A majority of Florida’s school districts have no policy on the use of social media by teachers and other employees, increasing the potential for misuse and inappropriate teacher-student relationships online, according to an analysis conducted by a University of Florida educational leadership scholar.
Doctoral candidate Jesse Gates found that only 32 of the state’s 68 school districts have a dedicated social media policy, and none is comprehensive enough to adequately address all the key elements of Florida’s case law concerning public school employees’ use of social media. Gates’ research covered the primary school districts in all of Florida’s 67 counties, plus Florida Virtual School, the state’s Internet-based public K-12 school.
