Boston Latin School. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Quick Read

• Boston Public Schools has proposed banning personal phones, laptops and smartwatches for the full school day, pre-K through 12th grade.
• Devices would have to be turned off and kept secure and out of reach from bell to bell.
• The mayor-appointed School Committee plans to vote in January, with a proposed start date of September 2027.
• A statewide ban has stalled on Beacon Hill, while districts including Brockton, Cambridge, Fall River and Newton already have their own.

Boston Public Schools officials have proposed a bell-to-bell ban on personal electronic devices for every student in the district, from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.

The proposal, outlined in a memo to the School Committee this month, covers cellphones, personal laptops and smartwatches. Devices would need to be turned completely off and kept secure and inaccessible for the entire school day.

The memo says the plan is “grounded in research showing the negative impact of social media and constant screen exposure on adolescent mental health and focus.”

Timeline and vote

The mayor-appointed School Committee plans to vote on the policy in January. If approved, it would take effect in September 2027, giving schools time to plan how to carry it out. District officials are also looking at grants to help pay for implementation, according to the memo.

Superintendent Mary Skipper told the committee that many schools already restrict phones in different ways. “Sometimes they’re using pouches, sometimes they’re using shoe holders, sometimes they are having the students just keep it in their backpack and out of sight,” she said. “What we want is flexibility for the schools, but also a menu of two or three ways to implement the policy.”

Support, with a caution

Alexandra Oliver-Dávila, executive director of the Roxbury nonprofit Sociedad Latina and a former School Committee member, spoke in favor of the ban. She said it would help with “building community, helping students connect with one another, reducing conflict, increasing well-being, and improving focus.”

She added that enforcement will decide whether it works. “A policy is only as strong as the culture behind it,” she said.

The statewide picture

Several Massachusetts districts, including Brockton, Cambridge, Fall River and Newton, already have districtwide bans. A statewide ban backed by Gov. Maura Healey, Attorney General Andrea Campbell and the state’s two largest teachers unions has lost momentum on Beacon Hill. The Boston City Council passed a resolution supporting a district ban last year.

Sources

• Boston.com: BPS proposes having students lock up their phones and laptops for the entire school day (Oct. 15, 2026)

Related stories

• Boston University researchers press IMF and World Bank for faster crisis help at Bangkok meetings (Oct. 28)
• MIT engineers build a snake-inspired soft robot to explore the small intestine (Oct. 28)

Bay State Road, Boston. Photo: Pi.1415926535 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Quick Read

• A team from Boston University's Global Development Policy Center attended the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok this month.
• The center says the two institutions have not shown their tools are enough to meet developing countries' needs.
• It is calling for larger, faster crisis financing with fewer conditions, plus more affordable long-term development lending.
• Center staff took part in more than 30 events during the week and hosted seven with partners.

Researchers from Boston University's Global Development Policy Center, based on Bay State Road, spent this month's Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Bangkok arguing that the two lenders are falling short.

In a summary published Oct. 27, the center said the IMF and World Bank “have yet to demonstrate that their policy tools are sufficient to meet developing countries’ needs.” It pointed to climate shocks, rising borrowing costs, persistent inflation, mounting debt and economic impacts from the war in Iran.

What the center wants

The center proposed that the IMF expand rapid, unconditional liquidity so countries can get through shocks without excessive budget cuts, while protecting essential social spending.

“There are not enough funds available for emerging markets and developing countries to manage shocks,” center director Kevin Gallagher said at a panel. “There isn’t enough firepower to be able to handle them.”

Senior academic researcher Marina Zucker-Marques spoke at an official event on the lenders' joint Three-Pillar Approach for low-income countries. She said “developing countries urgently need a tailored, distinct response to shocks, and the current framework is not addressing the compounding crises.”

Inside and outside the meetings

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva acknowledged at the opening that “the situation demands an urgent and comprehensive set of policy responses.” On the final day, demonstrators marched near the convention center with signs reading “No World Bank, No IMF,” according to the center's account.

According to BU's Pardee School of Global Studies, center staff took part in more than 30 events, meetings, workshops and panels and hosted seven events with partners. One event, hosted by a center-led task force, included Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley.

Sources

• BU Global Development Policy Center: The IMF and the World Bank are not meeting the moment (Oct. 27, 2026)
• BU Pardee School: The GDP Center at the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings in Bangkok (Oct. 26, 2026)

Related stories

• Boston Public Schools proposes bell-to-bell ban on phones, laptops and smartwatches (Oct. 28)
• MIT engineers build a snake-inspired soft robot to explore the small intestine (Oct. 28)

MIT Great Dome. Photo: Fcb981, edited by Thermos, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Quick Read

• MIT engineers designed a soft robotic enteroscope that inches through the small intestine using snake-like movement.
• It carries a camera, a drug sprayer and clips that can take biopsies or remove polyps.
• In animal studies it traveled about six and a half feet through the small intestine.
• The study, led by MIT professor and Brigham and Women's gastroenterologist Giovanni Traverso, appears in Science Robotics.

MIT engineers have designed a soft robot that can work its way through the small intestine, an organ more than 20 feet long and about an inch wide that doctors find hard to reach.

The robotic enteroscope can take images, deliver drugs and remove small polyps or tissue samples for biopsy, according to MIT News. The study appeared Oct. 28 in Science Robotics.

How it moves

The design borrows from snakes. Actuators with four air chambers inflate in different combinations so the tube can extend or bend in any direction. Balloons at the head and tail take turns inflating to pull the robot forward.

Those segments are wrapped in kirigami-patterned sleeves. When a balloon expands, tiny needles pop out, working like snake scales to grip the slippery intestinal lining.

“By tuning the amount of air that goes into these chambers, you can tune the direction that the robot is moving in,” said Giovanni Traverso, professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the study's senior author.

Why it matters

Today, doctors often rely on double balloon enteroscopy, which MIT describes as slow and laborious. “If we find a little polyp that needs to be removed, this robot allows us to take a biopsy or remove it,” Traverso said.

The robot is tethered to external controllers and could enter through the mouth or rectum. In animal studies it traveled about six and a half feet. The team is now improving navigation and testing other uses.

Sources

• MIT News: A soft robot could help doctors diagnose and treat disorders of the small intestine (Oct. 28, 2026)

Related stories

• Boston Public Schools proposes bell-to-bell ban on phones, laptops and smartwatches (Oct. 28)
• Boston University researchers press IMF and World Bank for faster crisis help at Bangkok meetings (Oct. 28)