Purpose
Nevada Community School District (NCSD) recognizes the importance of social media as a communication tool that can strengthen engagement with students, families, staff, and the broader community. The District encourages the appropriate and professional use of social media to share information, celebrate achievements, and support educational opportunities.
The District also acknowledges that employees have rights as private citizens under the First Amendment to speak on matters of public concern. However, employees are expected to conduct themselves in a manner that maintains public trust and does not interfere with their professional responsibilities or the operations of the District.
The purpose of these guidelines is to establish expectations and protocols for the use of social media by employees and representatives of Nevada Community School District. These guidelines apply to both personal and District-related use of social media platforms, including but not limited to Facebook, Instagram, X/Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, LinkedIn, blogs, podcasts, and other online communication tools.
I. General Expectations for All Social Media Use
All employees are expected to use social media responsibly, professionally, and respectfully. Conduct on social media should reflect the same standards of honesty, integrity, and professionalism expected in the workplace and classroom.
Employees shall:
- Protect confidential or protected information regarding students, families, employees, and District operations in accordance with federal and state law, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and applicable Iowa law.
- Never post or disclose personally identifiable student information without proper authorization.
- Report information discovered on social media that may involve student safety concerns, threats, abuse, harassment, or mandatory reporting obligations.
- Avoid posting content that could reasonably be considered discriminatory, harassing, threatening, defamatory, obscene, or otherwise inconsistent with District policies.
- Exercise sound judgment regarding humor, sarcasm, speculation, political commentary, and emotionally charged discussions.
- Respect copyright, intellectual property rights, and licensing requirements when posting content online.
- Be mindful that online content may remain publicly accessible permanently, even after deletion.
- Use caution when clicking links, downloading files, or using third-party social media applications due to cybersecurity risks, phishing scams, and malware concerns.
- Understand that inappropriate social media activity may result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.
II. Expectations for Personal Use of Social Media
Employees using social media in a personal capacity should maintain appropriate professional boundaries with students and families.
Employees are expected to:
- Refrain from communicating with currently enrolled students through personal social media accounts.
- Avoid accepting or initiating “friend” or follower relationships with current students on personal accounts.
- Remember that privacy settings do not guarantee privacy and that posted content may be shared or redistributed by others.
- Avoid posting content that may negatively impact professional credibility, workplace relationships, or the educational environment.
- Never use personal social media accounts to share confidential student or employee information.
- Never post or share student likenesses, including photographs, video, audio recordings, student work, or identifiable student information, on personal social media accounts.
- Avoid posting content that could reasonably be perceived as bullying, discriminatory, harassing, or disruptive to the school environment.
- Understand that personal opinions should not be represented as official District positions.
Employees may share or repost official District or school content to personal social media accounts when appropriate.
III. Expectations for District or Educational Use of Social Media
Employees who manage or contribute to District, school, classroom, club, athletic, or program-related social media accounts are expected to use those platforms professionally and in support of the District’s educational mission.
Employees shall:
- Comply with all Board policies, technology use policies, and applicable laws regarding the use of District technology resources and communications.
- Maintain professional communication standards and appropriate boundaries in all interactions with students and families.
- Ensure that all content posted is accurate, appropriate, and aligned with District values and expectations.
- Avoid posting political endorsements, campaign advocacy, or partisan messaging on District-affiliated pages.
- Verify that students included in photographs, videos, audio recordings, or other media have not opted out of the District’s photo/video/media release during registration before posting or sharing content on District-affiliated social media accounts.
- Monitor comments and interactions on District-affiliated social media pages and remove content that violates District expectations or applicable law.
- Protect account passwords and ensure access is limited to authorized staff members.
- Coordinate use of District logos, branding, and official graphics with the Communications Department.
- Remember that behavior inappropriate in school or the classroom is also inappropriate online.
IV. Establishing District or School Social Media Accounts
Any employee wishing to establish a social media account representing Nevada Community School District, a school, classroom, department, activity, team, club, or program must first receive approval through the appropriate administrative process.
Approval requirements include:
- Activity, athletic, and club accounts must be approved by the appropriate Activity Director and the District Communications Department.
- Teacher, classroom, or instructional social media accounts must be approved by the employee’s building principal and the District Communications Department.
All approved District-affiliated social media accounts shall:
- Be created using a District-provided social media email address.
- Have account credentials shared with the appropriate building administrator or activity director, and District Communications Department for continuity, oversight, and account recovery purposes.
- Clearly identify the school, department, team, class, or program represented.
- Be regularly monitored and maintained by authorized staff members.
- Follow all District communication, records retention, branding, and acceptable use policies.
Employees may not create or operate unofficial school, classroom, team, club, or program social media accounts representing Nevada Community School District without approval.
Any District-affiliated social media account found to be operating without required approval may be directed to provide administrative access and account credentials to the District or be required to remove or deactivate the account.
The District reserves the right to request access to, assume administrative control of, or require the removal of District-affiliated social media accounts that violate District policy or create operational, legal, safety, copyright, trademark, or reputational concerns.
V. Public Interaction and Comment Moderation
Nevada Community School District encourages respectful community engagement on official social media pages. Comments posted by members of the public do not necessarily reflect the views of the District.
The District reserves the right to hide, remove, limit, or report comments or users that:
- Include profanity, obscenity, or sexually explicit content
- Threaten violence or promote illegal activity
- Bully, harass, or intimidate students, staff, or community members
- Contain false, defamatory, or misleading statements
- Include commercial advertising or spam
- Violate student or employee privacy rights
- Are significantly unrelated to the original topic or disrupt constructive discussion
- Violate platform terms of service, District policy, or applicable law
Repeated violations may result in users being blocked or restricted from District-managed pages.
VI. Enforcement
Employees found to have violated these guidelines or other applicable District policies through inappropriate use of social media or electronic communication may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.
Nothing in these guidelines is intended to interfere with employee rights protected by law.
VII. Questions
Questions regarding these guidelines, creation of District-affiliated social media accounts, or appropriate social media use should be directed to the employee’s supervisor, building principal, Activity Director, Communications Department, or the Superintendent’s Office.