Colorado Attorney General Announces $50,000 in Grants for Schools to Reduce Student Cell Phone Use

Colorado school districts will soon be able to apply for grants of up to $50,000 to help their students reduce cell phone use during the school day.

State Attorney General Phil Weiser announced the Smartphone Challenge Initiative Friday in the Grand Junction High School library. The program is funded with money from the state’s $31.7 million lawsuit settlement against e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc.

The initiative is the second school district grant program aimed at improving student mental health funded with money from the Juul settlement. In June, Weiser announced a $20 million school district mental health grant program. Applications for that program are expected to open in mid-October. Additionally, Weiser recently announced 30 grants — also funded with money from the Juul settlement — to help youth quit vaping.

Weiser said in an interview with Chalkbeat that many schools either don’t have policies on phone use or don’t enforce the ones they do have.

“We want schools to face this reality: phones, in many cases, are detrimental to learning and harmful, when children use these apps, to mental health,” he said.

A recent Chalkbeat survey of Colorado’s 20 largest school districts found that six have adopted stricter cell phone policies in the past two years. Six others, including Denver, Jeffco and Aurora, have no cell phone policies at all.

Teachers told Chalkbeat that in addition to being a chronic distraction in the classroom, smartphones can be a way for students to buy or sell drugs, bully others and orchestrate fights.

According to a 2023 Pew Research Center report, about 95% of American teens own or have access to a smartphone. YouTube is the most popular app among teens, followed closely by TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram.

Weiser said the Smartphone Challenge does not envision a specific solution to widespread cellphone use, but rather encourages schools to experiment with different strategies.