Here are some of the best questions for a High School Freshman Student survey about phone policy impact, plus tips for creating truly insightful questionnaires. With Specific, you can generate a tailored survey in seconds, so your feedback process is smoother and richer.
Best open-ended questions for a high school freshman student survey about phone policy impact
Open-ended questions let students share real experiences, nuances, and opinions that aren’t limited to preset choices. They're invaluable when you want to uncover unexpected issues or understand the emotional and social context behind numeric trends—especially critical for exploring how phone policies influence school life. Strong open-ended questions illuminate why numbers trend as they do and help interpret data from closed questions.
What has been your experience with the current phone policy at our school?
How do you feel the phone policy impacts your ability to concentrate in class?
Can you describe any situations where the phone policy helped you focus or reduced distractions?
Have you noticed any changes in relationships with classmates since the new phone policy was implemented? Please share details.
How does the phone policy affect your sense of safety and comfort at school?
What challenges, if any, have you faced following the phone policy?
If you could change anything about the phone policy, what would it be and why?
In your opinion, how does the phone policy affect bullying or social inclusion?
How has your use of your phone outside school changed (if at all) because of the policy?
What would you want teachers or school leaders to understand about your experience with the phone policy?
Tip: Open-ended responses often reveal the deeper impact of policies—like how a ban can reduce distractions and even bullying, as research shows that some bans decreased bullying by over 40% among both boys and girls. [2]
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for a high school freshman student survey about phone policy impact
Single-select multiple-choice questions are your go-to when you need quick, quantifiable insights or want to jumpstart a deeper conversation. For high school freshmen, these questions can also make surveys less intimidating—students pick an option before explaining why. This approach is ideal for identifying trends, highlighting issues that need further probing, or simply getting a pulse check before asking for elaboration.
Question: How well do you understand the current school phone policy?
Very well
Somewhat
Not really
Not at all
Question: How has the phone policy affected your ability to participate in class?
Improved participation
No change
Made it harder to participate
Other
Question: Have you noticed any changes in student behavior since the phone policy started?
More focused and on-task
No noticeable change
More disruptive behavior
Not sure
When to follow up with “why?” When the response to a closed-ended question hints at a problem (“made it harder to participate” or “more disruptive behavior”), always follow up with “why?” or “can you share an example?” This opens space for context and possible solutions—for example: “You selected ‘made it harder to participate.’ Why is that?”
When and why to add the “Other” choice? Always add “Other” when you might miss unique student experiences. Follow up—“Can you describe what you meant by ‘Other’?”—to capture real stories that your list didn’t anticipate. This is often where the most actionable insights hide.
NPS question: capturing high school freshman students’ support for phone policy
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) isn’t just for products. It works brilliantly to measure support for school initiatives, including phone policies. Ask: “On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend the current phone policy to a friend at another school?”—then follow up depending on their rating. This single question gauges overall buy-in, potential resistance, or advocates, and reveals who drives sentiment (and why). Studies show that when students feel heard, policies are more likely to succeed. You can use this generate an NPS survey for high school freshman students about phone policies instantly.
Interesting fact: In a 2024 survey, 77% of US schools reported phone bans in class, while over half of school leaders felt phone use was harming academic performance. [4]
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions are game-changers for student surveys—without them, you just have raw data that’s hard to interpret. Automated follow-ups, like those offered by Specific’s follow-up technology, instantly clarify unclear responses and uncover the “why” behind the answer.
Student: “I find the policy annoying.”
AI follow-up: “Can you describe a situation where the phone policy felt especially annoying, and how it affected you or your classmates?”
Follow-ups like this turn vague feedback into actionable insights. You get the *story* behind the reaction, not just a data point. This is key to understanding if the phone policy is improving social climate, as seen in Dutch schools banning phones—where two-thirds of schools now cite a better social environment and a third report improved academic results. [3]
How many follow-ups to ask? Usually, 2–3 follow-ups are enough. Set a limit and allow students to skip once the essential info is in. Specific lets you adjust this balance so it never feels like an interrogation.
This makes it a conversational survey. By digging deeper and clarifying student responses, your survey feels less like a form and more like a real conversation.
AI survey response analysis: Worried about analyzing all this nuanced, open-text data? With AI survey response analysis tools, it’s easier than ever. Just ask the AI to summarize, extract themes, or flag urgent issues—it handles the heavy lifting, so nothing gets lost in the details.
Automatic follow-up questions are still a new concept. Try generating your own survey to see how much richer your feedback can get.
How to prompt ChatGPT (or any AI) to write better phone policy impact questions for students
Begin with a clear, direct prompt to get relevant questions for your survey:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for High School Freshman Student survey about phone policy impact.
If you want even sharper results, add more context about your goals, school context, or concerns. For example:
Our school recently introduced a strict phone ban for all freshmen. We want questions that explore mental health, participation, focus, and relationships—aimed at learning both positive and negative effects. Generate questions that encourage students to share personal stories.
To organize your questions, use:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Then, pick the most relevant areas. Want to dig into social effects? Ask:
Generate 10 questions for categories “social inclusion” and “bullying/peer relationships.”
This step-by-step prompting unlocks highly relevant and actionable survey content, especially when using an AI survey generator like Specific—which handles prompt translation into structured surveys for you.
What is a conversational survey, really?
A conversational survey blends the natural back-and-forth of chat with the structure of a well-designed survey to get richer, more honest feedback. Instead of static forms, questions adapt based on answers, probing deeper when responses are unclear or especially interesting. This format feels personal, which keeps students engaged and delivers higher quality insights.
Traditional surveys ask a set list of questions and stop. AI-powered conversational surveys, like those built with Specific, adjust dynamically—asking just enough follow-ups to uncover the context behind every answer. The difference is night and day for both creators and respondents.
Manual Survey | AI-Generated Conversational Survey |
|---|---|
Static questions, no adaptation | Dynamic conversation, context-aware probing |
Harder to analyze open-ended responses | AI summarizes and finds themes automatically |
Lower engagement/response rates | Feels like chat, increases participation |
No built-in follow-up mechanism | Asks clarifying follow-ups in real time |
Why use AI for high school freshman student surveys? Freshmen are digital natives—they’re more comfortable in chat than on paper forms. AI survey examples make it easy to spark genuine responses, adapt in real time, and capture subtle context on sensitive issues like phone policy impact. This approach routinely delivers deeper results, faster—and analyzing them is just as easy, thanks to built-in AI.
When you want the simplest, most effective conversational survey, Specific delivers best-in-class experience—making feedback collection and analysis smooth for both survey creators and the high school freshman students who answer.
Keen to build from scratch? Follow our in-depth how-to guide for creating high school phone policy surveys with AI.
See this phone policy impact survey example now
See the kinds of insights you could be gathering from high school freshmen–create your own phone policy impact survey with conversational follow-ups to unlock stories, not just stats.