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SB 848 Is About Supervising Digital Communication — Not Just Writing Policies

California Senate Bill 848 fundamentally changes how schools are expected to govern staff–student communication.

While often described as a “professional boundaries” law, SB 848 explicitly extends school oversight into digital spaces — including text messages, direct messages, team apps, and social media platforms commonly used for extracurricular programs.

Under the law, these digital interactions are no longer informal or incidental. They are legally treated as environments that must be governed, limited, and supervised.

The Statutory Mandate

SB 848 adds Article 10 to the California Education Code and applies to public schools, charter schools, and private schools.

The law requires governing boards to adopt professional boundary policies and explicitly identifies digital communication as a high-risk area that must be regulated.

Education Code § 32100(b)(1)(B)

The governing board shall establish appropriate limits on contact, during or outside of the schoolday, between pupils and school employees, volunteers, and school contractors via social media internet platforms, text messaging, and other forms of communication that do not otherwise include the pupil’s parent or guardian.

Education Code § 32100(b)(2)

The governing board shall adopt written policies, plans, or specifications that address classroom and nonclassroom environments to promote safe environments for learning and engagement that are easily supervised.

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Digital Communication Is a “Nonclassroom Environment”

Under SB 848, any digital platform where staff and students interact is legally considered a nonclassroom environment.

This includes team messaging apps, direct messages, group chats, and social media platforms used for athletics and other extracurricular programs.

Because the law requires nonclassroom environments to be “easily supervised,” schools are now expected to ensure that digital communication is visible, reviewable, and governed — not private, fragmented, or dependent on after-the-fact reconstruction.

Why This Is Often Missed

Most schools already have staff conduct policies. Many also have platform-specific rules.

What SB 848 changes is the expectation that digital communication itself must be treated as a supervised environment — not simply governed by behavioral guidelines.

Tools that rely on personal accounts, one-to-one messaging, screenshots, or institutional memory were never designed to meet this standard. That gap is where compliance risk now lives.

How to Use These Resources

The resources below are designed to help schools operationalize SB 848’s requirements — not just document them.

They are intended to support policy development, administrative review, and internal discussion about how extracurricular digital communication is governed and supervised in practice.

Disclaimer

This resource center is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Schools should consult their legal counsel to interpret SB 848 and California Education Code § 32100 in the context of their specific policies, programs, and operational practices.

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