(The Center Square) – As the concern over cell phones in the classroom rises, banning them from schools will not solve the deep-rooted issue, says the founder of Opal, a phone app that helps users with daily screen time and blocks games and social media.
The movement to ban the technology from classrooms has gained bipartisan popularity among several state lawmakers. Around 76% of U.S. public schools from California to Florida, have implemented some sort of ban.
The Center Square interviewed Kenneth Schlenker, the CEO and founder of San Francisco-based Opal.
Schlenker said a total ban on phones does not teach kids how to live with their smartphones outside of school, which means they are “not learning healthy habits, just losing access.”
“When you simply take a phone away, you trigger a power struggle. Kids don’t like it, and they binge the moment they get their phone back,” Schlenker said. “Even if a district chooses to ban phones, it’s still important to recommend tools that help students build autonomy. They need to learn to manage their phones themselves.”
Rules and confiscation alone don’t teach the skill, he added. Students need tools and habits they can take home.
Opal interviewed five students of varying ages to understand their relationship to social media and how their phone habits were shaping their daily lives, both in and out of school.
The interviews explored how constant engagement with their devices and social media was affecting their daily routines and productivity in school.
Many students reported being easily drawn into their phones, often losing track of time while scrolling through social media feeds or playing games for hours on end.
With so much time spent on their devices, students said they struggled with self-control, finding it difficult to disconnect even when they knew it was interfering with their daily tasks.
As a result, students admitted to falling behind in their classes, neglecting homework, or delaying other responsibilities because their attention was so consumed by their phones
Currently, about 70% of Opal’s users are high school or college students. Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, which recently announced its 2025–26 phone policy using Opal. Harvard-Westlake is one of the few schools left in the district without a full phone ban.
The Center Square reached out to Ari Engelberg, head of communications and strategic initiatives at Harvard-Westlake School, for a comment, but did not receive a response.
“We’re allowing students to continue to possess their devices and even use them when it’s appropriate. We think that that’s a more mature approach, and will ultimately help students develop a better relationship with the device,” Engelberg told The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle.
Schlenker told The Center Square that the way the app in schools works is when students get to school, they enter campus and scan a QR code that blocks the various apps they themselves have set up to avoid all day, like social media and games. Once they leave the school, the QR code unlocks the apps.
With this system, the schools get notified whether a student is following the policy and regulate screen time if needed.
“The goal is not just enforcing a rule. It’s giving students some agency. They can take short breaks inside the app, and that flexibility makes a huge difference,” Schlenker added.
“We work hard to ensure Opal doesn’t feel like punishment. It’s meant to be rewarding,” Schlenker said.
There are gemstones and different levels to unlock, so it is engaging for kids, and reducing screen time becomes fun, he added.
“It’s crucial to protect students from the daily flow of social media and attention-hacking apps while they’re at school,” Schlenker said.
