The District may require an employee to disclose his or her username and/or password to a personal social media account if the employee’s personal social media account activity is reasonably believed to be relevant to the investigation of an allegation of an employee violating district policy, or state, federal or local laws or regulations. If such an investigation occurs, and the employee refuses, upon request, to supply the username and/or password required to make an investigation, disciplinary action may be taken against the employee, which could include termination or nonrenewal of the employee’s contract of employment with the District.

Notwithstanding any other provision in this policy, the District reserves the right to view any information about a current or prospective employee that is publicly available on the Internet.

In the event that the district inadvertently obtains access to information that would enable the district to have access to an employee’s personal social media account, the district will not use this information to gain access to the employee’s social media account. However, disciplinary action may be taken against an employee in accord with other District policy for using district equipment or network capability to access such an account. Employees have no expectation of privacy in their use of District issued computers, other electronic device, or use of the District's network. (See policy 8.22—CLASSIFIED PERSONNEL COMPUTER USE POLICY)

Notes: While only the Privacy of Employee's Social Media Accounts section of this policy is required by statute, ASBA strongly recommends adopting the policy in its entirety after consulting with staff for localizing purposes.

This policy is similar to policy 3.45. If you change this policy, review 3.45 at the same time to ensure applicable consistency between the two.

1 The policy’s separate definitions for “social media websites” and “professional/education social media accounts” are important. Districts are encouraged to establish “professional/education social media accounts” as an acceptable means of teacher and district communication with students and parents. This can serve to discourage inappropriate staff/student interactions on “social media websites.” ASBA strongly suggests using the discussions for modifying/personalizing this policy as a means for generating the acceptable guidelines and procedures for staff creation of private social networks. We recommend NOT incorporating the guidelines into the policy, but have them available for all staff to review. Incorporating them into the policy will make it much harder to change them if the need arises.

2 What is and is not acceptable staff/student interaction on social networking websites is an education community decision, and will vary from district to district. As a general rule, the greater the degree of real-life connections and interactivity between staff and students that normally occur in the community, the greater the tolerance will be for virtual connections and interactivity. Use the following list to help guide discussions with staff to determine which items should be included in the policy and with what modifications/stipulations. It is as important to include in the policy what is permitted as

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