As a public school district, D117 is legally required by the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) to filter and monitor student internet access on all district computers whenever students use them. Even though students are allowed to take their Chromebooks home with them every day, they are still D117 property, and D117 is obligated to filter and monitor students’ online activity while using district technology. This includes D117 Chromebooks and D117 student Google accounts. D117 uses two major tools to meet this requirement: GoGuardian and Gaggle.

It may be helpful to know that over 10,000 other schools use GoGuardian to protect 5.5 million students across the world, and the Global Educator Institute has endorsed the GoGuardian Teacher product.

We have chosen GoGuardian and GoGuardian Teacher services to:

• Help protect students against harmful and inappropriate online material

• Help students stay “scholarly” and more focused when learning online

• Help assess students’ progress towards class assignments

• Facilitate communication between teachers and students during class time

• Track and recover or disable lost or stolen Chromebooks

GoGuardian’s web-based services operate on D117’s managed Chromebooks and Google Workspace for Education accounts (i.e. when a student is logged into their D117 Chromebook with his/her school email address).

GoGuardian helps protect your child 24 hours a day, 365 days a year when they are on their D117 Chromebook. GoGuardian filters access to websites that pertain to things like (including but not limited to):

• Controlled substances (alcohol, drugs, tobacco)

• Audio/video downloads

• Gambling/betting/fantasy sports

• Malicious sites (add-ons, adware, dialers, file hosting, fraud, hacking, infected sites, phishing, piracy, proxies, spam, spyware)

• Pornography, nudity, sexuality

• Self-harm

• Translators

In addition, GoGuardian will alert D117 Student Services if students access online content that is explicit or pertains to self-harm while they are on their D117 Chromebook.

D117 enables teachers to use GoGuardian Teacher with students in their classes from 6:00 AM to 4:30 PM Monday through Friday. GoGuardian Teacher enables D117 teachers to monitor and filter students’ web browsing during class, to help them focus and stay on task.

D117 selected GoGuardian to help our students stay safer and more scholarly online. We will work with students during class time to help teach them digital responsibility and safety. Additionally, we will train teachers about how to operate GoGuardian and about our policies and procedures to help protect student privacy.

We ask that students use their school-managed Google accounts and school-managed devices for educational purposes within the boundaries of D117’s Authorization for Electronic Use, District Issued Electronic Devices, D117 Student Technology Commitment, and Digital Citizenship Agreement policies.

When a student is off campus, parents are responsible for supervising internet access and usage. We encourage you to discuss rules for appropriate internet usage with your child, and to reinforce lessons of digital citizenship and safety with him or her. We also highly encourage you to report any potential cyberbullying or other sensitive issues to us. In addition, D117 offers access to  GoGuardian Parent, a mobile app to help keep parents/guardians aware of their children’s activity on D117-issued Chromebooks and provide them with additional controls when students are off campus.

To help your child remain scholarly and safe online, GoGuardian collects certain personally identifiable information about your child. GoGuardian has consulted with privacy experts, participates in privacy organizations, is a proud signatory of the Student Privacy Pledge, and has been awarded certifications by iKeepSafe for complying with the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). For more detailed information about GoGuardian, you may visit GoGuardian’s website, Trust & Privacy Center, and GoGuardian’s Product Privacy Policy.

D117 uses the Gaggle safety management solution for Google Workspace for Education to proactively protect students and ensure that they are safely and correctly using school-provided digital tools.

The Gaggle safety management solution uses a combination of artificial intelligence and trained safety experts to provide real-time analysis and review of students’ use of online tools within Google Workspace. It constantly scans accounts for harmful content and alerts school officials when students show signs of self-harm, depression, thoughts of suicide, substance abuse, cyberbullying, credible threats of violence against others, or other harmful situations. With this solution, D117 can proactively identify students who are struggling, provide support where needed, and create a safer school environment.