Majority of Missourians support prohibiting cell phone access and later start times in high schools

ST. LOUIS – A poll by Saint Louis University and online marketing research company YouGov finds that a majority of Missourians support pushing back start times for high schools, as well as prohibiting cell phone use for students during school hours.

The August 2024 SLU/YouGov surveyed 900 likely Missouri voters between August 8-16. weighted the survey respondents to known characteristics (age, education, gender, and race) of registered Missouri voters. The margin of error on the weighted data is 3.79%.

Poll results reveal the following trends:

Over 72% of voters support prohibiting high school students from accessing their cell phones either during class or regular school hours; 78% agreed that cell phones should be banned during class (margin of error 5.3%)

52% of voters support having high school start times begin at 8:30 a.m. or later in their school district

Cell phone use in school has become a hot-button issue in recent years with the prevalence of school shootings across the country. Parents are concerned about being able to reach their children, or vice versa, in such circumstances or other emergencies. However, educators say cell phones are a distraction for students.

Ashley Burle, Ph.D., associate director of the Saint Louis University/YouGov poll and interim director of graduate admissions for Saint Louis University’s School of Education, said the results showed more than two-thirds of Republicans, Democrats, and independent voters support a cell phone ban during school hours.

On the subject of school hours, the survey notes that the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) supports later start times “to promote adequate sleep in adolescents.” The results were even more skewed among young respondents.

“Among voters below the age of 45, 71% wanted to start high school at 8:30 a.m. or later,” Courtney Vahle, Ed.D. Director of Operations at Saint Louis University’s PRiME Center, said.

The PRiME Center in SLU’s School of Education funded the August 2024 SLU/YouGov Poll. It’s important to understand that the YouGov panel is comprised of 3.1 million U.S. residents who have agreed to take YouGov Web surveys.

See the full poll results and crosstab results below.