New York Tops Nation in Youth Mental Health With Phone Bans

Students across New York are rediscovering what lunchtime looks like without screens, and the results are making educators and parents take notice.

Earlier this month, the Anxious Generation Movement ranked New York and Utah as the only "national leaders" for youth mental health laws. The nonprofit evaluated all 50 states on policies around childhood independence, social media regulation, and technology restrictions.

Governor Kathy Hochul says the achievement reflects a year-long listening tour she conducted across the state after the pandemic. "I look at the entire state as one part of my large family," Hochul told Good Good Good in a phone interview.

The state rolled out multiple initiatives targeting youth mental health. New York passed laws requiring warning labels on apps with addictive features, restricting those features for users under 18, and mandating default privacy settings for kids.

Mental health first aid training now reaches more than 180,000 tenth graders statewide. The program teaches teenagers how to cope with their own struggles and recognize warning signs in friends.

But the standout success has been the bell-to-bell phone ban in schools, which launched in September for the 2025-2026 school year. "They're finally acting like kids again," Hochul said. "They're at lunch and study hall, playing cards. They're playing Jenga, they're playing bingo, they're bringing in old transistor radios."

The policy faced pushback from parents worried about reaching their children and students who didn't want to give up their devices. School administrators questioned whether the hassle would be worth it.

The data changed minds quickly. In a survey of 350 schools that implemented the restrictions, 92% reported a smooth transition to distraction-free learning. Another 83% saw more positive classrooms and better student engagement, while 75% of teachers said they could teach more effectively.

The Ripple Effect

New York isn't alone in this movement. Over 40 states now have some kind of screen-free policy in place, with promising early results.

In one Kentucky school district, students are checking out more library books. Other states report modest improvements in test scores as phones disappear from classrooms.

Hochul took on tech companies who claimed they couldn't implement the required changes. "Every time we did it, the tech company said they can't do it. And guess what? When we mandated it, they were able to figure out a way to do it," she said.

The governor points to this success as proof that the $1 billion New York invested in confronting the youth mental health crisis is paying off. She's calling on other governors nationwide to follow suit.

"If New York can do it, you can do it," she said.