Partner schools can now post Stories and Notes that only verified students can see.
Instagram has expanded the features schools and their verified students will have access to under its School Partnership Program. Its parent company, Meta, launched the program last year, promising participating schools that it will prioritize reports from their students when they experience bullying and harassment on the app. Meta said reports from partner schools will be moved up in its moderation queue, and that it will respond to them within 48 hours.
Now, partner schools can also create clubs and teams that can serve as a centralized hub for communicating information and upcoming events. Admins for those clubs and the overall partner program admin for a school can post Stories and Notes. In the example above, for instance, the basketball team admin posted a call for tryouts in the school’s Stories. School administrators can create Channels, as well, where they can post important updates for their community, which can include not just students, but also parents and teachers.
Only verified students for a school will be able to see those Stories and Notes. Meta teamed up with third-party service UNiDAYS to verify a student’s identity before they can join their school community. Verified students will be able to access a school directory listing their (verified) peers, and they can also add a school banner to their profile that’s only visible to the other students and teens they follow back. These features are going live today.