From spitballs to social media — schools must prepare for it all. But while educational institutions have conduct policies, these often don’t include digital guidelines.
Creating a social media policy that lives on a school’s website is a great way to define expectations and set guidelines to foster safe and responsible social media use. While this can be an intensive process, these three steps are the basic prerequisites you need to get started.
Research how your school, students, and faculty/staff use social media
Before you can set the guidelines, you need to know where the problems and bright spots are. There are some simple steps you can take to get a basic understanding of your situation.
Do a keyword search for your school on the major platforms (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc.) and see what comes up. Does a theme emerge? Some examples: cyberbullying, the school not being responsive to questions from parents, and filterless rants from employees.
Talk to students and employees about their concerns around social media. Also, explore how they use social media while at school. Does a teacher use it to show off the cool science experiments her students made? Do students use it to embarrass other students during class?
Examine if social media is already being used successfully. Do you have some wonderful advocates boosting you on a regular basis? Have students created niche online communities where they help each other?
Set guidelines for the institution, employees, and students
Once you’ve conducted your preliminary research, you can advance to writing the guidelines. While this will be tailored to each school’s values and rules, the goal is to write clear directions on what is permissible, what requires permission, and the protocols.
For example, here is some sample language from Finalsite for a variety of situations.
“As a member of the [Name of School/District] community, you are expected to act professionally on social media. If you wish to post any content of your classes, practices, or in-school interactions on social media, please send to [designated email] for proper review to be posted to the [Name of School/District] accounts. Never use photos of students on your own personal accounts.”
“As a student of [Name of School/District], you are welcome to participate in interactions with the school online. You are expected to employ responsible behavior, and any disrespect to the school or to your peers — in addition to posting photos of other students without consent — will result in disciplinary action.”
“In a crisis situation, you as a [Name of School/District] faculty or staff member are strongly discouraged from using social media to make a statement. Posting a personal statement or opinion on social media regarding a district-related topic might also violate school board policy [insert policy number]. A formal press release will be created by the [name of team] team. Depending on the situation, a social media post may also be shared by the [name of team].”
After your document is drafted, there are two crucial next steps. First, ask the school’s legal team to make sure everything is in compliance. Then make the document easily accessible and encourage your community to read it.
Review and edit your policy
Consider this policy a living document and not a “one and done.” Remember, social media platforms and their functionality will change, as will your students and perhaps your institutional culture.
It’s recommended you revisit the document at least annually to determine whether it’s working or if any adjustments need to be made.