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Kansas unified school districts and accredited nonpublic schools have until the end of the day on Monday, Aug. 31, to certify that their boards of education or governing boards have adopted a policy in compliance with 2026 Senate Sub. for House Bill 2299 Section 2 regarding personal electronic devices and Section 3 regarding employee use of social media.

This certification to the Kansas State Department of Education is required to be in compliance with the law passed by the 2026 Kansas Legislature.  

“We now have 250 of 297 systems that are certified, so that's great,” Dr. Frank Harwood, KSDE deputy commissioner said on Thursday. He said a follow-up email is going out as a reminder to complete the certification by Monday.   

The legislation requires districts and systems to adopt policies and procedures regarding the student use of personal devices during the school day that do the following: 

• Prohibit student access and use of personal devices during the school day; 

• Require all personal devices to be turned off and securely stored in a location that is: 

• Not on the student’s person and inaccessible; 

• Authorize students to not bring personal electronic devices to school by leaving the devices at home or in a vehicle, even if such vehicle is on school grounds; 

• Set enforcement procedures and disciplinary actions for violations of the policies and procedures; 

• Authorize students to use personal electronic devices during the school day if such use is: 

• Required to implement a student’s individualized education plan (IEP) or 504 plan or approved by a licensed physician as a medical necessity to support the health or well-being of the student; and 

• The intervention of last resort after determining there is no other reasonable alternative option available for such student; and 

• Designate and make available a school telephone or other communication device that a student is allowed to use to contact a parent or person acting as parent. 

Regarding social media platforms, Harwood said KSDE staff have heard educators across the state question what they can and cannot do regarding their use of social media and their students.  

“The policy needs to be that the board of the district or accredited nonpublic school prohibits employees from privately or directly communicating with students through social media platforms or requiring the use of social media for any assignment or extracurricular activity,” he said. “We've heard systems say, ‘we can no longer have a district Facebook page or a Twitter account.’ That is not true.”  

Harwood emphasized the board of education of any school district or nonpublic accredited school may approve a social media platform to be used for official school purposes.  

The legislation defines the following as not social media: 

• Any websites or applications whose primary purpose is educational; 

• A platform approved by the board of education if the platform:  

• Is owned, licensed, or contractually controlled by the district/accredited nonpublic school; 

• Allows for required user accounts; 

• Allows communications to be monitored, archived, retained, or audited;  

• Is accessible to parents or guardians; and  

• Used by employees in accordance with the policy. 

• Email;   

• Direct messaging that only shares messages between the sender and a named recipient and does not display or post messages publicly; and 

• Any online product or service that does not have school-specific features or identifiers and the predominant purpose is to post educational materials, news, or resources. 

Districts/systems should contact Gabrielle Hull, gabrielle.hull@ksde.gov, with questions or if they have not received the Survey Monkey email to confirm certification.