What's happening
This bill requires New York schools to monitor publicly available social media for potential threats and provides $6 million in funding.
Why it matters
Aims to proactively identify potential threats. By requiring schools to use data analytics to monitor publicly available social media, the bill seeks to detect early warning signs of threats to students' health and school safety, potentially allowing intervention before harm occurs.
Limits on privacy intrusion. The legislation explicitly prohibits schools from accessing private information (such as emails or non-public posts) without explicit student consent or a court order, aiming to balance safety monitoring with respect for student privacy.
School leadership discretion. Information flagged by the monitoring system must be delivered to the school principal or a designee, who has the authority to determine the appropriate response based on the perceived level of threat, giving schools flexibility but also responsibility in handling potential issues.
Significant state investment. The $6 million appropriation underscores the state’s commitment to supporting districts in adopting new technology and processes for social media monitoring—potentially impacting how resources are allocated to school safety initiatives.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Monitor Student Social Media
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to education
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
8438
IN SENATE
May 7, 2018
Introduced by Sen. GRIFFO -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to enacting the social media monitoring safety act; and making an appropriation therefor
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "social media monitoring safety act".
§ 2. Legislative intent. It is the desire of this legislature to provide students and teachers with a safe environment to work and learn. It has become increasingly clear to this legislative body that protecting the health and welfare of its public school students is becoming increasingly difficult. This legislative body finds that the use of social media by students is increasingly being used to voice opinions and thoughts that may be harmful to students and teachers alike. Therefore, this legislative body finds it necessary to create the social media monitoring safety act to provide data analytic resources and funding to every school district to facilitate the monitoring of social media activities to provide early detection information of possible threats to a student's health and the safety of the school.
§ 3. Subdivision 2 of section 2801-a of the education law is amended by adding a new paragraph m to read as follows:
m. (i) policies and procedures to provide data analytic resources which facilitate the monitoring of any and all publicly available social media activities to provide early detection information of possible threats to a student's health and the safety of the school. Such information gathered pursuant to the early detection system shall be provided to the school principal or designee and such principal or designee shall act as he or she deems appropriate based on the level of threat to the health and safety of the school.
(ii) a school district shall not be authorized to view, retrieve, or otherwise utilize any information that is private, including but not limited to email, unless expressly authorized by a student or a court of competent jurisdiction.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD15714-01-8
S. 8438 2
§ 4. The sum of six million dollars ($6,000,000) is hereby appropriated to the state department of education out of any moneys in the state treasury in the general fund, not otherwise appropriated, and made immediately available, for the services and expenses of implementing the social media monitoring safety act. Such moneys shall be payable on the audit and warrant of the comptroller on vouchers certified or approved by the department of education.
§ 5. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after it shall have become a law.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the education law, in relation to enacting the social media monitoring safety act; and making an appropri- ation therefor
Purpose
To assist school districts in assessing threats to students health, welfare and safety by requiring a cloud based social monitoring system.
Summary of provisions
Section 1: Legislative findings.
Section 2: Details the specifics of the legislation and what type of media that is subject to this legislation.
Section 3: Details the type of information that may or may not be gath- ered.
Section 4: Appropriates the sum of $6 million for this purpose
Section 5: Sets forth the effective date
Justification
In the aftermath of the school shooting in Parkland Florida, and in reaction to wider school security concerns, it is vitally important that the legislature be proactive. This legislation looks to coordinate all of our school safety efforts through the use of data analytic services available. This risk assessment tool will provide schools the ability to install and utilize this technology. This legislation provides a funding stream for the school districts to access the necessary funding for the systems.
Risk assessment tools are online social media monitoring technologies that utilize certain key words and phrases to identify at risk behaviors before they happen and report them to school officials and police. These programs work 24 hours a day 7 days a week and are an important part of any comprehensive school safety plan. While some schools are using this technology, most are not. If we have learned one thing from the tragic school shootings that have occurred it's that threats have to be detected early and that social media posts, pictures and other markers left by assailants are almost always a critical factor. It's now more important than ever that every school install and utilize an online risk assessment program.
Legislative history
New Bill.
Fiscal implications
$6 million cost to the state.
Effective date
This act shall take effect 120 days after it shall have become law.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.