Lawrence school board members on Monday approved a policy change that will bar district staff from using social media for two-way communications with students or parents.
Although the policy change allows teachers and staff to use social media to promote district activities, sports and extracurriculars, for instance, comments must be turned off on posts.
“No employee of the district shall privately or directly communicate with any student through a social media platform, except as expressly permitted under this policy,” the new policy states. “This prohibition applies regardless of whether communication occurs during or outside the school day.”
In addition, “No employee shall require a student to use a social media platform for any assignment or extracurricular activity,” the policy continues.
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The district has approved email and ParentSquare to ensure that necessary communications can happen on a platform that is transparent to the district.
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The district can view communications in ParentSquare and its own email system. Administrators cannot necessarily access private messages sent on social media or text messages.
The policy is intended to protect students and families as well as staff members, according to the board’s discussion of the policy on Monday.
The change is for the district to comply with a new law, “Senate Substitute for Substitute for House Bill 2299,” which took effect July 1.
Board members Kelly Jones and Shannon Kimball, who serve on the board’s policy committee, said there has been a lot of confusion around the law and what it actually means.
“People are out there saying it means all kinds of different things,” Kimball said.
Board member GR Gordon-Ross asked if the policy needs to define “social media,” but Jones said they intentionally did not do so because of the rapidly changing landscape of online activity. For example, she referenced Bluesky, which just launched a few years ago.
The same law spurred the district to implement its new bell-to-bell personal electronic device ban. The board gave that policy final approval Monday night. Read more about it at this link.
The board approved the staff online activity policy on a first reading Monday, and the draft will return for final approval at the board’s next meeting.
The policy was not included in the meeting agenda until after it was approved.
Here’s a redlined version showing the changes to the policy:
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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at [email protected]. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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