These days, lunchtime at Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Queens is a boisterous affair, a far cry from before the smartphone ban went into effect, when most students spent their spare time scrolling and teachers said you could hear a pin drop.

“This year's gotten way louder,” said Jimena Garcia, 15. “Sometimes I would take naps in the lunchroom, but now I can't because of the noise. But it's fun.”

On a recent fall afternoon, Garcia and her friends crowded around a lunch table in the large cafeteria playing Jenga, occasionally shrieking and gasping as the tower began to lean and fall.

The faculty donated board games to help ease kids into the phone-free era. Student volunteers oversaw a table stacked with games: checkers, chess, Yahtzee, Scrabble, Clue, Life and Trivial Pursuit. For

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