In spring 2022, leaders of NSPRA and CoSN — a membership organization representing school technology leaders — began collaboratively discussing some of the pressing challenges facing school systems on social media today.

A formal survey of association members found that the lack of dedicated verification and reporting processes for federally recognized K-12 education institutions on social media platforms is causing a strain on school districts around the country, as highlighted in Schools and Social Media: The Critical Need for Verification and Dedicated Reporting Processes, a new report issued by the two associations this week.

Striking findings of the report include:

• More than 50% of respondents indicated they have dealt with fake-official or mock accounts that impersonate their districts or organizations, while only a third indicated they were able to get their organizations verified on various social media platforms.
• Overall, a quarter of respondents indicated that within the last two years their educational organizations have applied to be verified on social media and have been rejected (25%).
• Respondents indicated that among their educational organizations:
  • 59% have dealt with accounts that harass, intimidate or bully students.
  • 45% have dealt with social media platforms not removing reported accounts/posts that harass, intimidate or bully their students.

You are invited to explore the new report below, which also includes an assessment of awareness of these challenges among individual social media platforms.

As conversations continue with social media platforms, NSPRA and CoSN remain committed to advocating for dedicated social media verification and reporting processes for federally recognized K-12 education institutions, on behalf of members and education partners.

Join the call for platforms to solve these social media challenges for schools by distributing the report to your key audiences such as employees, members, families, voters and elected representatives. Spreading the word is easy with the toolkit below.

Access Report

Press Release

Campaign Toolkit