Anonymous
Post 02/20/2026 22:37     Subject: What percentage of 3rd and 4th graders in your kids class have phones?
1%
Anonymous
Post 02/20/2026 21:23     Subject: What percentage of 3rd and 4th graders in your kids class have phones?
No phones, but smartwatches are increasingly common among my 4th grade daughter's circle. Only one of her friends had one in 3rd grade but the majority of them do now in 4th. Middle class kids in an MCPS school.
Anonymous
Post 02/12/2026 22:27     Subject: What percentage of 3rd and 4th graders in your kids class have phones?
Anonymous wrote:Our fourth grader got a Gizmo recently and her teacher mentioned that only a few of the students had them (I was checking to make sure we understood the rules and expectations around them). I doubt that many have phones if only a few have watches.


I would say more than half of the kids in third grade have Gizmos. They don't wear them to school.
Anonymous
Post 02/12/2026 22:14     Subject: Re:What percentage of 3rd and 4th graders in your kids class have phones?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I teach in a Title One ES and every 4th grader (3 classes) has a phone except 1-2.


Whoa!

I am the OP. Thanks, everyone, for sharing! Seems like many people’s kiddos go to schools with pretty strict policies.

But the PP shared her own schools’ lived-reality.


meant to add that ai went ahead and asked google AI and it reported back “35 -40% of U.S. children aged 8 to 9(typically 3rd grade) own their own smartphone. Ownership rates forthis age group have increased significantly, with nearly one in four children having a smartphone by age 8, and overall ownership among 8-12 year-olds reaching 43% by 2021. “


I think AI is wrong. Did you ask it for citations?
Anonymous
Post 02/12/2026 18:45     Subject: What percentage of 3rd and 4th graders in your kids class have phones?
Maybe 1 or 2 but just for pickups.
Anonymous
Post 02/12/2026 18:43     Subject: What percentage of 3rd and 4th graders in your kids class have phones?
Anonymous wrote:DD keeps saying “everyone” in her class has a phone so she needs one too so she doesn’t get left out of social and everything.

But how many kids IRL in your kiddos class in ‘26 have phones/devices?


No phones. A couple have smartwatches. They can’t bring any of it to school.
Anonymous
Post 02/12/2026 18:39     Subject: What percentage of 3rd and 4th graders in your kids class have phones?
None. Though some have watches with text capabilities.
Anonymous
Post 02/02/2026 14:11     Subject: Re:What percentage of 3rd and 4th graders in your kids class have phones?
Anonymous wrote:I don't know of any in my bubble.


FTFY
Anonymous
Post 02/02/2026 13:57     Subject: What percentage of 3rd and 4th graders in your kids class have phones?
a few do, but that doesn't matter, we aren't getting our son one, even if the whole class has one. I told him he can give my phone number to his friends if he wants to talk ton the phone after school.