New London — A special education teacher at the Interdistrict School for Arts and Communication was arrested today by Wallingford police on sexual assault charges, following an investigation.

Jeffrey M. Francis, 23, of Durham, was charged with two counts of second-degree sexual assault and two counts of risk of injury to a minor. He appeared today in Superior Court in Meriden and was released after posting a $100,000 bond.

The incident did not involve any students from the ISAAC School, according to Lloyd Johnson, executive director of the Gov. Winthrop Boulevard school.

Johnson said Wallingford police notified him this morning of the arrest. Francis, who was in his first year of teaching, was immediately placed on administrative leave, Johnson said. An e-mail is being sent to parents of ISAAC students informing them of the incident, he said.

Wallingford police said Francis met a juvenile girl in a social networking chat room in April 2010, and later opened a Facebook account under a fake name so that he could communicate with the juvenile. By January, police said, Francis and the juvenile began to meet in person.

Following the arrest early this morning, police served a search warrant for Francis’ personal computers, cellular phones and other items.

Wallingford Lt. Marc Mikulski said the parents of the juvenile complained to police in May 2010 that they believed their minor child was involved in an adult relationship.

“We urge parents to take proactive steps to monitor Internet activity,’’ Mikulski said. “In this day and age, parents should be monitoring what accounts their children are active in and who they are emailing and chatting with."