We invite your school to record interviews at our StoryBooths in New York City. The following guidelines are for teachers who want their students to participate. If you are unable to adhere to these guidelines, or are not near one of our StoryBooths, please return to StoryCorps in schools for other suggestions about incorporating StoryCorps in your curriculum.

Initial Contact:

• Teachers must contact us to obtain permission and ensure that we can accommodate the student group. We can accommodate only a limited number of school groups at our StoryBooths in New York City. If you are getting in touch with us for the first time and are interested in making arrangements for your students to participate in interviews at our New York City StoryBooths, please submit an online inquiry form. (Select Partnership/Collaboration from the drop down menu.)
• Teachers must contact StoryCorps to obtain permission each time they want to assign a new group to use our StoryBooths (e.g. each new semester).

Teacher Participation:

• Teachers must participate in an interview prior to assigning their students to participate in the project. This allows you to have a first-hand understanding of the project - you can share the experience with your students.

Documentation:

• Each teacher must send StoryCorps a one-page document briefly explaining what the class is about, the context in which the interviews will be placed, and how you are preparing your students for their StoryCorps interviews. This is to ensure that the experience is positive for the students. Please provide this information two weeks in advance of the first student interview.

Preparation:

• Students listen to interview excerpts in class and prepare question lists prior to their interviews. At the teacher’s request, StoryCorps is able to provide sampler CDs and lists of question ideas.
• In certain circumstances and with advance notice, StoryCorps is able to do a presentation or workshop at a school, or host a field trip at one of the StoryBooths. Please let us know if you are interested in a workshop, presentation, or field trip. This is not required.
• Teachers must collect release forms (signed by a parent or guardian) from all students under 18 years of age. These release forms must be submitted to StoryCorps at least one week before the first interview is scheduled to take place. StoryCorps will return release forms to any students who request this at the time of their interview.

Participants:

• Teachers must pre-identify and select students who are interested, enthusiastic, and committed to participating in an interview.
• The selected group has no more than 25 students within a semester period.
• Students interview a community member, parent, older relative, neighbor, or friend. We have found that the interview experience is most meaningful when it is between two people who know and care about each other. We ask that students assigned to StoryCorps do not interview another student in their class.

Age Restrictions:

• All students must be of high school or college age. (We do not partner with school groups younger than high school age.)

Reservations:

• All reservations will be made by StoryCorps according to availability and with consideration of the students’ needs.
• The teacher will be a point of contact for these reservations (as needed).
• If a student does not show up for his/her interview or cancels with less than 24 hours notice, we will not reschedule that student.

Cost:

• The school helps StoryCorps offset the cost of the interviews, the amount determined on a case-by-case basis.