New Jersey can find an argument in almost anything. But when it comes to keeping cellphones out of students' hands during the school day, residents are remarkably united.
A Rutgers-Eagleton Poll released October 12 found that 83% of New Jersey adults support the state's new restrictions on nonacademic cellphone use in K-12 schools. That includes 59% who strongly support the policy and 24% who somewhat support it. Just 13% oppose it.
The numbers barely budge across party lines: 87% of Republicans, 85% of Democrats and 79% of independents support the policy. Having children at home changes little, either. Support stands at 80% among parents and guardians of minors and 84% among adults without children under 18.
The sharpest divide is generational. Among residents 65 and older, support reaches 94%. Among adults ages 18 to 34, it falls to 72% - still nearly three in four younger adults favoring the restriction.
Under the law, which took effect for the 2026-27 school year, districts must prohibit nonacademic use of personal internet-enabled devices from bell to bell. Schools can choose how to store and manage phones, and exceptions cover circumstances including medical needs, required accommodations and emergencies. It's a restriction on use, not a statewide order to confiscate every phone.
Ashley Koning, director of Rutgers' Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling, described support as 'not just broad, it is lopsided.
The cultural reversal is hard to miss. For years, the conversation was about connecting children to more technology. Now adults who disagree on so much else are drawing nearly the same boundary: school should offer at least part of the day without a phone competing for attention.
The poll doesn't establish what the rules will do for academic performance or student well-being. It does establish that, for once, New Jersey has found something close to a statewide consensus.
REPORTING NOTES / SOURCES
Survey: 1,004 New Jersey adults, September 24-27, 2026; margin of error +/- 4.1 percentage points.
Rutgers University | October 12, 2026 poll release
New Jersey Department of Education | Student Digital Wellness
Survey findings attributed to the Rutgers-Eagleton Poll and New Jersey Department of Education materials cited in Reporting Notes / Sources. Cultural framing is RMN's.