is part of it: “They like their families to track them.” Her verdict: “Neutral.” She added with a laugh, “Oh, my phone is probably not in my pouch, but it’s somewhere in my backpack. It’s floating. I think I lost my pouch.”

As for how parents feel, both principals said that the overall feedback has been “positive” and the entire process was a “community effort.” There was a bit of wariness when it came to the inability to track children and communicate with them throughout the day, but families are adjusting to phoning their children via the schools’ front offices. The kids are also welcome to go to the front office and utilize the phone to communicate with home when they need to do so. 

The district will compare outcomes of the two junior highs participating in the cell-free experiment and the two watching from the sidelines — engagement, behavior, maybe book checkouts — and decide what’s next. The state deadline remains in 2026, but the cultural deadline is already here. Gen Alpha is in middle school. The generation that has never known a day on this Earth without the iPhone.

As for the phones, they will still be there at 2:53. The point is that, until then, the kids are being kids.