Schools

Phone policy and non-phone devices

Reference pages on the statutory guidance, the devices it covers, and the duties alongside it. For heads, policy leads and SENCOs.

Since 29 June 2026 schools in England have had a legal duty to have regard to the Department for Education’s guidance on mobile phones, and Ofsted has assessed phone policy at every inspection since January. The guidance sets a functional test for which devices a policy covers, then leaves the specific list to each school.

The pages

Where school phone policy standsThe timeline, what the duty requires, and what the guidance leaves open.Non-phone devices and your policyHow the functional test applies, and where it stops being decisive.Wording for your policyDrafting to adapt, written to sit inside a behaviour policy.Exceptions and adjustmentsEquality Act and Children and Families Act duties.Data protection, plainlyWho holds what, and what a school can reasonably ask for.

For parents

A parent and child walking out through a school gate on a summer eveningAsking your school about a deviceThe parent-facing companion. What schools must do, and what they decide.Read this page

Corrections. Every claim links to its primary source. If something here is wrong, tell us and the change is logged on the page with the date.

Yado makes a screenless safety device for children, so we have a commercial interest in this subject. About these pages.