Agencies in at least 28 states and the District of Columbia have issued guidance on the use of artificial intelligence in K-12 schools.
More than half of the states have created school policies to define artificial intelligence, develop best practices for using AI systems and more, according to a report from AI for Education, an advocacy group that provides AI literacy training for educators.
Despite efforts by the Trump administration to loosen federal and state AI rules in hopes of boosting innovation, teachers and students need a lot of state-level guidance for navigating the fast-moving technology, said Amanda Bickerstaff, the CEO and co-founder of AI for Education.
“What most people think about when it comes to AI adoption in the schools is academic integrity,” she said. “One of the biggest concerns that we’ve seen — and one of the reasons why there’s been a push towards AI guidance, both at the district and state level — is to provide some safety guidelines around responsible use and to create opportunities for people to know what is appropriate.”
North Carolina, which last year became one of the first states to issue AI guidance for schools, set out to study and define generative artificial intelligence for potential uses in the classroom. The policy also includes resources for students and teachers interested in learning how to interact with AI models successfully.
In addition to classroom guidance, some states emphasize ethical considerations for certain AI models. Following Georgia’s initial framework in January, the state shared additional guidance in June outlining ethical principles educators should consider before adopting the technology.
In the absence of regulations at the federal level, states are filling a critical gap, said Maddy Dwyer, a policy analyst for the Equity in Civic Technology team at the Center for Democracy & Technology, a nonprofit working to advance civil rights in the digital age.
While most state AI guidance for schools focuses on the potential benefits, risks and need for human oversight, Dwyer wrote in a recent blog post that many of the frameworks are missing out on critical AI topics, such as community engagement and deepfakes, or manipulated photos and videos.
“I think that states being able to fill the gap that is currently there is a critical piece to making sure that the use of AI is serving kids and their needs, and enhancing their educational experiences rather than detracting from them,” she said.
Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: [email protected].
How effective are Snapchat school campaigns? Snapchat may no longer be the “shiny new toy” in the social media landscape, but it continues to offer something few platforms can match: authentic, ephemeral connection with Gen Z. While platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube dominate the headlines, Snapchat remains deeply embedded in the daily lives of many teens and young adults, especially in North America, Europe, and parts of the Middle East.
For education marketers targeting younger demographics, Snapchat’s low-friction, high-engagement environment makes it a powerful, if often underutilized, channel. From personalized outreach and peer-led takeovers to geofilter-powered event promotion, Snapchat school digital marketing campaigns meet students on their terms with content that feels spontaneous, creative, and real.
This blog post explores how different types of institutions: business schools, language schools, career colleges, K–12 schools, and universities, can use Snapchat strategically to support their enrollment goals, community engagement, and brand building.
Why Snapchat Still Matters
Globally, Snapchat’s active user base tops 850 million. In key recruitment markets like North America, parts of Europe, and the Middle East, teens and young adults continue to use Snapchat as a daily communication hub. What makes it especially powerful for education marketing is the way it enables institutions to meet students where they are in their preferred format, tone, and space.
How does Snapchat college work? Snapchat’s college features, like School Communities, offer institutions a way to foster peer-to-peer engagement within a verified, digital campus environment. It strengthens school spirit, encourages student interaction, and creates new touchpoints for community-building in a format Gen Z prefers.
Snapchat offers unique features that make it a great tool for engaging students and supporting education marketing. Its main appeal is that content, like photos and 10-second videos, disappears after being viewed, which makes it feel immediate and personal, unlike traditional social media. Some key features include:
Stories: Stories allow users to string together multiple snaps (photos or videos) that are viewable for 24 hours. This feature helps schools showcase campus life, events, and student takeovers in a way that feels immediate and engaging. Schools can post regular updates, highlights of campus activities, and even have students take over the account for a day to give a personal perspective on student life.
Snapchat School Communities: In 2024, Snapchat introduced School Communities, which let students join private groups for their school. Members can view and contribute to shared Campus Stories visible only to classmates. These communities help students connect with peers in a secure, school-specific space, making it easier to share experiences, participate in group chats, and discuss common interests. Snapchat verifies members using their official school email addresses and gives them a special badge on their profiles.
Geofilters and AR Lenses: Geofilters are custom-designed overlays available to users in a specific location. Schools use geofilters for events like campus tours, admitted student days, or graduations, turning these moments into shareable, branded experiences. Augmented reality (AR) lenses, which add fun virtual elements to photos, can also be used to promote school spirit and engagement. User-Generated Content (UGC): Snapchat thrives on content created by its users. Schools encourage UGC through activities like account takeovers, contests, and Q&As. These features allow students to contribute their own content, giving a more authentic, behind-the-scenes view of campus life.
Example: NYU (Snapchat username: nyuniversity) has leveraged Snapchat’s geofilter feature to welcome and engage prospective students. In 2016, NYU introduced a custom Snapchat geofilter for its Admitted Students Day event, even running a student design contest to create the filter. The winning filter gave visiting admits a fun way to announce their presence at NYU on Snapchat. NYU’s official news release also encouraged the community to “Add us on Snapchat” for behind-the-scenes campus glimpses and student takeovers.
Snapchat Ads and Discover: In addition to organic content, Snapchat offers a robust ads platform and a Discover media section. While Discover is mostly for professional media partners, schools can utilize Snapchat Ads Manager to run targeted ad campaigns for recruitment. From short video ads to swipe-up web forms, Snap ads can reach users by age, location, interests, and more, crucial for enrollment marketing.
What does putting your school on Snapchat do? Listing your institution on Snapchat enables a digital community where students connect, share, and engage under your brand. While not managed by the school, this community becomes a valuable extension of campus life and student culture.
How does Snapchat verify your school? Snapchat confirms membership by requiring students to use their institutional email address for verification. This automated system ensures only enrolled individuals access the community, minimizing moderation needs while maintaining student privacy and authenticity.
With expertise in education marketing, agencies like HEM help schools navigate these ad tools as part of an integrated digital marketing strategy, ensuring Snapchat campaigns align with enrollment goals and complement efforts on other platforms.
To learn more about crafting cross-platform campaigns, see HEM’s digital marketing services specifically for education organizations, which cover social media, paid ads, content, and more.
With this foundation, let’s examine how various types of educational institutions are using Snapchat in practice, from the tech-savvy prep school to the global MBA program.
K–12 Schools: Building School Spirit With Caution and Creativity
K–12 schools, particularly high schools, face a unique challenge when it comes to Snapchat. While teens are highly active on the platform, schools must balance the need for engagement with a duty of care, especially considering their minor student populations. Despite these concerns, some schools have found creative ways to use Snapchat to build school spirit, communicate with students, and engage parents and alumni, all while ensuring privacy and safety.
One common use of Snapchat in schools is to share quick glimpses of campus life and events, offering a more personal and immediate connection than traditional communications like newsletters.
Schools also leverage Snapchat’s geofilters for major events like prom, graduation, or sports games, encouraging students to use school-branded filters. These geofilters, often featuring the school name or mascot, help increase visibility and pride as students share their celebratory moments with their networks.
Example: At Lincoln School in Costa Rica, a student designed an official Snapchat geofilter for the campus, enabling students to overlay a custom school graphic on their snaps. Geofilters like this rally school spirit during events and make it easy for students to share branded moments from school.
While Snapchat offers numerous opportunities for engagement, schools must exercise caution. Privacy concerns are paramount, and schools typically avoid following students back on the platform. They also direct more serious inquiries to email or in-person discussions.
Ultimately, Snapchat can be a powerful tool for K–12 schools when used thoughtfully with clear goals, safety protocols, and creative student involvement. However, schools should evaluate their resources and decide if the platform aligns with their communication strategy.
For those who are unsure about how to get started, education marketing consultants HEM can offer guidance to help schools develop effective, safe social media strategies.
Language Schools: Capturing Culture, Fun, and Learning in Real Time
Language schools, including ESL institutes, immersion camps, and university pathway programs, serve a naturally youthful audience: students who are eager to share their cultural and educational experiences. For this reason, Snapchat is a fitting addition to their marketing strategy. With over 38% of Snapchat’s users aged 18 to 24, it offers a great opportunity to reach teen learners who are already on the platform.
Snapchat’s popularity among this age group makes it ideal for language schools looking to connect with students where they spend their time. While platforms like Facebook may be better suited for reaching parents, Snapchat helps schools tap into the social, youthful energy of their student base.
Language schools use Snapchat in several ways to engage their audience. One key strategy is showcasing student life and local culture in real-time. By giving students control of the school’s Snapchat account, schools allow them to share their experiences, from excursions to daily activities.
Example: CEA ran a campaign called “10 Stages of Study Abroad,” where students shared their personal journeys through Snapchat, from arrival to cultural experiences. This user-generated content, filled with emojis and candid moments, felt real and approachable, making it an ideal way to engage teens considering studying abroad.
Additionally, language schools use Snapchat for quick-hit teaching and engagement. Posting a “word of the day” with a fun illustration or running mini-quizzes encourages interaction and reinforces learning. These spontaneous, playful posts not only engage current students but also expand reach as followers share and respond.
Finally, Snapchat can be used for international recruitment, particularly in regions where the platform is popular. Snapchat school campaigns can target specific countries where teens are heavy Snapchat users and run geo-targeted ads to promote their programs.
While Snapchat offers valuable engagement opportunities, not every language school may have the resources to manage it. If maintaining a regular presence is challenging, schools may choose to focus on other platforms like Instagram or YouTube.
However, if Snapchat aligns with your target demographic and storytelling style, it can be a powerful tool in your marketing mix, provided you post consistently and keep the tone light and authentic. Language learning is filled with fun and cultural moments, making Snapchat’s informal style the perfect vehicle for sharing these experiences.
Colleges: Bringing Practical Learning to Life
Colleges, ranging from community colleges to vocational institutes, serve a diverse audience, from recent high school grads to working adults seeking new skills. To connect with these students, platforms like Snapchat offer a unique opportunity.
Although adoption has been slow, career colleges that have embraced Snapchat report high engagement and significant benefits. Snapchat allows these institutions to showcase hands-on learning experiences and workforce outcomes in a way that feels authentic and immediate, which resonates with prospective students, particularly those focused on practical skills and career outcomes.
One major way career colleges leverage Snapchat is by giving students the platform to share real-time glimpses of their training. For instance, technical institutes may use Snapchat Stories to offer behind-the-scenes looks into workshops or classrooms. This content provides a dynamic, visually engaging alternative to traditional brochures, showcasing students’ day-to-day experiences in fields like auto mechanics or culinary arts.
Example: Owens Community College empowers student content producers to share everything from welding sparks to nursing students practicing IVs. This hands-on, visual storytelling appeals directly to prospective enrollees, giving them a taste of life in their chosen field.
In addition to showcasing student life, career colleges use Snapchat to bring workforce outcomes to life. Through alumni takeovers, schools can give prospective students a “day in the life” of a graduate, showing how their programs led to real career success. This adds a personal, relatable touch that resonates more than statistics alone.
Snapchat’s advertising tools also play a pivotal role in recruitment. Career colleges can use Snapchat Ads to target specific age groups or demographics, promoting relevant programs or seasonal events. For example, a cosmetology school could run an ad campaign targeting local teens to promote an open house, encouraging immediate sign-ups through Snapchat’s lead-gen feature.
While Snapchat offers clear benefits, career colleges must be cautious about the content they share, especially when dealing with sensitive or confidential aspects of certain programs. Social media policies must be in place to protect privacy and ensure safety protocols are not compromised. Additionally, moderation is crucial to maintain professionalism, particularly when engaging with prospective students via interactive features like Q&As.
Despite these considerations, career colleges that embrace Snapchat can build a modern, relatable brand, connect with a younger audience, and showcase their unique offerings. With the right strategy, Snapchat can be a powerful tool to attract the next generation of students. For colleges unsure where to start, digital marketing specialists can help create a strategy that includes content planning, staff training, and targeted ad campaigns to maximize impact.
Universities: Scaling Engagement With Personalization
Universities have been early adopters of Snapchat in the education space, using it to engage prospective students and strengthen their campus communities.
The platform’s youth-driven, real-time, and personal nature makes it a perfect fit for engaging 17–18-year-old prospects and meeting them where they already spend their time. Universities have utilized Snapchat for everything from personalized admissions outreach to virtual campus tours, showcasing the immediate and authentic experiences that Gen Z craves.
One standout use of Snapchat is personalized admissions and outreach. The University of Wisconsin–Green Bay gained attention by notifying hundreds of accepted students through Snapchat, offering a personal touch with fun campus photos and a message like “Welcome to the Phoenix family!” This creative approach made a lasting impression, fostering a sense of connection with incoming students. Many other universities have followed suit, using Snapchat to welcome students or remind them about key deadlines, creating an interpersonal feel that’s hard to achieve with traditional email.
Example: UW–Green Bay’s Snapchat notifications let students engage by snapping selfies back, creating an interactive and memorable admissions experience.
Another common strategy is virtual campus tours and Q&As. Before virtual tours became widespread, universities like UW–Green Bay were already using Snapchat to show prospective students around campus, from dorms to dining halls, answering questions along the way. These casual, behind-the-scenes tours are an engaging way to help students envision themselves on campus, giving them a more authentic and intimate view of student life. This approach also allows universities to reach thousands of potential students in a relaxed, informal way.
Example: UW–Green Bay used Snapchat to host Q&A sessions on topics like financial aid and study abroad, allowing students to ask questions privately, making the experience feel more personal and accessible.
In addition to these strategies, many universities leverage student takeovers and ambassador programs, where students take over the Snapchat account for a week to share their day-to-day experiences. This approach humanizes the institution, allowing prospective students to connect with real students in an authentic way. Universities like UNC–Chapel Hill have seen success with this model, using cross-platform promotion to ensure maximum visibility for the takeovers.
Example: At UNC–Chapel Hill, Snapchat takeovers are often cross-promoted on Twitter, with students sharing everything from campus life to personal milestones.
For contests and user-generated campaigns, universities often run engagement initiatives like Snapchat scavenger hunts or spirit photo contests. These campaigns incentivize students to engage with the platform and promote the school while integrating online interaction with offline connections. Such contests increase visibility and drive student participation, making them a fun, interactive way to build community.
Example: Princeton’s “Snap as You Pack” contest encouraged incoming students to send snaps of their packing process, with winners receiving prizes at a campus event, turning digital interactions into real-world connections.
Universities also utilize Snapchat ads for recruitment and yield campaigns, with many seeing impressive returns. Finally, community building and retention is a growing area for Snapchat. With features like School Communities, universities are creating digital spaces for current students and alumni to share experiences and connect.
In conclusion, universities have effectively integrated Snapchat into their recruitment and engagement strategies. The key takeaway is the importance of authenticity and timeliness—students respond far more to real, relatable content than polished marketing. With careful planning, universities can use Snapchat not just as a novelty but as a core element of their digital strategy, driving awareness, engagement, and ultimately, enrollment.
Business Schools: Elevating Outcomes With Authentic Storytelling
Business schools, though often catering to older students focused on career advancement, are increasingly turning to Snapchat to humanize their brand and engage digital-native prospects. Snapchat’s bite-sized, authentic content resonates with younger audiences, offering business schools a unique opportunity to showcase their community and career outcomes in a dynamic, engaging way.
One of the most effective strategies employed by business schools is Snapchat alumni takeovers. Bentley University, for example, hosts monthly takeovers where alumni share “a day in the life” from their workplace, whether it’s at a Big Four accounting firm or a tech startup. These takeovers provide prospective students with a candid, behind-the-scenes look at life after graduation, helping them envision themselves in similar roles. This strategy not only promotes outcomes but also activates the alumni network, turning graduates into ambassadors for the school.
Example: Bentley University’s alumni takeovers offer a real-life glimpse into successful careers, showcasing alumni in cities across the country working for top companies.
Business schools also use Snapchat’s interactive features to engage prospects during admissions events. NYU’s Stern School of Business, for instance, leveraged geofilters during its admitted students’ day, allowing attendees to personalize their snaps with an NYU-themed graphic. This not only built excitement among admitted students but also turned their snaps into organic promotion for the school, reaching their personal networks and marking a milestone moment.
Example: NYU Stern’s geofilter campaign allowed admitted students to broadcast their campus visit excitement, effectively turning their posts into branded, organic promotions.
In addition to these strategies, Snapchat offers a platform for student-driven content. Schools use Snapchat Stories to share authentic glimpses of student life, from MBA orientation week to team-building exercises. This unfiltered, real-time content helps prospective students connect with current students, creating a peer-to-peer relationship that traditional marketing cannot replicate.
Example: The University of Michigan has used Snapchat to show prospective students what the school is truly about, with current students or young alumni sharing experiences directly with their peers.
Although Snapchat may play a supplementary role in business school marketing, especially with slightly older audiences who might prefer platforms like LinkedIn or YouTube, it offers a way to engage younger undergraduate prospects and keep them connected. As more Gen Z students enter graduate programs, Snapchat will likely become a more central tool in business school marketing strategies.
The key takeaway from early adopters like Bentley and NYU Stern is that authenticity sells. By letting students and alumni take the lead, business schools create meaningful, relatable content that stands out. Snapchat’s interactive elements, like geofilters, contests, and Q&As, add another layer of engagement, making it a valuable tool for creating memorable touchpoints that differentiate a school’s brand.
For business schools looking to implement these strategies, HEM offers expert support in crafting campaigns that resonate with younger audiences without compromising the professional brand. From structuring alumni takeover series to designing custom Snapchat filters, professional guidance ensures that schools’ Snapchat campaigns remain on-message and platform-appropriate.
Best Practices for Schools Using Snapchat
To use Snapchat effectively in education marketing:
Set Clear Goals: Whether you’re aiming for inquiries, event sign-ups, or community engagement, define what success looks like.
Assign Resources: Content doesn’t make itself. Designate staff, interns, or ambassadors. Even 1–2 days per week of content can be enough if it’s consistent.
Cross-Promote Aggressively: Share your Snapcode on all channels. Post reminders when live sessions or takeovers happen.
Encourage Participation: Ask students to snap their dorm move-ins, study setups, or event moments. Share user-submitted content with consent.
Use Native Features: Stickers, polls, doodles, filters; these keep your content aligned with Snapchat’s playful vibe.
Set Policies and Respect Privacy: Create a short social media usage policy. Don’t follow students back. Don’t show private info. Always get permission.
Measure Performance: Monitor views, screenshots, swipe-ups, and conversions. Define KPIs like “50 open house signups” and track accordingly.
Stay Flexible: Social trends shift fast. Listen to your students. If they say they love takeovers and ignore admin posts, adjust your campaign accordingly.
Snapchat is not a magic bullet. But as the examples show, with strategy, creativity, and the right guardrails, it can drive measurable results.
Snapchat: A Platform for the Brave and Strategic
Snapchat isn’t right for every school. But when used strategically, it can yield exceptional engagement and even tangible ROI. From intimate glimpses into student life to full-funnel recruitment campaigns, the platform gives institutions a way to be authentic, relatable, and modern.
Schools that embrace Snapchat thoughtfully, backed by clear goals, content planning, and a dose of Gen Z creativity, can stand out in a crowded market. And for schools unsure of how to begin, partnering with Higher Education Marketing can accelerate results, providing campaign support, creative strategy, and platform-specific training.
Snapchat may be temporary by design, but its impact on student perception can last much longer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: How does Snapchat college work? Answer: Snapchat’s college features, like School Communities, offer institutions a way to foster peer-to-peer engagement within a verified, digital campus environment. It strengthens school spirit, encourages student interaction, and creates new touchpoints for community-building in a format Gen Z prefers.
Question: How does Snapchat verify your school? Answer: Snapchat confirms membership by requiring students to use their institutional email address for verification. This automated system ensures only enrolled individuals access the community, minimizing moderation needs while maintaining student privacy and authenticity.
Question: What does putting your school on Snapchat do? Answer: Listing your institution on Snapchat enables a digital community where students connect, share, and engage under your brand. While not managed by the school, this community becomes a valuable extension of campus life and student culture.
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Dive Brief:
A federal judge on Sunday temporarily blocked enforcement of major parts of a new Mississippi law that bars diversity, equity and inclusion in the state’s public colleges and K-12 schools.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi and other organizations filed a lawsuit in June on behalf of students and educators, arguing the new law imposes the state government’s views on race, gender and sexuality on public colleges and schools and censors opposing views.
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate pointed to accounts of educators having their programs shut down or censoring their own speech to ensure they don’t run afoul of the law. The accounts signal “possible widespread suppression of speech, programming, and institutional function,” Wingate wrote.
Dive Insight:
Educator and student groups sued over the law just two months after it took effect in April, arguing the legislation violates their First Amendment right to free speech and is unconstitutionally vague.
“It is difficult for administrators, teachers, and students to distinguish prohibited actions from permissible ones, making the law particularly susceptible to arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement,” the lawsuit said.
One contested aspect of the law is a provision that bans public colleges and K-12 schools from either engaging in or requiring diversity training, which it defines as any formal or informal education meant to increase “awareness or understanding of issues related to race, sex, color, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion or national origin.”
This edict applies to both elective or required courses, according to the lawsuit. The plaintiffs warn of dire consequences from the legislation, arguing its provisions would prohibit constitutional law professors from discussing discrimination and history teachers from teaching about the Civil War and slavery.
Under the bill, colleges and K-12 schools also can’t “engage in” eight “divisive concepts” — a provision the lawsuit calls “extremely broad.” One divisive concept, for instance, is that an individual “by virtue of his or her race, sex, color, national origin, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.”
The lawsuit argues that could block discussions of implicit bias in sociology, psychology and other classes.
Public colleges and K-12 schools that don’t follow the law face a steep penalty if they rack up two violations — the potential loss of state funding. Colleges and schools must “cure” their violations to avoid this punishment, though the legislation doesn’t explain how that can be accomplished, sparking concerns that educators will be fired and students will be expelled, according to the lawsuit.
The legislation also carves out exceptions for “scholarly research or creative work” by students and employees. But the lawsuit argues those carve-outs are unclear and raise questions about whether students could discuss work on one of the banned concepts during class.
“Like other provisions of the act, this exception is vague and further confuses what is and what is not prohibited by the law,” the plaintiffs argued.
The defendants include Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, as well as the chairs of the state community college system’s coordinating board and education board, among others. They filed a motion to dismiss earlier this month, arguing that the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue and that the attorney general was shielded by sovereign immunity.
However, Wingate wrote that U.S. Supreme Court precedent allows plaintiffs to seek injunctive relief against state officials to prevent constitutional violations.
The temporary restraining order is in effect until further court order. Wingate is holding a hearing Wednesday over whether to grant a preliminary injunction, which would last until he issues a final ruling on the case.
In his ruling, the judge pointed to accounts from educators and students. One plaintiff, a librarian at Hinds Community College, expressed uncertainty about whether she can recommend books on race, gender or identity or curate material for events like Black History Month.
And the director of student development at Tougaloo College said she has suspended programs meant to support LGBTQ+ students out of concern that discussion of gender identity could risk her institution’s funding.
Since the law took effect in April, institutions have been attempting to follow the legislation, often “erring on the side of caution” by canceling programming that could now be prohibited, Wingate noted.
“This Court finds that each day the statute remains unclarified, undefined, and under a threat of open interpretation, exacerbates the suppression of protected speech,” Wingate wrote.
Alabama schools are set to implement a new system to prevent vaping by public school students in the coming academic year.
HB 8, sponsored by Rep. Barbara Drummond D-Mobile, requires the Alabama State Board of Education to create a model policy for local boards of education to adopt by November.
“[Drummond] wanted an anti-vaping law, so we were able to work with her on something that’s not too overwhelming for the districts, but they are all going to have an anti-vaping policy,” State Board of Education Superintendent Eric Mackey told members of the board in a meeting on Tuesday.
Under the proposed policy, students who are caught vaping once will have their parents contacted and students who are caught vaping twice will have to take a state approved vaping awareness, education and prevention class which includes a curriculum created in collaboration with the Drug Education Council.
The topics covered in the proposed curriculum presented to board members include health consequences, peer pressure, nicotine and addiction, resources to quit vaping and common misconceptions about vaping among others.
According to the Children’s of Alabama newsroom, the media branch for the Children’s of Alabama hospital, nearly 20% of high school students in 2023 said they had vaped.
Some board members at Tuesday’s meeting questioned the need for the vaping law.
“As an educator, parent and grandparent, I don’t quite understand the focus on this and bifurcating or separating from the other common concerns in every discipline policy,” said Wayne Reynolds, who represents District 8 on the board. “Why would you separate what you’re doing to a child caught vaping and contacting the parents than any other child in the discipline policy?”
District 1 Representative Jackie Zeigler raised concerns about children moving onto other drugs like Fentanyl and Xylazine or tranq and pushed for broader language in the law to prevent having to add resolutions to add other specific items such as marajuana into the law.
“I don’t think by labeling it does any justice,” she said. “We need to make it broader so these things fit into it so we don’t have to come back and say, ‘now we have [THC] gummies, and now we have vaping.’”
Mackey agreed that the law is more specific than most Alabama Department of Education policies, but because it’s the law they have to follow it and said the board is “being no more restrictive than the law requires.”
The Alabama State Board of Education will vote on the model policy for the law next month.
Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: [email protected].
That was the central message from Jessica Espinoza and Alice Opperman of Emerson Public Schools (NJ), who shared their decade-long journey implementing standards-based grading during their session at ISTELive+ASCD 2025.
What started as a deeply rooted effort to promote equity has grown into a districtwide, cross-curricular system that blends teacher voice, clarity for families, and support from the right tools.
Here’s what they learned along the way, and why they’re still learning.
3 huge takeaways for school leaders considering a shift to SBG
Clarity starts with fewer, better standards
In the early stages of their grading reform, Emerson tried to be comprehensive; too comprehensive, perhaps. Their first report card included nearly every New Jersey Common Core standard, which quickly became overwhelming for both teachers and families. Over time, they shifted to focusing on broader, more meaningful standards that better reflected student learning.
“So approximately 10 years ago, we started with a standard-based report card in grades K-6. Our report card at that time listed pretty much every standard we could think of. We realized that we really needed to narrow in on more umbrella standards or standards that really encapsulate the whole idea. We took away this larger report card with 50 different standards, and we went into something that was more streamlined. That really helped our teachers to focus their energy on what is really important for our students.” –Jessica Espinoza, Principal, Emerson Public Schools (NJ)
Lasting change doesn’t happen without teacher buy-in
Grading reform can’t succeed unless educators believe in it. That’s why Emerson made intentional space for teacher voice throughout the process; through pilots, surveys, honest conversations, and, most importantly, time. The district embraced a long-term mindset, giving teachers flexibility to experiment, reflect, and gradually evolve their practices instead of expecting instant transformation.
“We had some consultants sit with teams of teachers to work on these common scoring criteria. They were fully designed by teachers, and their colleagues had the chance to weigh in during the school year so that it didn’t feel quite so top-down…the teachers had such a voice in making them that it didn’t feel like we were taking their autonomy away.” –Alice Opperman, Director of Curriculum, Instruction & Technology, Emerson Public Schools (NJ)
Progress means nothing if families can’t follow it
Even with teachers aligned and systems in place, Emerson found that family understanding was key to making SBG truly work. While the district initially aimed to move away from traditional letter grades altogether, ongoing conversations with parents led to a reevaluation. By listening to families and adapting their approach, Emerson has found a middle ground, one that preserves the value of standards-based learning while making progress easier for families to understand.
“Five years ago, I would have said, ‘We will be totally done with points. We will never see a letter grade again. It’s going to be so much better.’ But talking to parent after parent has led us to this compromised place where we are going to try it a little bit differently to give the parents what they need in order to understand us, but also keep that proficiency, competency, mastery information that we feel is so valuable as educators.” –Alice Opperman, Director of Curriculum, Instruction & Technology, Emerson Public Schools (NJ)
Still evolving, and that’s the point
For Jessica and Alice, grading reform has never been about arriving at a perfect system (and certainly not achieving it overnight). It’s been about listening, learning, and improving year after year. Their message to other school leaders? There’s no one “right” way to do SBG, but there is a thoughtful, collaborative way forward.
Emerson’s story shows that when you prioritize clarity, trust your teachers, and bring families into the conversation, the result isn’t just a better report card.
It’s a better learning experience for everyone involved.
How the right grading solution supports Emerson’s SBG efforts
Emerson put in the work, but sustaining grading reform at scale is nearly impossible without the right tools to support teachers, track progress, and communicate effectively with families.
Streamlined standards Focus on the standards that matter most by building custom, district-aligned grading scales. The right platform makes it easy to group standards, apply scoring criteria, and visualize mastery over time.
Transparent communication Share clear, standards-aligned feedback with families directly in a platform. Teachers can provide timely updates, rubric explanations, and progress reports, all in one place.
Flexible grading tools Support teacher autonomy with multiple assessment types and scoring options, including points, rubrics, and mastery levels, all aligned to district-defined standards.
Not only is that 7 percentage points worse than the national average, but 48% represented a significant jump from pre-pandemic levels in 2019, when 36% of Oregon’s 4th graders tested below basic for reading.
The state’s latest reading scores are “disgraceful” and “unacceptable,” said Darcy Soto, director of learning acceleration at Portland Public Schools.
But unlike for the state at large, the Portland district has seen an increase — albeit a slight one of 1% — in reading scores since the pandemic, said Karla Hudson, program administrator for the district’s learning acceleration team. Still, Portland’s progress has been slow and incremental, she said, and less than 60% of the district’s students are proficient in reading.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Hudson said, which is why the 43,500-student district has zeroed in on providing high-impact tutoring.
Joined by Stanford University’s Nancy Waymack, Soto and Hudson shared what Portland has learned from its efforts during a July 12 session at UNITED, the National Conference on School Leadership.
High-impact tutoring is a data-driven service that is embedded into the school day and uses consistent, well-supported tutors, said Waymack, director of research, partnerships and policy for Stanford University’s National Student Support Accelerator. The tutors use high-quality instructional materials and hold sessions at least three times a week in small groups of no more than four students, she said.
While teachers can be successful tutors, Waymack said, so too can community members like college students and retirees. Regardless, it’s important that students be able to build a relationship with their tutors, she said.
Data also plays a valuable role in tracking student progress throughout the tutoring, Waymack said. When tutoring occurs during school hours or shortly before or after class time, she said, research shows students are far more likely to attend sessions.
Years in the making
Portland began its early literacy tutoring program through a small after-school pilot initiative in 2021-22 at a few elementary schools for students in grades 3-5, said Soto. The pilot started to show “some really great outcomes,” she said, allowing the district to expand the program from 6 to 20 schools by the 2022-23 school year.
During those first two years, teachers were trained on the curriculum and paid for extended hours to tutor after school and. While that approach did improve students’ reading skills, Soto said, “it was very expensive” given teacher pay and the small student group size. This made the pilot difficult to scale to other schools.
As the tutoring program continued into the 2023-24 school year, the district began shifting to a more cost-effective model — especially as federal pandemic relief funds were sunsetting, Soto said.
By the 2024-25 school year, Soto said, the district used some of its last remaining Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds to partner with the Oregon Department of Education and Oregon State University to develop a free K-3 tutoring curriculum aligned with structured literacy instruction.
After successfully piloting the new curriculum in summer 2024, the district launched a $1.2 million program across 50 of its 58 elementary schools to serve over 1,200 students in 2024-25, Soto said. The program hired 152 tutors — mostly paraprofessionals — and was embedded during school hours during 30-minute blocks that didn’t interfere with core instruction.
Outcomes and what’s next
Portland attributes recorded a wide range of student outcomes to the tutoring program. One school saw an average growth of 91% on post-tutoring assessments, while another grew on average by just 18%, according to Soto.
The tutoring outcome data so far is “interesting and complex,” Soto said, but it still shows that the program is working.
However, as the district faces declining enrollment and big budget cuts, it has sought partnerships to keep it going, Hudson said. As a result, most tutoring for the 2025-26 school year will run through a community-based partner known as Reading Results with some in-house support and also a new AI literacy tutoring tool.
A majority of the funding will come from the district’s education foundation via a one-year, $1 million grant, Hudson said. The remaining funds will be from the state’s early literacy grant and a private foundation.
When the tutoring program gets underway in the new school year, Soto said her team will continue collecting feedback and data from participants. Sharing success stories, she noted, will help secure funding for the program’s future.
It also will be important to keep adjusting the model’s funding and structure as the district’s budget and capacity shift, Soto said.
When a crisis hits a school campus, communication can either save lives or contribute to chaos. Whether it’s a lockdown, severe weather, or a gas leak, the first moments matter most, and so does the ability to reach the right people instantly. For school leaders, this reality has turned the mass notification system for schools from a nice-to-have into a non-negotiable.
In today’s education landscape, safety isn’t just a responsibility; it’s an expectation. Parents demand it. Students rely on it. And legislation like the Jeanne Clery Act mandates it. From K-12 schools to sprawling universities, institutions are under growing pressure to prepare for emergencies. That means having a reliable, fast, and flexible way to communicate campus-wide emergencies across multiple platforms.
Mass notification systems (MNS) offer that capability. They enable school officials to send real-time alerts through text messages, emails, voice calls, desktop pop-ups, sirens, and public address systems, all from a single dashboard. But with so many systems available, selecting the right one can be overwhelming. Some platforms specialize in panic buttons and mobile alerts; others focus on layered communication and integrations with existing infrastructure.
The stakes are high, but the path forward doesn’t have to be murky. This guide will walk you through what a mass notification system is, why it matters for schools of all sizes, and how to evaluate your options with confidence.
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What Is a Mass Notification System for Schools?
So, what is a mass notification system for schools?A mass notification system for schools is a platform that enables institutions to quickly inform students, faculty, and staff about emergencies or critical situations.
These alerts, sent via SMS, email, voice calls, app notifications, and digital signage, can communicate anything from severe weather and campus lockdowns to service disruptions and safety instructions from one central platform. This ensures rapid, widespread communication during emergencies.
They integrate with existing infrastructure such as fire alarms, intercoms, and digital signage to ensure every possible communication pathway is covered.
Schools often turn to systems like Rave Alert, Everbridge, Alertus, and Intrado Revolution, among others. These platforms are designed specifically for emergencies, but what if you had a tool that could do that and more?
How Do Mass Notification Systems Work?
Most MNS platforms are cloud-based and integrate with school databases or SIS (student information systems). Here’s how they function:
Message Creation: Administrators draft a message through a web-based interface or mobile app.
Audience Segmentation: Messages can be sent to specific groups (e.g., staff, students, grade levels).
Multichannel Distribution: The system pushes the message across chosen channels simultaneously.
Acknowledgement and Tracking: Some systems allow recipients to confirm receipt, and administrators can track who received what.
Two-Way Communication: More advanced systems allow for replies and real-time updates.
Why MNS Is a Necessity, Not a Luxury
The need for several types of communication channels has made the need for timely notifications undeniable. In response, many universities adopted robust mass notification systems, and today, the Jeanne Clery Act mandates that all U.S. colleges maintain systems for timely warnings and emergency notifications.
In Canada, provinces like Ontario require school boards to implement emergency and lockdown procedures, which may include notification systems. Globally, ISO 22301 emphasizes communication strategies in business continuity planning, applicable to schools.
But this isn’t just a higher ed concern. K–12 schools face their own risks. And communication needs often extend beyond the campus to include parents and guardians.
Mass Notification Has Multiple Uses
Your mass notification system doesn’t have to be reserved for emergency use. It can and should be the most important part of your everyday communications strategy. Ensuring your mass notification system includes all of your main communications mediums like email newsletters, text messages, website alerts, and social media channels will allow you to do it all in one single platform, saving you time and streamlining your efforts.
Need to send your email newsletter, a text reminder, and a social media push all at once? There’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to do that using your mass communications system. Need to send a mobile app and website alert while you’re at it? You’ll save hours by having everything bundled in one mass notifications toolbox.
Think of it this way: your institution already collects valuable contact information, behavioral data, and engagement history through its CRM. That same infrastructure can power smarter alerting during a crisis. Instead of a generic campus-wide message, you could send tailored updates, like notifying only international students during a visa-related policy change, or alerting online learners about digital platform outages. It’s the intersection of immediacy and intelligence: delivering the right message to the right people, at exactly the right moment.
This synergy is especially relevant in higher education, where the line between operational communication and marketing is increasingly blurred. Institutions must build trust not just through promotional emails but also through reliable, timely updates that reassure students and their families. A CRM-integrated mass notification system supports both missions, emergency preparedness and ongoing relationship-building.
HEM’s Mautic CRM: Smarter Messaging in Every Scenario
Mautic by HEM allows institutions to segment their contact lists by criteria such as program, campus, or enrollment stage, ensuring each person gets the right message at the right time. The platform also supports multi-channel outreach; staff can send automated emails and SMS messages, all from one centralized system.
With features like workflow automation to schedule campaigns and trigger communications (for instance, event invitations or follow-up messages), a CRM like this can unify both emergency notifications and routine marketing outreach. In practice, that means a school could broadcast critical alerts to affected individuals during a crisis and also manage day-to-day communications with students or customers, all through the same integrated system.
Key Features to Look For
How do you decide which system is right for your school? The key is to carefully evaluate each option’s capabilities against your institution’s needs. Below, we outline the key features to look for when choosing a mass notification system for schools, and how those features play out in practice at schools and universities.
1. Multi-Channel Delivery
Not everyone will be reached by the same medium, so your system should use multiple channels at once. At minimum, it must support SMS/text, email, and voice calls, since one person might see a text first while another picks up a phone call.
More advanced systems go further, triggering alerts over public address speakers, digital signage, desktop pop-ups, and mobile push notifications. Using multiple channels in parallel provides redundancy to ensure your message gets through. If cellular service is down or a phone is silenced, a desktop or PA alert might still reach them.
Example: Harvard University’s Everbridge-powered Harvard Alert blasts out texts, emails, and phone calls to students and staff simultaneously.
In a crisis, every second counts. The person sending the alert could be under extreme stress, so the interface must be very quick and simple to operate. Ideally, launching an alert should be as easy as pressing a single panic button.
Look for a system with an intuitive dashboard, pre-written templates, and minimal steps to send a message. If the process is too convoluted (requiring multiple logins or too many clicks), precious time will be lost.
One university learned this the hard way. It found that issuing an alert took nearly 30 minutes because staff had to activate separate systems for texts, emails, and PA announcements. Needless to say, that delay was unacceptable. The school eventually moved to a unified platform (the same Everbridge solution now used by the University of Michigan) so that one action triggers every channel at once.
Example: The University of Michigan employs the U-M Emergency Alert system (via Everbridge) to issue real-time emergency messages to students, faculty, and staff.
Will the MNS play nicely with the technology your school already uses? The best platforms can plug into and leverage your existing infrastructure. For example, can it broadcast through your classroom intercoms and PA speakers, or trigger fire alarm strobes and door locks? Many schools have piecemeal safety tools that don’t automatically coordinate with each other. A strong notification system serves as the central hub to unify these.
Example: McGill University’s campus-wide alert system ties into multiple platforms already on campus, including a digital signage network (Omnivex), mass text/email alerts, and loudspeakers. This means one alert can simultaneously pop up on phones, computers, and PA systems across the university, rather than requiring separate actions for each.
Can you target alerts to specific groups or locations when needed? In some situations, you won’t want to blast everyone. The system should let you easily narrow the recipient list based on location or role.
For example, if a small chemical spill affects only the science building, you might alert just that building’s students and staff rather than the entire campus. Conversely, if you have multiple campuses, you may need to send a message only to one site. A good MNS supports both wide-area alerts and precise targeting.
Example: Hubspot’s SMS features offer personalized tokens, contact integration, and workflows, allowing schools to create targeted SMS campaigns and engage in live two-way personalized conversations.
You need a system that works even when things go wrong. Ensure the provider’s network has redundant infrastructure (backup servers, multiple data centers) and built-in fail-safes if one communication mode fails.
For example, if text messages aren’t going through, can it automatically switch to another channel, like email or voice calls? On your side, plan for overlapping alert methods so there’s no single point of failure.
Example: HEM’s Mautic allows you to send notifications via text, email, and mobile app all at once, while the campus also uses sirens and PA announcements as backup.
In an emergency, communication shouldn’t be just one-way. It can be very useful to get feedback or confirmation from recipients and to empower people on the ground to initiate alerts. Some mass notification systems for schools allow two-way interaction. For instance, letting recipients click “I’m Safe” in a mobile app or reply to a text to give their status. This helps account for people and gather instant feedback from the scene.
Equally important is a panic-button capability. Many schools now provide staff with a mobile app or wearable panic button that lets them trigger an emergency alert or call for help with one touch.
Example: University of Southern California’s emergency notification ecosystem is integrated with a smartphone safety application, known as the Trojan Mobile Safety App, powered by LiveSafe. This free downloadable app, managed by the USC Department of Public Safety and Emergency Planning, complements the TrojansAlert system by putting emergency assistance tools directly in users’ hands. Notably, the app includes a panic-alert feature in the form of one-touch emergency calling.
Consider the management and support aspects of the system. You’ll want to control who can send alerts (and to whom). Robust platforms allow role-based permissions. For instance, limiting campus-wide alerts to senior officials while enabling more localized alerts by authorized staff. This ensures alerts can be sent out quickly but still securely by the appropriate personnel.
Data security is critical as well: the system will hold contact info for your students and staff, so it must safeguard that data and comply with privacy laws (such as FERPA or GDPR). Additionally, evaluate the vendor’s customer support and training.
Emergencies can happen anytime, so 24/7 technical support is highly desirable. If an issue arises at 3 AM, you’ll want immediate help. A good provider will also help train your team so everyone knows how to use the system effectively before an emergency occurs.
Example: The University of Washington uses a Rave-powered UW Alert system to manage communications for its large campus community. With tens of thousands of students and employees, UW relies on the system’s strong admin controls to ensure only authorized officials can send out mass alerts, and on the vendor’s support to keep the platform running smoothly.
Prices vary. Some platforms bill per message or user, others charge flat annual fees. Don’t choose based solely on price. Focus on total value and required features, and check for educational discounts.
9. Scalability and Future-Proofing
As your school grows or tech evolves, your MNS should scale accordingly. Look for vendors with a proven track record of innovation and regular updates.
In a nutshell, what features should a good campus mass notification system include? A reliable campus notification system should have multi-channel messaging (SMS, email, phone, app alerts), easy integration with existing databases and software, real-time analytics and reporting, mobile accessibility, and role-based controls. Ideally, it should also allow for geotargeted alerts, two-way communication, and scheduled test alerts. These features help schools deliver timely, relevant updates during both emergencies and routine situations.
Why HEM’s Mautic CRM Is a Smart Choice for Mass Notification and Communication
Choosing a mass notification system is not just a technical decision: it’s a strategic one. That’s why many institutions are turning to HEM’s Mautic CRM, a powerful platform that blends emergency communication with everyday engagement, all in one intuitive system.
HEM’s Mautic isn’t just a marketing tool: it’s a communication hub designed for the complex needs of modern schools. Built specifically for educational institutions, it provides the flexibility and automation required to send the right message to the right person, at exactly the right moment, whether you’re dealing with an emergency or simply sending out a campus newsletter.
Unified Communication Across Channels
Mautic CRM allows schools to centralize their messaging efforts, supporting email, SMS, and in-app alerts from a single dashboard. In a crisis, that means no delays switching between systems, just fast, targeted communication when every second counts.
But its value extends beyond emergencies. With Mautic, you can schedule and automate routine announcements, manage event outreach, and nurture prospective students through personalized workflows, making it a powerful asset for both marketing and crisis response teams.
Segmentation and Personalization
The platform’s segmentation features let you target messages based on program, campus, enrollment stage, or any other custom criteria. This ensures your messages are always relevant, crucial when issuing alerts that may only apply to certain groups, buildings, or locations.
Need to notify only international students about a visa-related change? Or send an urgent weather alert to your downtown campus while leaving other sites unaffected? Mautic makes it easy.
Automation for Every Scenario
From workflow triggers to dynamic content, HEM’s Mautic helps schools automate communication with precision. For example:
Trigger follow-up emails after an info session
Send reminders about registration deadlines
Automate alerts for emergency drills or test scenarios
These workflows can be adapted for both emergency preparedness and ongoing communications, creating a seamless experience for students, faculty, and administrators alike.
Easy Integration and Expert Support
HEM’s CRM integrates with leading SIS and web platforms, enabling real-time syncing of contact data and activity tracking. That makes implementation smooth and ensures your alert system always has up-to-date recipient information.
And because it’s backed by HEM’s education marketing experts, you get more than just software; you get strategic onboarding, training, and long-term support tailored to your institution’s needs.
Ready to Future-Proof Your School Communication?
Whether you’re managing crisis alerts or student outreach campaigns, HEM’s Mautic CRMdelivers reliability, flexibility, and peace of mind. Join institutions that are redefining campus communication and doing it smarter.
Looking for an all-in-one student information and CRM solution tailored to the education sector?
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Frequently Asked Questions
Question:What is a mass notification system for schools? Answer: A mass notification system for schools is a platform that enables institutions to quickly inform students, faculty, and staff about emergencies or critical situations.
Question: What features should a good campus mass notification system include? Answer: A reliable campus notification system should have multi-channel messaging (SMS, email, phone, app alerts), easy integration with existing databases and software, real-time analytics and reporting, mobile accessibility, and role-based controls.
On stage, baton in hand, Rebecca Bryant Novak found her calling in the precarious. She says conducting an orchestra sometimes “feels like trying to do brain surgery on a conveyor belt. You don’t get to stop. You don’t get to pause and say, ‘Hold on, let me think.’” But that high-stakes intensity, the kind that crackles through a Brahms crescendo or explodes in a Mahler finale, is what drew her in. “I love that,” she says. “To conduct an orchestra once in your lifetime, much less dozens or hundreds of times, is just an enormous privilege.”
But behind the podium at the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music, one of the world’s premier conservatories, the peril Bryant Novak faced was not merely musical. In October 2023, she reported her doctoral program advisor and the director of orchestras, Neil Varon, for harassment. What followed, by her account and email correspondence describing the university’s own investigative findings, was a spiral of institutional dysfunction in which Eastman abandoned its own policies to retaliate against Bryant Novak for speaking out.
What began as a childhood dream — “I saved my babysitting money to buy tickets for me and my mom to go to St. Louis Symphony concerts,” she recalls — has now soured into a fight not merely for her academic degree but for her dignity, for institutional transparency, and for a measure of justice in an industry she loves.
A pianist by training, she fell for music director David Robertson’s conducting as a teenager in St. Louis, where she was captivated by his orchestra’s sound and force. “I loved the idea of being part of it,” she says. “As I look back at that person, she had no idea what she was getting into. But the draw was strong.”
Chasing the grueling dream of the podium was a particularly steep climb for a woman. “There have only been three women admitted to my program in over 20 years,” she says, referring to Varon’s conducting studio, which she estimates has accepted approximately 40 students during that time. “The resources are immense. So is the gender disparity. I mean, it’s extreme.”
Bryant Novak, a first-generation college graduate, said that upon arrival she felt “very much a fish out of water in the fancy music school scene.” Still, she was undeterred. “I said to myself, look, I won the audition. The orchestra voted, and I got an overwhelming orchestra vote. Everyone was thrilled about my being here.” She believed — naïvely, she now says — that the music would speak for itself. “Gender has nothing to do with this. My work stands on its own. So I was kind of in that mindset going in.”
Her optimism did not last.
I had jobs in this field before going back for my doctorate. I knew the scene. My actual experience is that staying silent doesn’t help you that much.
Bryant Novak claims that during one rehearsal, as she was conducting in front of about 60 students, Varon told her she was “Gibson impregnated,” a reference to her former teacher at the University of Cincinnati, Mark Gibson, with whom she had cut contact after completing her master’s degree. Bryant Novak’s history with Gibson was fraught with alleged maltreatment: she says she suffered “inappropriate behavior, including comments on [her] physical appearance” and “physical contact under the guise of instruction” that resulted in “lasting professional harm.”
Gibson and Varon were close professional contacts, and though Bryant Novak says Varon repeatedly noted Gibson’s problematic history and widely known reputation for abuse, she claims he “began referencing [her] history with Gibson as early as [her] audition.” According to Bryant Novak, Varon’s increasingly hostile and erratic behavior in class eventually forced her to end a conducting session with the orchestra, which typically lasted almost an hour, after just fifteen minutes.
In what she describes as a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” calculation, Bryant Novak chose to report Varon. “I had jobs in this field before going back for my doctorate. I knew the scene,” she says. “There have been situations where I’ve stayed silent before, as in my master’s program studying with Mark Gibson. My actual experience is that staying silent doesn’t help you that much.”
Initially, she raised the alarm privately, requesting the administration limit her contact with Varon rather than filing a formal complaint. Her request was denied. Instead, Bryant Novak says Title IX coordinator John Hain suggested she transfer. “I remember asking, ‘How is that supposed to work?’ These programs are very competitive. They’re very small. It’s not like I’m getting my bachelor’s in history. How is this the solution? It was just not at all thought through.”
“I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to call it sabotage,” she said, after her final recital was stacked with outlandishly difficult material. (Smiley Photography)
“I got this whole lecture about how there’s no law against being a jerk. I’m like, ‘I’m aware of that.’” Worse, she adds, “They disclosed the report to [Varon]. They kind of wagged their finger at him and said ‘good luck’ to me. I was stunned.”
Faced with Eastman’s inaction, Bryant Novak used the only tool she had left — her voice. She wrote about the experience in a post on her Substack, The Queen of Wands, sharing conversations with administrators, naming names, and describing Eastman’s lack of support.
That’s when the retaliation began.
A senior administrator threatened her with a defamation lawsuit — the very same John Hain in charge of handling her Title IX complaint. Students who once applauded her presence grew cold. Some faculty offered quiet support but refused to speak publicly. “It got very bizarre,” she says. “Very, very weird.”
According to email correspondence between Rebecca and university officials, the University of Rochester — Eastman’s parent institution — conducted an investigation that concluded Varon had indeed violated their harassment policy and that Eastman had grossly mishandled her complaint. Despite this, rather than offering protection to Rebecca, Eastman remained intent on shielding its own faculty.
Tell Rochester to Stop Muzzling its Students
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Tell the University of Rochester: Reinstate Rebecca Bryant Novak, restore due process, and stop muzzling students into a culture of silence.
By the following semester, “there was some nastiness” from some of her fellow students in the orchestra. Her conducting opportunities were reduced. The faculty grew tight-lipped. She would walk into a room and people would stop talking. One tenured professor whispered to her that he’d written a letter of support but begged her not to tell anyone.
Meanwhile, Bryant Novak continued writing publicly about her experience on Substack. Her posts were measured, personal, and often devastating. Her first post, titled “My First Year at Eastman,” told the story of the initial incident and the process that ensued from her point of view. Another, titled “Cease and desist,” detailed John Hain’s defamation threat against her.
Then, however implausibly, things got worse.
In December 2024, the University of Rochester launched a second investigation, this time into Eastman’s continued mishandling of Bryant Novak’s complaint and the retaliation she alleged had taken place against her. That might seem like a reason to think things were finally looking up — except two weeks after Bryant Novak disclosed the second investigation in a Substack post, Eastman expelled her for a “lack of academic progress.”
According to Bryant Novak, this came despite Eastman’s prior confirmation that her academic plan and credits were sufficient in order to graduate. Worse, Eastman’s letter to Bryant Novak ended with a list of non-academic allegations: “misuse of University email systems,” “creating a hostile environment,” and “language that has been perceived as threatening violence.” All this was presented without detail or evidence. It was also described as not the actual cause of her dismissal, but worth “remark.” For her part, she sees it as a last-ditch attempt to discredit her. “The double standards were pretty intense,” she says. The school claimed there wasn’t much it could do to restrain Varon but, she says, “When it was time to expel me — boy, their hands were not tied.”
People assume we’ve moved past this stuff. But no, speech is still powerful. People are still afraid of it. And they’ll try to shut you up.
In a June 18 letter to the university, FIRE detailed how Eastman skipped every procedural safeguard required by their own academic progress policy: no warnings, no probation, no appeal. It doesn’t take a bloodhound to sniff out the pretext: just after Bryant Novak disclosed the second investigation on Substack, Eastman’s concerns about her suddenly became so acute that it bypassed the two-semester review process its own policy required before dismissal. FIRE lambasted the university for this egregious betrayal of due process and charged that the expulsion — taking place amidst baseless legal threats and conflicts of interest — was retaliation against Bryant Novak for speech Rochester’s policies protected.
Bryant Novak says it was Eastman itself that endangered her academic progress. After she reported his behavior, she says, “They let Neil [Varon] have control over my degree recital, which is the centerpiece of my degree. I mean, it was retaliatory. He put material on it that was outlandishly difficult — so much so that two guest faculty intervened and said, ‘This is not okay.’ One of them actually said directly to me, ‘That is a giant middle finger from him to you.’ I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to call it sabotage. They did ultimately change it, although you’re supposed to have up to a year to work on this. I was left with two months. And then they were trying to get me out the door. It was very, very clear they wanted me out in any way possible. They created a situation that was unsustainable.”
“There are consequences either way. There are consequences to yourself if you stay silent. There are consequences out in the world if you speak out.” (Smiley Photography)
The situation became so upsetting that she began seeing a university therapist. In her final semester, at the therapist’s request, she started going multiple times a week. “I was just kind of personally deteriorating,” Bryant Novak recalls. “I was honestly kind of having a breakdown.” She spent roughly a month working through her difficulties with her professors and her therapist, who was willing to offer the school documentation of her situation. In turn, Bryant Novak offered to submit that documentation to the school, but says that “a week later,” the school “responded with an expulsion letter.”
In the broader Eastman community, Bryant Novak was shunned by what she describes as a “cultish culture.” Online, including on FIRE’s own social mediaposts, her classmates have left comments smearing her reputation. Some think their interpersonal issues with Bryant Novak, or whatever shortcomings they see in her as a student or conductor, justify her expulsion.
But being unpopular does not cost you your rights. It does not strip you of due process protections. It does not neuter your expressive freedom.
Bryant Novak sees her case as part of a larger trend. This isn’t the first time Eastman has allegedly blacklisted a student for standing up against misconduct. And beyond its Rochester campus, other classical music artists have suffered similar fates for stepping forward. Bryant Novak has no illusions about the conservatoryculture she sees as responsible. “The culture’s awful. It just is,” she says. “Everybody knows it. But at the same time, the music is phenomenal.”
She references a case, documented in New York Magazine, in which an alleged rape victim and an ally were pushed out of the New York Philharmonic and bullied by their peers for speaking up while the accused perpetrators remained. “That story jolted me,” she says. “And now I’m living my own version of it. People assume we’ve moved past this stuff. But no, speech is still powerful. People are still afraid of it. And they’ll try to shut you up.”
Reflecting on it all, Rebecca says that though she is grateful for FIRE’s help, she found it hard to believe she needed it for something like this. “You know, I wasn’t in a Gaza protest. It wasn’t that. It was just saying: ‘Hey, harassment is bad. Can you stop?’ The fact that speaking out against harassment is controversial in this space? That says a lot.”
Still, Bryant Novak refuses to be silenced. In April, she submitted a 200-page complaint to the New York State Division of Human Rights under penalty of perjury. Believing sunlight is the best disinfectant, she is documenting everything and wants it all out in the open. “If there’s an online Neil Varon fan club,” she quips, “I think that’s good for us to know. Surface it all.”
As for her future? “I still want to conduct,” she says. “But more than that, I want a world where women can do this without fear.”
Pausing to think about it, she says, “There are consequences either way. There are consequences to yourself if you stay silent. There are consequences out in the world if you speak out. I prefer the consequences out in the world.”
Higher education institutions are increasingly acknowledging the importance of wellbeing in shaping meaningful and sustainable learning experiences. However, the wellbeing of students and staff is often treated as a separate or secondary issue, addressed through isolated initiatives rather than embedded into the fabric of university life.
I propose adopting a lifelong approach to wellbeing in education grounded in appreciating that schools and universities are not distinct spheres. Rather, they are stages on a continuous educational journey. The way we foster wellbeing in schools must inform, and align with, our practices in higher education.
Foundations for wellbeing
The foundations laid in schools play a crucial role in shaping how learners experience their transition into university. When educational environments nurture emotional resilience, social connection, and inclusive responses to academic pressures, learners arrive in higher education with a stronger base of support. In contrast, when wellbeing is not prioritised earlier in the educational journey, the structural and emotional demands of university life can amplify existing challenges. This underscores the need for continuity and care across the educational continuum, rather than placing responsibility on individuals to adapt alone.
In many school systems, wellbeing is increasingly recognised as integral to education. A holistic, strengths-based approach helps ensure that wellbeing is supported through curriculum design, teaching practices, and whole-school approaches and policies. Programmes focused on social and emotional learning are embedded, and collaboration across sectors – education, health, and community – creates a network of support that extends beyond the classroom.
In higher education, this picture is evolving. The work on wellbeing spearheaded by Universities UK in recent years has helped universities to become more attuned to the importance of wellbeing, yet academic culture often remains shaped by competitiveness, performance metrics, and output-driven models. This dynamic also influences schools in some contexts, particularly where high stakes testing and narrow accountability frameworks dominate. However, there tends to be greater acceptance within schools that wellbeing and learning are deeply interconnected.
In the university context, structural pressures, including institutional expectations and the demands of competitive academic cultures, continue to affect both students and staff, contributing to stress, burnout, and mental health difficulties. Although there is growing attention to student wellbeing in policy and strategy, support for staff wellbeing remains less visible, despite its clear influence on teaching quality and the wider learning environment. There is a need for a joined-up, systemic approach recognising the interdependence of student and staff wellbeing.
Whole institution approaches
A whole-university approach, as promoted by Universities UK, is a strategic, institution-wide commitment to embedding wellbeing into every dimension of university life, echoing the well-established whole-school model in many primary and secondary education systems. Just as whole-school approaches integrate wellbeing into teaching, leadership, curriculum, and engagement with families and communities, a whole-university approach ensures that wellbeing is not confined to support services or stand-alone initiatives. It becomes a shared responsibility, woven into the ethos, governance, and daily practices of the institution.
Rather than relying on reactive services, this model positions wellbeing as a core value that shapes leadership, curriculum, pedagogy, and institutional relationships. It calls for cultural transformation, redefining success to focus not solely on outcomes, but on flourishing. This includes embedding wellbeing in teaching and assessment, professional development, work-life balance, and inclusive, compassionate organisational values. It requires systems that promote flexibility, equity, and psychological safety as the norm.
Universities must be understood as ecosystems. When this ecosystem is well, everyone within it is more likely to thrive. This involves designing curricula that support engagement and wellbeing, adopting inclusive policies, and nurturing cultures of trust, care, and belonging in both academic and administrative contexts.
Higher education can also learn from the progress made in schools. Many school systems have already developed comprehensive frameworks for promoting wellbeing – such as the Health Promoting Schools model – which successfully embed wellbeing into governance, pedagogy, and wider school life. Higher education has much to gain from adapting these models to its own settings, helping to ensure continuity of support as learners move between sectors.
Embedding wellbeing through national frameworks
Aligning approaches across schools and universities creates a more cohesive experience for learners and reduces the sense of disorientation that often accompanies educational transitions. It also enables valuable exchange between sectors, where shared learning can lead to better outcomes for all.
Within this context, and especially given the significance of the transition from school to university, national leadership is essential in embedding wellbeing consistently across education systems. The move into higher education is more than a change of setting; it is a profound developmental shift, often marked by increased autonomy, identity exploration, and academic complexity. While this transition can be exciting, it also brings vulnerability and emotional strain. Maintaining wellbeing support across this bridge is therefore not optional; it is essential. Yet it is precisely at this stage that inconsistencies and gaps often emerge. National policies that intentionally bridge sectors can ensure wellbeing remains a continuous thread throughout a learner’s journey.
One crucial aspect of national leadership is the development of robust policy and strategy relating to wellbeing, both within institutions and at a broader, systemic level. Country-wide initiatives create coherence, consistency, and a shared vision – particularly important when seeking to strengthen the links between schools and universities. Ireland, for instance, has implemented a national policy and strategy around mental health that spans multiple sectors, not just education. This kind of joined-up approach exemplifies how public policy can help to sustain cultural change across the education system and beyond.
The wellbeing of our educational communities is not a peripheral concern. It is central to the very purpose of education. By embedding wellbeing across every level – through policy, pedagogy, leadership, and institutional culture – we not only support individuals to succeed, but also help to build resilient, compassionate institutions where everyone can flourish.
A torrent of controversy has erupted over the Trump administration’s decision to shutter the federal Department of Education. Critics howl that it will destroy public education in America. Supporters insist it will somehow make things better.
The only thing that’s clear is that our public education system is broken. It’s time for politicians to stop using education as a political football, with blue and red teams competing for control rather than sharing the responsibility to prepare our children for their futures.
The resulting chaos and confusion and rigid policies choke the joy out of learning and of working in our schools. Insufficient attention by leaders to education culture can result in fear and distrust, turf wars and a tendency to blame and make excuses for a lack of progress.
Such behaviors produce a toxicity that disables learning and disempowers leadership. Instead of increasing our nation’s economic prosperity, we’re deepening inequality, limiting opportunity and sadly wasting the potential of many children, on whose ability to thrive our country depends.
Poor work conditions, insufficient support, inadequate pay and limited career opportunities are among some of the reasons teachers are leaving and schools are struggling to attract top talent. Reductions in funding from the Great Recession through the present render our facilities dangerous in some instances and unwelcoming in others. Would you buy a house with barbed wire fencing and unkempt grounds that make you wonder whether the aim is to keep something out or in?
What should we do to change what is going on inside our schools?
We must first of all start working together to make our public schools great places to teach and learn.
Great places to work and learn are places that are well led, fueled by purpose and guided by shared, positive behaviors that advance learning goals and serve as “rules of the road” for how employees and students are expected to behave.
In great schools, employees, students and families are respected and valued. Leaders in great schools inspire their employees — all of them — to do more than they think they can. Employees align behind the purpose of enabling learning, which creates momentum and camaraderie for what they are working to attain together.
In great schools, leaders inspire their communities to join them in cheering for and supporting kids’ future successes. Families, no matter their socioeconomic status, feel a sense of belonging.
Problems are perceived as opportunities to get better, not sources of indiscriminate blame. Solutions are found by looking in the mirror first. External threats to learning, such as poverty or parents’ underemployment, are acknowledged and addressed. Schools don’t dodge their responsibility to educate all kids.
In great schools, kids are known by caring employees; they feel seen and heard and are deeply engaged and invested in their learning.
Every employee working in a great school district feels responsible for achieving the district’s mission, no matter whether they work inside or outside of the classroom.
When kids return after being absent, employees welcome them back, tell them they were missed and focus on catching them up. They do not judge the constraints of their families’ lives or mete out punishment as though missing school is a crime.
Great places to learn must also be great places to work. We must reframe our concept of schools as not just places where kids learn. Great places to work care about the needs of all the human beings in their care, including and especially their employees.
“To win in the marketplace, you must first win in the workplace,” Douglas R. Conant, former Campbell Soup Company CEO famously said. He knew what is becoming clearer within our public school systems — that unhappy, unfulfilled employees lead to high turnover, disengagement by students and staff and disaffected families turning to alternative educational offerings.
It is no secret that attracting and retaining top talent to work in our schools is increasingly difficult as employees seek more stability. Attracting younger workers is even more difficult.
Many of those who currently work in schools, especially teachers, are stressed, burned out and dissatisfied. Being stressed and burned out is not a normative experience; it’s a symptom of a weak culture, and an organizational problem to be solved. And employee turnover is no longer limited to teachers. There are increasing vacancies among principals, bus drivers and food service and facilities staff.
The quality of the experiences of employees working in our schools must be higher. Every point along the employee experience continuum, from applying for a job to choosing to leave, is an opportunity to deepen employee engagement and commitment to being a high performer.
We can fix what we have broken. Thinking differently about making our public schools great places to work and learn is a good place to start. No policy changes are required to demonstrate concern for the human beings the system employs and seeks to educate.
Etienne R. LeGrand is a thought leader, writer and culture-shaping strategist and adviser at Vivify Performance.
This story about school culture was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.
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