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Most parents asking this are worried less about the phone than about the gap between the school gate and home: the late bus, the changed tuition timing. The useful question is not "phone or no phone" but "what does my child's journey actually need, and what does the school allow?"
What do school rules in India usually say?
There is no single national rule, so read your school's handbook first. The clearest recent guidance is a 2025 Delhi High Court judgment in a case involving a Kendriya Vidyalaya student. Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani held that a complete ban on use of smartphones by students attending school is "both an undesirable and unworkable approach", and set out guidelines instead (LiveLaw report of the judgment):
Where the school can arrange safekeeping, students should deposit phones on arrival and collect them when leaving.
Smartphone use in class should be prohibited.
Cameras and recording should be barred in common areas and in school vehicles.
Phones may be used for safety and coordination, not entertainment.
So a common pattern today: you may send a phone, it goes into a box or locker, and it comes out only at dispersal. Some schools still ban phones outright, so check before you buy anything.
UNESCO's Global Education Monitoring (GEM) team counted 79 education systems, or 40%, with bans on smartphone use in schools in their laws or policies by the end of 2024 (GEM Report blog). In March 2026 a senior GEM team member told PTI that 114 education systems, or 58% of countries, have a national ban (Business Today).
Does carrying a phone to school hurt learning?
In the OECD's PISA 2022 survey, 65% of 15-year-olds said they were distracted by using digital devices in at least some maths lessons, and 59% said other students' devices distracted them (summary of the PISA 2022 results). On average across OECD countries, students distracted by classmates' devices in at least some maths lessons scored 15 points lower in maths than those who said this never or almost never happens (Education Week).
But a school rule is not the whole answer. The SMART Schools study surveyed 1,227 pupils aged 12 to 15 at 30 English secondary schools (Goodyear and colleagues, The Lancet Regional Health Europe, 2025). Pupils at schools that did not permit recreational phone use spent about 40 minutes less on their phones during the school day. Yet the study found no evidence of a difference in mental wellbeing, or in phone time across weekdays or weekends.
So the school's rule protects class time; evenings are still decided at home.
When does a child really need a phone for the commute?
Run the commute test. Two or more yeses mean a phone on travel days makes sense:
Does your child travel without a known adult for any part of the way?
Does the route include a change, such as an auto to a metro, or a walk after dark?
Do pickup times change often, for example with tuition or sports after school?
Would a missed bus leave your child with no one to ask for help?
For deciding when solo travel is right at all, see our guide on what age a child can travel alone to school.
Is a basic phone enough for commute days?
For most commutes, yes. A basic keypad phone does what safety needs, calls and texts, with nothing to scroll. Start on the lowest rung that covers the journey:
No phone: school bus with an attendant, or an adult at both ends.
Basic phone, travel days only: it lives on the hall shelf and goes in the bag only when the route needs it.
Smartphone, deposited at school: with controls set up first, using our steps for parental controls on an Android phone.
A worked example: Riya, in Class 7, takes a shared auto to tuition on Mondays and Thursdays and the school bus on other days. She passes the commute test only on those two days, so a basic phone goes in her bag then, with three numbers saved: both parents and a neighbour.
What should you agree on before the first day?
Who to call first, and who to call if that person does not pick up.
Where the phone goes at school, following the school's rule.
That the phone comes home charged, and comes out of the bag on arrival.
What happens if it is lost; our guide on when a child loses money or a phone at school covers that conversation.
Write these down together and revisit them each term. If the evening screen worry is really about homework, it helps when screen time at the desk has a clear job: Fermi's AI tutor can work out what your child already knows and build a plan for the session, so study time starts with a next step.
Start with this week's timetable: mark the days the journey needs a phone, and let those days decide.
