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Schools and Social Media
In late 2022, NSPRA and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN)—a membership organization representing school technology leaders—conducted formal research among association membership around the significant challenges school districts face on social media related to reporting accounts and posts that harass, intimidate or bully students.
The findings found that while many social media platforms offered general verification and reporting processes, none had dedicated procedures for school districts at that time. With support from national education association partners, NSPRA and CoSN engaged with major social media platforms to raise awareness of these challenges and explore potential solutions.
Since then, NSPRA and CoSN have continued advocating for solutions that better meet the needs of school districts. This page provides updates on social media platform policies, verification programs and reporting processes since the release of the 2022 research, along with resources to help school districts navigate these challenges.
Follow developments in social media verification, reporting processes and tools for schools.
September 2026
As part of a broader agreement addressing teen safety concerns, Meta has expanded Instagram's School Partnership Program, which now includes nearly 17,000 U.S. schools. Participating schools will gain new communication tools, including Channels and Notes, while verified students will have access to school directories, clubs and teams, Stories and announcements. The expansion marks continued progress toward providing schools with dedicated tools to communicate with their communities and support student safety.
September 2025
Instagram's School Partnership Program became widely available. The program provides U.S. high schools and middle schools with prioritized reporting and a digital profile banner identifying them as official Instagram partners.
March 25, 2025
Instagram launched a waitlist for its new School Partnership Program aimed at providing U.S. high schools and middle schools with prioritized reporting and a digital profile banner identifying them as official Instagram partners. Although the program was not available at the district level or for elementary schools, it represented a meaningful step toward addressing the concerns raised by NSPRA and CoSN.
Nov. 13, 2024
NSPRA and CoSN renewed their call to Congress to include free verification of public school districts' official accounts by social media platforms in the proposed Kids Online Safety Act.
May 21, 2024
The executive directors of NSPRA and 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.
The 2022 Research: Key Findings
In spring 2022, NSPRA and CoSN surveyed their members to better understand the challenges school districts face with social media verification, impersonation and harmful content.
The Challenge for Schools
Verifying Federal Recognized K-12 Education Institutions on Social Media
Dedicated Process for Federally Recognized K-12 Education Institutions to Report Fraudulent Pages/Accounts
Dedicated Process for Federally Recognized K-12 Education Institutions to Report Posts/Accounts That Harass, Intimidate, Bully or Otherwise Negatively Target Students
Findings of Schools and Social Media: A Survey of NSPRA and CoSN Members included 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 at that time are as follows. Many representatives indicated they were not aware of these issues facing school districts, and some were interested in exploring ways to resolve them.
Platform Responses
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?
*The minimum user age for these platforms is 13 with the exception of LinkedIn, which is 16.
Bottom line: While many of the platforms had general consumer verification processes at the 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.) 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, LinkedIn, Meta (Facebook, Instagram), TikTok, Twitter and YouTube indicated a willingness to explore solutions.
Based on the platforms' responses and NSPRA 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. NSPRA and CoSN plan to continue conversations with the platforms around further development of dedicated processes for K-12 education institutions.
Access Resources (NSPRA Members)
Access Resources (CoSN Members)
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:
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.
RESOURCES FOR MEMBERS
Social Media Reporting Resources and Guidance
Access Resources
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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