Concord High School junior Caia Kimball looks at her cell phone one last time as she gets ready to enter school on the first day of classes on Wednesday, August 27, 2025. Credit: GEOFF FORESTER/Monitor

On the first day of school this fall, students across New Hampshire experienced a revolutionary change to their education: the dawn of the bell-to-bell cell phone ban.

Students predicted the ban would either be met with widespread noncompliance or not enforced by teachers and administrators at all. Education reporter Jeremy Margolis joins the podcast this week to discuss how the phone ban has fared and the Monitor’s new student reader advisory board.

The theme music in this episode was produced by Lizzy McCormack with additional music from Lo-Fi Beat by YellowTree on FreeSound.org.mp3

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The Monitor Weekly is a Concord Monitor project produced and edited by Rebeca Pereira and Alexander Rapp.

Rebeca Pereira is the news editor at the Concord Monitor. She reports on farming, food insecurity, animal welfare and the towns of Canterbury, Tilton and Northfield. Reach her at rpereira@cmonitor.com