NYC students head back to the classroom, but have to check their smartphones first

James Teal has had a lot of responsibilities as a school aide during his nearly three decades at Health Opportunities High School in the Bronx. And starting today, he'll add another one to the list: phone enforcer.

It’s the first day of school for New York City's approximately 900,000 public school students. That means New York’s smartphone ban is officially live.

Gov. Kathy Hochul and lawmakers put the ban into the state budget last spring, saying it was time to end the epidemic of distraction in class and help kids get a break from social media during the school day.

The law left it to the schools to decide how to best enforce the ban. At Health Opportunities, that means Teal’s days — which include helping at lunch, monitoring the halls and helping in classrooms — will now be booken