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The Scotland County Board of Education is expected to approve changes to its social media policy at its April meeting on Monday.

The board will meet at 6 p.m. at the A.B. Gibson Education Center.

Alterations to the system’s social media policy are up for approval following a month of teacher revision and suggestions.

The primary change governs teacher-student relations via social media networks such as Facebook. Employees are prohibited from knowingly communicating with students on social media sites, but such contact is permitted in the case of a family relationship.

School systems across the the United States are adopting similar bans.

In Great Britain, more than one in 10 school teachers accused of misconduct last year had used social networking sites and email to forge inappropriate relationships with students, an analysis of disciplinary cases has found.

The Missouri state legislature recently attempted to block contact between students under age 18 and their teachers (or former teachers) via social networking sites. That ban on teacher-student communications was part of a larger law that was meant to protect school-aged children from sexual predators at school.

Civil liberties groups and educators pointed out that the provision of the law relating to social networking sites was so broadly worded, it would stop teachers from using the Internet to contact any children at all via such sites.

Educators challenged the broad law, and a court granted a temporary injunction against the law’s enforcement, insofar as it affected teacher-student communications. The judge reasoned that the ban would chill free speech, and thus would likely violate the First Amendment.

Also Monday, the board is expected to take a look at its technology plan. The plan, revised every two years, strategically prioritizes technological access to teaching and learning tools in the Scotland County Schools.

The board will also recognize the Scotland High School wrestling team and the placings of Nick and Jessi Kee at their respective national championships.

ChoicePoint Achievement, Inc. will present its programs to the board for consideration. The company purports to build “value and confidence in young people” through mentoring, classroom instruction, and reinforcing high values.