According to the Wall Street Journal, the New York City Department of Education recently issued teacher guidelines for the use of social media in schools. While the guidelines do not ban social media use by teachers, they warn them to keep a bright line between personal and professional accounts. For example, teachers are advised to reject friend requests or other student contact on their personal accounts and to not view students' personal Facebook pages.
This month, the city will start providing training sessions for teachers on the best use of social media in classrooms. The department’s goal is to balance free speech rights and the educational benefits of online learning with the dangers associated with teachers and students becoming too comfortable in less traditional settings.
As the popularity of Facebook and Twitter has increased, so have the number of complaints about inappropriate student-teacher contact. In 2010, New York’s Special Commissioner of Investigation for Schools received 59 complaints that referenced Facebook as compared to two in 2008.
The guidelines state that teacher-student online interactions will be monitored and all school employees "have no expectation of privacy" when using social media. Principals or other supervisors are expected to keep a list of all school-related social media accounts, monitor them regularly, and report any "questionable" behavior. There are no consequences for violating the guidelines if other department policies about appropriate conduct are followed. The guidelines are considered strong recommendations.
New York City is one of a growing number of school districts across the country to implement such guidelines, often in the wake of a scandal.
