Up until today, students who are home schooled haven’t been able to join Facebook at all. Why? As part of its verification process, Facebook requires all users under 18 to affiliate with their current high school during registration. Since home schoolers don’t have a formal school name, Facebook simply hasn’t allowed them to join.

However, today Facebook announced that it has updated its registration process for home-schoolers such that they’re now able to register for the site. Facebook’s Christina Holsberry said, “We’ve created a new verification system—one that doesn’t depend on being in a high school, but still provides the level of security we believe is required.”

Perhaps being on Facebook will help those schooled at home connect and communicate more with their peers in larger school settings. I’m sure there’s a good research paper there.