Shapiro signs the phone-free schools bill. It is now Act 117 of 2026
The governor signed Senate Bill 1014 at a Bucks County middle school on Monday, four days after it reached his desk. Schools have until the 2027-28 school year to put bell-to-bell rules in place.
Gov. Josh Shapiro signed Pennsylvania's bell-to-bell school cellphone ban on Monday at Lenape Middle School in Doylestown, Bucks County, a school that has had its own phone ban for three years, Patch reported. The bill's history now lists it as Act 117 of 2026, approved Oct. 26.
This is a follow-up to our Oct. 23 article on the final votes. What changed since then: the bill is law, it has an act number, and the governor has described how he expects schools to carry it out.
What families should know
The law covers public, private, charter and cyber charter schools, according to Patch. Districts must adopt policies that keep students off their phones for the whole school day, including recess and study halls, and those policies must be in place by the start of the 2027-28 school year. Nothing changes this school year unless a district acts on its own.
Exceptions cover students with documented medical conditions, students whose individualized education program calls for a device, and students with permission from an administrator, Patch reported.
Districts will decide how phones are stored and how the rules are enforced. "Schools will not be told how to do this work, but they will be empowered to do it," Shapiro said at the signing, according to Patch. The president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, Aaron Chapin, said the law takes "an essential step toward reducing distractions," Patch reported.
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What the records add
Signed in four days. The bill was presented to the governor on Oct. 22 and signed on Oct. 26. While the legislature is in session, a governor has 10 days to act on a bill, the Capital-Star noted. Shapiro signed 58 other bills last week but not this one, WTAJ reported; Spotlight PA had reported he planned a public signing.
381 days, start to finish. The bill was referred to the Senate Education Committee on Oct. 10, 2025. From that referral to the signing took 381 days, and 166 of them were spent in the House Appropriations Committee, according to the bill's history.
Both parties split. As we reported last week, the House passed the bill 141-62: Democrats 78-25 and Republicans 63-37. The Senate's final vote was 47-3, with Republican Sen. Dawn Keefer and Democratic Sens. James Malone and Katie Muth voting no.
A Republican sponsor, a Democratic governor's priority. The prime sponsor is Sen. Devlin Robinson, an Allegheny County Republican, who also sponsored the raffle law Shapiro signed last week. Shapiro had called for a phone ban in his budget address, NBC10 reported.
What happens next
The work now moves to the state's 500 school districts and to charter, cyber charter and private schools, which have to write and adopt policies before the 2027-28 school year. The state will help schools carry out the law but won't prescribe how, according to Patch.
Parents who want to know what their school plans can watch school board agendas for a policy vote over the coming year.