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Update (Nov. 13, 2024): Following up on the letter sent in May, NSPRA and CoSN executive directors again reached out to members of Congress, urging them to include a requirement for social media companies to prioritize the free verification of public school districts’ social media accounts as part of the pending Kids Online Safety Act.
Update (May 21, 2024): The executive directors of NSPRA and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) sent a letter to ranking members of Congress urging them to include a requirement for social media companies to prioritize the free verification of public school districts’ social media accounts as part of the pending Kids Online Safety Act.
October 2022
Social media allows school districts to engage families in local education in timely and innovative ways, but without dedicated verification and reporting processes for schools, districts struggle to prevent the harm to students and staff caused by malicious and fraudulent accounts.
The third largest urban district in the state of Pennsylvania serves about 17,000 students in a community of nearly 118,000 people. The district, as well as its more than 20 individual school buildings, maintains a social media presence on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. To date, its requests for verified district social media accounts on these platforms have been unsuccessful or outright denied. Meanwhile, administrators are spending countless hours each year reporting malicious accounts—some that impersonate school leaders and spread false information, some that show embarrassing photos of students, some that use footage of other districts’ students to mischaracterize local schools—and training staff on how help report accounts, in the hope that more reports will lead to faster response times from the social media platforms.
Challenges like these have long been reported anecdotally during conferences, in online communities and at meetings by members of the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA), which represents more than 2,500 school communication professionals, and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), which represents technology leaders in over 1,100 school districts with 13 million students.
A formal member survey conducted in spring 2022 further confirmed the nature and extent of these challenges: Social media platforms’ lack of dedicated verification and reporting processes for federally recognized K-12 education institutions are causing a drain on educational time and resources in school communities across the United States.
Striking findings of Schools and Social Media: A Survey of NSPRA and CoSN Members include the following:
With support from national education association partners, NSPRA and CoSN reached out during summer 2022 to several social media platforms—including Meta (Facebook, Instagram), Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn—to assess their awareness of these challenges and to collaboratively identify current and potential solutions.
Representatives for each platform were asked to respond to three key questions:
CoSN and NSPRA staff had conversations, via email and/or virtually, with representatives from each platform. Their responses have been captured in a chart on Platforms’ Statements on Account Verification and Reporting Processes for K-12 Education Institutions. Many representatives indicated they were not aware of these issues facing school districts, and some were interested in exploring ways to resolve them.
Bottom line: While many of the platforms had general consumer verification processes at that time, none had a process dedicated to school districts’ social media accounts. (Some also created inequities between larger and smaller school systems by prioritizing verification based on an account’s number of followers.) However, LinkedIn, Meta (Facebook, Instagram), TikTok, Twitter and YouTube indicated a willingness to explore solutions to this problem.
Similarly, none of the platforms had a dedicated process for school districts to report fraudulent social media accounts or to report posts and accounts that harass, intimidate, bully or otherwise negatively target students. However, YouTube has indicated interest in exploring a solution.
NSPRA and CoSN are appreciative of the various social media platforms’ willingness to engage in these difficult but constructive conversations.
We also remain committed to advocating for dedicated social media verification and reporting processes for federally recognized K-12 education institutions, on behalf of our members and our education partners. Read on to further explore these solutions and why they matter, and then advocate for them by using the campaign toolkit to help amplify our message.
Campaign Toolkit
Why it Matters
Why It Matters
NO Dedicated Process for K-12 But Willing to Explore
NO Dedicated Process for K-12
2. Does your platform provide a process for reporting fraudulent social media accounts/pages that pretend to represent a federally recognized K-12 education institution?
NO Dedicated Process for K-12 but willing to explore
*The minimum user age for these platforms is 13 with the exception of LinkedIn, which is 16.
In spring 2022, leaders of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) and the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA) began collaboratively discussing some of the pressing challenges facing school systems on social media today.
Informal feedback from members had suggested those challenges included a lack of equity in the process of verification for school district social media accounts and a lack of access to dedicated reporting mechanisms for educational organizations. Members had reported that these barriers make it difficult for their school districts to accurately represent themselves on social media platforms and to report accounts that harass, intimidate, bully or otherwise negatively target their students.
To determine the extent of these challenges, CoSN and NSPRA leaders conducted a joint digital survey in May 2022 that received 292 completed, unique responses. Participants represented educational organizations in 43 U.S. states and territories, with the majority in a K-12 or preK-12 educational organization that serves between 2,000 and 49,999 students. The responses indicated that a majority of their school districts have experienced challenges on social media related to reporting mechanisms and verification processes.
Access Survey Report
The social media issues facing school districts are now being raised with the major social media platforms by the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA) and the Consortium of School Networking (CoSN). Joining us in this effort are the following educational associations:
Based on the platforms' responses and association staff members' research, online resources and additional guidance can be accessed by NSPRA and CoSN members to assist school districts in getting verified and reporting accounts/posts on social media. However, it should be noted that the majority of these resources provided by platforms are for use by all social media users; they are not exclusive to the education community. That is why NSPRA and CoSN plan to continue conversations with the platforms around the development of dedicated processes for K-12 education institutions.
Access Resources (NSPRA Members)
Access Resources (CoSN Members)
Check out recent articles, podcasts and other media coverage of the Schools and Social Media: The Critical Need for Verification and Dedicated Reporting Processes report.
View Coverage
View the press release about the report here. For press inquiries, please contact Sarah Loughlin at 301-519-1221 or at sloughlin@nspra.org.
Verification on a social media platform means that the platform has recognized an account as an authentic, official representation of a district or organization. Most platforms recognize verified accounts with a checkmark.
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