Instagram Lets Schools Build Private Clubs Only Verified Students Can See

A tryout announcement for a school sports team, visible in Stories only to verified students from that school—this is the clearest snapshot yet of Instagram's expanded campus partnership program.

When Meta rolled out the School Partnership Program last year, it promised to prioritize bullying and harassment reports from students at partner schools, responding within 48 hours. This update, however, focuses on "who gets to see what." Partner schools can now set up clubs and sports teams as central hubs for posting events and information. Both club admins and overall program admins for the school can post Stories and Notes within these spaces—in the official example, the school basketball team's admin used Stories to post a tryout announcement.

School administrators can also set up channels to share important announcements with the entire campus community—not just students, but parents and teachers too.

Verification is the key to unlocking these permissions. Meta has partnered with third-party service UNiDAYS to confirm student identity before allowing users to join their school's community—only verified students can view the Stories and Notes mentioned above. Once verified, students can also browse a school directory listing fellow verified classmates, and add a school badge to their profile. That badge, however, is only visible to mutual followers from the same school who are around the same age.

According to official information, these features have already rolled out as of today.