Governor Murphy got a standing ovation from both sides of the aisle this week after calling for a cell phone ban in schools during his annual State of the State address that same day, lawmakers in the Senate unanimously passed a bill requiring New Jersey's Department of Ed to develop a statewide cell phone and social media policy for schools.

But some districts have already restricted phone use during school hours, citing concerns about youth mental health.

As Ted Goldberg reports, momentum is building for the ban.

Yet not everyone is sold on the idea.

We will help establish phone free schools.

Governor Murphy's Antifa zone attitude might have drawn the most widespread applause during his State of the State speech.

Honestly, is it any surprise that the rise in smartphone usage has coincided with a growing youth mental health crisis?

Of course not.

Proposals to keep phones out of schools are gaining momentum in Trenton, but the Ramsay School District is way ahead of them.

Since coming back from January.

High school students must keep their phones in these pouches during morning and afternoon classes or face having their phones confiscated.

There wasn't as much peer to peer human interaction.

We've seen a big impact in our classes.

So teachers are noticing.

Kids are engaged again.

Superintendent Andrew Mazzeo says the district brought about 850 pouches for 30 bucks a pop.

It took a few days for the high school to figure out the workflow.

The counseling department reported back that, yeah, we had some kids that were.

I don't know if I would use the word withdrawal because I'm not a clinical clinicals clinician who would make that diagnosis.

But yes, and that has, I think, subsided.

Cell phones and smartphones have become part of our everyday life.

And now we know for many students it's almost like their most prized possession.

Jonathan Cushman is the senior director of advocacy for the New Jersey School Boards Association.

And he's not exaggerating.

They become a distraction.

They can also negatively impact a student's mental health leading to stress, anxiety, depression, even suicidal thoughts.

He's praised a Senate bill that would direct the state's Department of Education to set a standard for restricting the use of smartphones, smartwatches and AirPods.

For New Jersey's 580 plus school districts.

Different communities do have different needs, and the nuances of this issue certainly demand that local voices inform local decisions.

I'm optimistic that this bill is going to move.

Assemblyman Cody Miller sponsored the bill, which unanimously passed the Senate earlier this week.

Our teachers will be able to teach course materials without having unwanted interruptions and distractions in the classroom.

Richard Bowser leads the state's Association of School Administrators.

Parents are not being able to have access to their kids in an emergency.

He's heard opposition to these kinds of bans.

And you have children that need or have medical needs.

They may have to have glucose tests with you using their smartphone and those kinds of things.

Ramzy allows Velcro pouches for diabetic students, and Ramsey, as chief of police, wrote a letter saying phone bans actually keep kids safer.

Brian Lyman wrote that focusing your attention on a cell phone screen only diminishes awareness and increases the debilitating effects of tunnel vision.

Assemblyman Miller says the department's standards won't require schools to buy pouches.

We have budget issues right now, and it's going to be very difficult to try and find ways to find funding to do this.

And as a school board member, former school board member, we always whenever there was an unfunded mandate, it became a problem for us because then we would have to take money away from instruction.

But he says the Department of Education must listen to schools who already have phone bans in place, and they shouldn't offer a one size fits all solution to the different districts statewide.

I think the the clear bottom line on this is instructional time needs to be preserved.

So as long as those things can be addressed and we can get back to decreasing the stress that's put on students by social media and let them focus on learning.

I think that's the bottom baseline that we're talking about.

Superintendent Mazzeo says he likes the idea of a statewide policy, but he hopes the responsibility for locking up phones doesn't fall on teachers.

Statewide leaders have some time to draft the rules.

They wouldn't go into effect until the first full school year after a bill is signed into law.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Ted Goldberg.