Parent preferences around technology in schools have shifted decisively. Nine in ten parents now prefer some restriction on phone use during the school day — a consensus that cuts across income levels, school types, and political affiliations. And yet, when Schoolhouse HQ analyzed 787 private school websites across a nationally representative sample, fewer than 1% explicitly marketed any kind of phone-free or low-tech policy. Almost no schools are saying anything about it.
This is not a school policy gap. It is a marketing gap. Roughly half of all schools — public and private — already have some form of phone restriction in place.2 The issue is that schools with no-phone policies aren’t saying so.
Why this matters for school leaders
The cultural conversation around youth, phones, and mental health has accelerated dramatically. Legislators in more than 30 states have introduced or passed phone restriction laws,3 and parents are increasingly skeptical of policies that exist “on paper” but fail in practice. JAMA Pediatrics found students still average 90 minutes of phone use during the school day.4 Parents know this too. The schools that solve it — and say so clearly — have something real to offer.
What we found
We looked at 787 private school websites across a nationally representative sample — Non-Religious, Catholic, Religious Non-Catholic, and Montessori & Other schools, drawn proportional to how each segment appears in the national population. We ran the analysis twice with independent random draws to make sure the result wasn’t a fluke. It wasn’t.
Among the handful of schools that did surface any signal, the language was often buried. References to “digital wellness” or “screen-free adventures” appeared as incidental phrases in curriculum descriptions rather than as positioned marketing claims. Only one school in 787 used unambiguous policy language: an explicit statement that electronic devices are not permitted.
Two actions for school leaders
If your school doesn’t have a clear phone policy: The trend is not reversing. More states will legislate. More parents will ask. More competitors will differentiate on this. Defining a clear, documented policy now positions the school ahead of a wave rather than behind it.
If your school already has a phone-free or phone-limited policy: Say so, clearly and prominently. Use the admissions page. Use the about page. Use the language parents are already searching for: phone-free, no phones during the school day, bell-to-bell. Fewer than 1% of competitors are doing it. The differentiation window is wide open.
Schoolhouse HQ analyzed 787 private school websites across two independent stratified random samples (n=400 each) drawn from our national database of private schools with verified website URLs. Samples were stratified proportional to segment distribution. Each school’s homepage and admissions page were analyzed using a keyword pre-filter followed by LLM classification for ambiguous cases. Signal strength was classified as strong (explicit policy language), weak (philosophical or incidental reference), or none. Results replicated across both independent draws (Run 1: 0.9% any signal; Run 2: 0.6% any signal; delta: 0.3 percentage points). Pooled 95% confidence interval for any signal: 0.3%–1.7%. *Schoolhouse HQ proprietary research, March 2026.