What's happening
This bill requires New York schools to monitor public social media for threats to student and school safety, with $6 million in funding.
Why it matters
Requires schools to set up policies and procedures for monitoring public social media posts using data analytics, aiming to identify and respond to threats to student health and school safety before incidents occur.
Limits the scope of monitoring to publicly available information only—schools are explicitly prohibited from accessing or using private communications (like direct messages or emails) unless a student consents or there is a court order, balancing safety with privacy concerns.
Places direct responsibility for responding to detected threats on school principals or their designees, giving them discretion to determine the appropriate response based on the severity or credibility of the threat.
Provides significant state funding ($6 million) to ensure that all school districts have access to the necessary resources and technology to implement these social media monitoring systems, addressing both urban and rural school needs.
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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 finance
- Referred to finance
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
4158
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
March 1, 2019
Introduced by Sen. GRIFFO -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Finance
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.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09583-01-9
S. 4158 2
(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.
§ 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
2017-18 - S. 8438 - Education Committee
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.