According to the health policy website KFF.org, at least nine other states have adopted statewide policies limiting or banning the use of cell phones in schools. Elsewhere, even in the absence of a statewide policy, individual districts have begun acting on their own, including Peoria Public Schools, which implemented its own ban this year.

One bill under consideration by the Florida Legislature would ban phone use by students in schools almost entirely.

Sen. Christina Castro, right, and Samir Tanna, deputy legislative director for Gov. JB Pritzker, testify before a Senate committee Tuesday on a bill that would require all school districts in Illinois to adopt policies restricting cell phone use in classrooms.