JEFFERSON CITY • Legislation repealing most of a controversial new law limiting teacher-student conversations through social networking sites such as Facebook cleared another hurdle Monday, receiving initial approval from the Missouri Senate.
The Senate needs to approve the bill one more time before it moves to the House.
The vote came after Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem last month blocked the law from taking effect because of concerns that it infringes on free-speech rights.
The original law, sponsored by Republican state Sen. Jane Cunningham of Chesterfield, included provisions prohibiting teachers from having private online conversations with students. It said teachers may not "establish, maintain, or use a nonwork-related Internet site" that allows the posting of information that's available only to the teacher and a student, which some interpreted as prohibiting teachers from using sites that allow private messages, such as Facebook.
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Opponents of the law said it could cut off even the most innocent online exchanges, such as questions about homework assignments, and worried that it could bar teachers from communicating with their own children online.
Cunningham's new bill repeals the law's most controversial provision and replaces it with a mandate that school districts develop their own social media policy by March 1, 2012. Those policies must include "the use of electronic media and other mechanisms to prevent improper communications between staff members and students."
Most school districts already have such a policy in place, Cunningham said.
During debate Monday, no one spoke in opposition to the bill.
Despite widespread support in the Legislature — and from groups that have previously opposed the online communications provisions, such as the Missouri State Teachers Association, the Missouri School Boards Association and the Missouri National Education Association — one lingering question remains: Is the bill constitutional?
When Gov. Jay Nixon included the education bill in his special session agenda, he specifically said lawmakers could repeal only the electronic communications provision, not revise it. The state constitution gives the governor the authority to determine which matters lawmakers can consider during a special session.
Cunningham said the governor can decide which subjects lawmakers can discuss but can't limit how they act on those subjects, pointing to a 1922 Missouri Supreme Court decision that she says supports her argument.