The Ehrhart School

School Internet Safety Plan

1. The School is providing Internet access to its employees and students. The School’s Internet system has a limited educational purpose. The School’s Internet system has not been established as a public access service or a public forum. The School has the right to place restrictions on use to ensure that use of the system is in accord with its limited educational purpose.

2. Student use of the School’s Internet system will be governed by this document, the School’s Acceptable Use Policy, related School and school regulations, and the student disciplinary code. This document, the School’s Acceptable Use Policy, related School policies and regulations, School employment policy, and the collective bargaining agreement will govern staff use. The due process rights of all users will be respected in the event there is a suspicion of inappropriate use of the School’s Internet system. Because the law considers information and material on the school network as public documents and requires the monitoring of Internet activity, users should have limited privacy expectations regarding the contents of their personal files and records of their online activity while on the system.

3. The School’s Internet system is a limited public forum. The School may restrict access to materials or may place restrictions on student speech for valid educational reasons.

4. This document was developed in accordance with the statutory requirements of the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA).

a.   The School promotes the effective, educational use of the Internet in school through professional development and the establishment of a School web site that provides access to prescreened, appropriate, educationally relevant material.

b.   Student and staff users of the School’s Internet system are being educated regularly regarding the safe, ethical, legal, and responsible use of the Internet and of the School’s Internet system and their rights and responsibilities under this plan.

c.   Student use and activities will be structured in a manner that is appropriate to the age and skills of students.

d.   The School protects against access to materials that are considered inappropriate for users to access through the School’s Internet system in the following manner:

The School recognizes that Internet resources can be categorized as prohibited, restricted, limited access, or approved materials. The students or staff may not access prohibited materials at any time, for any purpose. Restricted material may be accessed by students in the context of specific learning activities that have been approved by a teacher or by staff for professional development purposes. Limited access material is material that is generally considered to be non-educational  entertainment. Limited access materials may be accessed in the context of specific learning activities that are directed by a teacher or during periods of time that a school may designate as “open access” time. Approved material, on the other hand, can be accessed at all times.

The School has implemented the use of a technology protection measure (filtering software), which is a specific technology that will protect against access to visual depictions that are obscene, child pornography, and materials that are harmful to minors, as defined by CIPA. At the discretion of the School or school, the filtering software may also be configured to protect against access to other material considered inappropriate for student access. The School recognizes, however, that filters are not perfect. They block sites that should not be blocked and let through sites that should be blocked. Therefore, The Ehrhart School does not rely on filters as a sole protection measure. Education on how to handle accidental access, supervision, parental support of policies and responsible use play important roles.

The determination of whether material is appropriate or inappropriate shall be based on the content of the material and the intended use of the material, not on the protection actions of the filtering software.

e.   Student use of the School’s Internet system will be supervised in a manner that is appropriate to the age of the students and circumstances of use.

f.   The School has developed procedures to monitor student use of the Internet through an analysis of Internet usage records.

f.    The student AUP includes provisions that address the following, safe and responsible use issues:

Access to inappropriate material

Privacy and communication safety standards for self and others

Illegal activities, including computer security violations, actions taken to disrupt the performance of a computer system, and the use of the Internet to engage in other criminal actions

Inappropriate language

Plagiarism and copyright infringement

Actions or use that may disrupt or jeopardize the security or effective performance of the School’s network or the Internet

Safety and security when using direct electronic communication

The School follows guidelines for protecting student personal information

Safety and security when using direct electronic communication.

The School follows guidelines for protecting student personal information when accounts are established on third party web sites in accordance with CIPA.

5. The School will protect against the unauthorized disclosure, use, or dissemination of personal or confidential information of        students in accordance with state, federal and local regulations.

6. The School will develop regulations addressing the disclosure of student information, posting student-created material, and posting pictures of student on the School’s web site.

7. Each school year, parents/guardians must sign an agreement to allow their child to access the Internet.

8. The School will implement an Internet records retention system that is in accord with Texas state public records law.

9. The School educates students to respect intellectual property and observe copyright protection related to material that is accessed through or placed on the Internet.

10. The School has developed School website guidelines to promote the effective educational use of the Internet, protect the privacy rights and other rights of students and staff, limit potential liability of the School for the inappropriate placement of material, and present an image that will reflect well on the School, schools, staff, and students and adheres to Texas state law.

11. The administrative responsibilities of the School’s administrative staff related to the School’s Internet system are as follows:

a.   The superintendent, or his/her designee, will serve as the coordinator to oversee the School Internet system. The superintendent is authorized to develop regulations and agreements for the use of the School’s Internet system that are in accord with this plan, and other School policies.

b.   The building administrator or his/her designee, will serve as the building-level coordinators for the School’s Internet system, and be responsible for interpreting this plan and related regulations at the building level.

c.   The School conducts ongoing evaluation of the issues related to this plan, related regulations, and the strategies implemented by schools under this plan.

ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY

Personal Safety

1.   Users will not post any personal information about themselves or others.  This includes full name, addresses, phone   numbers, etc.

2.   Users agree not to meet with people they have made contact with online without the participation of a parent.

Security

1.   Users agree not to disclose their personal account information to others.

2.   Users agree to notify the teacher or school principal if they encounter

security issues, or they believe someone is accessing their account or other unauthorized information.

3.   Users agree not to hack into any part of the school network or initiate any hacking activities from the school network.

4.   Users agree not to introduce or generate computer viruses on school computers.

 Illegal Activities

1.   Users will not attempt to access any unauthorized system or data via the School computer network.  This includes accessing other users or unauthorized account information or passwords. 

2.   Users agree not to log in using another user’s password.

3.   Users agree not to deliberately impair or destroy computer systems or data.

4.   Users agree not to deliberately introduce viruses into the School.

5.   Users agree not to use the School computer network for illegal activities.  This includes the sending of threats, purchasing or selling illegal items, etc.  Appropriate law enforcement agencies will be notified.

6.   Users agree not to copy or remove software from the school network.

Plagiarism

1.   Users agree not to plagiarize works accessed via the computer network.

2.   Users agree to respect all copyright laws.  Users will not reproduce or claim ownership of material developed by others.

Inappropriate Material

1.   Users agree not to use the School network to access any material that contains profane, obscene, or inappropriate content.

2.   Users agree to report any accidental accessing of profane, obscene, or inappropriate materials to teacher or faculty member.

3.   Users agree to report any access of profane, obscene, or inappropriate materials by other users to a teacher or faculty member.

Inappropriate Behavior and Activities

1.   Users agree not to use obscene, vulgar, rude, harassing, threatening or disrespectful language.

2.   Users agree not to use the School network for any unauthorized commercial activity or political lobbying.

3.   Users agree not to use the School network to discuss or transmit highly sensitive or confidential school department information.

4.   Users agree that they will not send chain letters, broadcast messages or lists to individuals, subscribe to list-services or newsgroups or participate in discussion groups or chat rooms, without expressed prior permission and supervision.

5.   Users agree not to download files that do not have an educational purpose.  Games, file sharing software, MP3 files or other non-educational materials should not be downloaded.

6.   Users agree not to change or modify computer or network settings.  This includes, but is not limited to, backgrounds, screensavers, icons, display, and printer settings.

7.   Users agree not to download, install, or use Instant Messaging ,chat software, or to use the network as a phone in any way on the school network.

8.   Users agree not to access personal e-mail accounts over the school network; this includes HTML based e-mail accounts such as Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.  Any e-mail that is required for an educational purpose must be sent with the teacher’s permission and supervision through the teacher’s e-mail account.  All e-mail traffic should be of an educational nature and no user should encourage the sending or receiving of illegal, obscene, or threatening messages.

9.   Users agree to use computers only when supervised by a member of the faculty of staff.  Unsupervised use of computers is prohibited.

10. Users agree not to send messages or post information that would likely result in the loss of a recipient’s work or system.

11. Users agree not to participate in other types of use that would cause congestion of the network or interfere with the work of others.

12. Users agree not to attempt to override or bypass any filters or blocks on the computer system without prior permission of the supervising staff member.

13.  Users agree that they will not attempt to harm, modify or destroy data of another user.

Account Responsibilities

1.   Users agree to use the School computer network for educational purposes only.

2.   Users agree to download educational files to their network directory (h:\drive) only.  Files should not be downloaded to hard drives or unauthorized areas of the network.

3.   Users agree to remove unnecessary files as soon as possible or they may be subject to periodic purging.

4.   Users agree that the School provides network accounts as a courtesy and that they can be withdrawn if violations occur.

5.   All messages and information created, sent or retrieved on the network are the property of The Ehrhart School.  Electronic mail messages and other use of electronic resources by users are also the property of the The Ehrhart School and should not be considered confidential.  Copies of all information created, sent or retrieved are stored on the computer network’s back-up files.  While the The Ehrhart School does not plan to review cache files or back-up files on a regular basis, it reserves the right to access and monitor all messages and files on the computer system as it deems necessary and appropriate in the ordinary course of its business for purposes including, but not limited to, ensuring proper use of resources and conducting routine network maintenance.   Where appropriate, communications including text and images may be disclosed to law enforcement or other third parties without prior consent of the sender or receiver;

6.   The Ehrhart School assumes no responsibility for:

a.   Any unauthorized charges of fees, including telephone charges, long distance charges, per minute surcharges and/or equipment or line costs.

b.   Any financial obligations arising out of unauthorized use of the system for the purchase of products of services.

c.   Any cost, liability or damages caused by a user’s violation of these guidelines.

d.   Any information or materials that are transferred through the network.

Users agree that they will be individually responsible for any unauthorized costs associated with their use of the School computer network.

Failure to abide by any of these rules may result in disciplinary action, including suspension of network privileges or legal prosecution.

Student ________________________________________________

Parent_________________________________________________

Date___________________________________________________