Social Media Administrative Procedures

Overview

The District 225 Board of Education and administration recognize the potential benefits associated with using social media and other online technologies by employees, students and school-based groups and organizations. At the same time, they also recognize the potential impact on students, employees and the school community and potential negative outcomes that can occur if resources are used improperly or not consistently managed. As a result, the board directed the superintendent and administration to establish administrative procedures for the school-related use of social media and other online technologies by employees, students and school-based groups.

These procedures will be revised as social media sources continue to evolve. The procedures are intended to help shape habits and behaviors in a manner that reflects best practices and allows users to remain reasonably protected under current legal standards. The use of social media is encouraged by staff and students. However, these procedures are particularly restrictive when connecting the use of social media to the schools and the professional duties of staff members. At the same time, the district respects the rights of staff members to engage in personal use of social media and offers considerations and recommendations to keep the boundaries between personal and professional use from being obscure.

Students and staff should review Board Policy 8:12, which discusses social media use.

Approved District Social Media Channels

Facebook
Instagram
X (Twitter)
YouTube

Not Approved District Social Media Channels

TikTok
Lemon8
BeReal
Snapchat

Administrative Procedures for Employees

Personal Use

District 225 recognizes that employees may choose to maintain social media sites for personal networking. Staff electing to utilize a personal social media account should be conscientious in their interactions and maintain professional decorum. Personal social media use that causes disruption to the district or its operations may negatively impact your employment. These procedures define personal as the use of social media for non-District 225 related work or activity.

Even when not physically in our buildings, staff represents the district. Information posted on social media platforms is public to varying degrees. Any content published should never compromise professionalism, integrity and ethics in your role as a District 225 employee.
- Think about what you are sharing with the public and whether or not you would be comfortable if a colleague, student, or parent viewed your posts.
Do not give the impression that you represent or speak for the District.
Utltize proper privacy settings to maintain an appropriate level of privacy.
Do not follow, friend request, direct message or tag a student’s personal social media account(s).
Do not post pictures of students on your personal social media accounts.

Professional Use

Social media may be used in the classroom and other work environments to achieve organizational teaching and learning goals. However, staff members should use be mindful of the considerations and expectations in the social media administrative procedures. These procedures define “professional” as the use of social media for District-related work or activity.

Any online student work will be published using their own name. Do not tag student personal social media accounts.
Student work is not to be assessed within the social media platform.
Staff will utilize the district-provided digital course space.
Student video, audio and images will be published through the district-provided tools. This is to be utilized by all courses and all grade levels.
The teacher is responsible for managing the social interactions that occur within social media spaces for their students. Any inappropriate interactions beyond what the teacher would address in a physical classroom setting are to be promptly reported to the appropriate administrator.
All student photos, names, videos and work postings must comply with the district’s photo release policies.
District 225 schools do not accept responsibility or association with fans, followers, and/or the equivalent. We reserve the right to terminate any associations on social media sites that are deemed inappropriate. Interaction of this type may be viewed as an official endorsement. Please refer to Board Policy 5:20 on Employee Harassment and Board Policy 5:120 on Employee Ethics and Conduct for more information.
Any employee utilizing social media for professional purposes must produce usernames and passwords at the request of the administration.
Staff who initiate social media channels are responsible for the content and interactions.
Students should not be tagged by username, friend requested or followed on any form of social media.
Official professional social media accounts must be public.

Official School Organizations - Social Media Presence

The sponsor of school-based clubs, activities, athletics, and programs, who wish to have communication through social media sites must adhere to the following administrative procedures.

The adult sponsor/coach of any school group, including activities, athletics, clubs or programs who chooses to create one or more official social media accounts is required to register each social media site with the communications department.
The group’s social media site(s) will be clearly identified as official school social media site(s) and will connect back to the official social media for the school.
The username and password for each official school social media site must be provided to the district communications department.
Every official social media account must be associated with the correct district delegated email address associated with the club, activity, and or sport.
No student’s cell phone number, personal email address, or personal social media account should be associated with any district official social media account.
Profile and or bio needs to identify itself as the “Official” social media channel for the club, activity and or sport.
Sponsor and or coach must comply with the two-way communication procedures established by the district and serve as the designated moderator.
Posts may include items such as: news, school events, daily happenings, calendar entries, videos, audio, student and group accomplishments, and items relevant to education in general. Posts must be positive (or neutral) and should not attempt to share information that is controversial, offer criticism or opinion without guidance from the Superintendent, Principal, or Executive Director of Communications.
All student photos, names, videos, and works postings must comply with the district photo release policies.
It is acceptable to engage in social media with other K-12 academic institutions, colleges and educational service providers. However, it is unacceptable to engage with student personal accounts, commercial entities, vendors, political or religious groups/organizations and other organizations inconsistent with the District’s mission. Please refer to Board Policy 8:25 Distribution of Advertising, Communications, Materials, or Literature in Schools/on School Grounds Provided by non-school Related Individuals or Entities for further information. District 225 schools do not accept responsibility for or association with fans, followers, and/or equivalent.
Official social media accounts may not follow, tag, mention, or friend request a student’s personal account/profile.
Official social media accounts may not follow, retweet, reshare, mention, tag, or friend request a student’s professional account/profile that is not directly associated with the District.
For monitoring social media sites, any improprieties are to be reported to the appropriate administrator immediately.
Careful consideration should be given to content as all comments are public and may be quoted by the media or other entities.
Staff who help manage social media channels are responsible for approving the content, publishing and monitoring interactions.
Social media may be used to provide broad notifications to a group (e.g. students in chess club) but is not recommended for one-to-one communication. Individual communication should be reserved for official district-provided email.

Administrative Procedures for Student Social Media Managers

All student social media managers must report to their sponsor and or coach for each delegated account.
Student social media manager is able to submit posts for review. An adult sponsor and or coach will either approve or decline the suggested content to be shared.
Adult and student social media managers need to be acquainted with the district’s social media policy and administrative procedures.
Official social media accounts may not follow, tag, mention or friend request a student’s personal account/profile.
Every official social media account must be associated with the correct district delegated email address associated with the club, activity, and or sport.
No student’s cell phone number should be associated with any district official social media account.

Two-Way Communication

Social media provides a platform for two-way communication. Should the school-based group decide to engage in two-way communication, the designated moderator must adhere to the following:

Frequent monitoring of group-based social media commentary will be done by the sponsor and or coach.
Comments that require an immediate action due to mandatory reporting, threats, bullying, etc. need to be captured, removed and reported to the appropriate building administration.
Responses to external comments should represent the organization.
Students should not be tagged by username, friend requested or followed on any form of social media. Official social media accounts should be public.
Comment moderation, when offered, will be utilized.

Social Media Censorship

Glenbrook High School District 225 social media accounts inform parents, staff and community members about our achievements, events and activities. We expect comments will be respectful, factual and constructive. While we respect people’s First Amendment rights, the district will remove comments that violate the privacy of others and are not consistent with our board policy and administrative procedures. Comments not consistent with the purposes of our accounts will also be deleted. Examples include unauthorized commercial solicitations; posts that bully, intimidate or harass; content that is hateful, threatening, pornographic, or contains violence; or any post that is unlawful, misleading, vulgar, malicious or discriminatory; any posts that contain personally identifiable information, medical information or other confidential information, or if the comments interfere with the district including threatening posts or posts that endanger the health or safety of any students or employees. If more than one post by the same individual must be deleted, the district reserves the right to block that individual from our accounts. District 225 social media accounts are followed by students in our schools. It is our belief that we must model respectful and kind behavior on these accounts. We encourage you to follow along on social media to celebrate the continued success of our students, staff and school communities.