Nearly a million New York City students are heading back to school Thursday — where they will be banned from using their cellphones bell-to-bell for the first time.

The controversial phone ban, which was signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul and approved by the city’s Panel for Education Policy this summer, will present a stark change in the city’s classrooms and officials hope it will increase stalled academic performances .

Each of the Big Apple’s roughly 1,600 public schools was tasked with coming up with their own policy roll-out plan, which Michael Mulgrew, president of the city’s teacher union, the United Federation of Teachers, said may take a few months to fine-tune.

NYC students will be barred from using their phones in school, with some exceptions. WABC

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