Mountain Creek is blowing snow, and should open next week.  The ski/snowboard club will have the first trip January 2nd, 2007.

Policy #: 6142.10

Policy Name: Technology

The Frankford Township Board of Education shall develop a technology plan that effectively uses electronic communication to advance and promote learning and teaching. This system of technology shall be used to provide local, statewide, national and global communications opportunities for staff and students. Educational technology shall be infused into the district curriculum to maximize student achievement of the Core Curriculum Content Standards.

I. ACCEPTABLE USE OF THE INTERNET

Purpose

To support its commitment to providing avenues of access to the universe of information available, the district’s system of electronic communication shall include access to the Internet for students and staff.

Limitation of Liability

The Internet constitutes an unregulated collection of resources that change constantly, so it is not possible to totally predict or control the resources that users may locate. The board cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information or the appropriateness of materials that a user may encounter. Furthermore, the board shall not be responsible for any damage users may suffer, including but not limited to, loss of data or interruptions of service. Nor shall the board be responsible for financial obligations arising through the unauthorized use of the system.

District Rights and Responsibilities

The computer system is the property of the district, and all computer software and hardware belong to it. Therefore, the district retains the right to monitor all access to and use of the Internet.

The board designates the chief school administrator as the coordinator of the district system. He/she shall recommend to the board of education qualified staff persons to ensure provision of individual and class accounts necessary for access to the Internet, designation of quotas for disk usage on the system, establishment of a document retention schedule, establishment of a virus protection process and coordination of other activities as required to maintain the system.

Each principal shall coordinate the district system in his/her building by approving all activities for that building; ensuring that teachers receive proper training in the use of the system; ensuring that students are adequately supervised when using the system; maintaining executed user agreements; and interpreting this acceptable use policy at the building level.

Access to the System

This acceptable use policy shall govern all use of the system. Sanctions for student misuse of the system shall be included in the disciplinary code for students, as set out in regulations for policy 5131, Conduct/discipline. Employee misuse may result in appropriate discipline in accord with the collective bargaining agreement and applicable laws and regulations.

The board shall ensure the acquisition and installation of blocking/filtering software to deny access to certain areas of the Internet.

World Wide Web

All students and employees of the board shall have access to the Web through the districts networked or stand alone computers. An agreement shall be required. To deny a child access, parents/guardians must notify the building principal in writing.

Classroom E-mail Accounts

Students in grades K-8 shall be granted e-mail access through classroom accounts only. To deny a child access to a classroom account, parents/guardians must notify the building principal in writing.

Individual E-mail Accounts for Students

Students in grades K-8 may have individual accounts at the request of teachers and with the consent of parents/guardians. An individual account for any such student shall require an agreement signed by the student and his/her parent/guardian. An agreement shall be required for an individual e-mail account and must be signed by the student and his/her parent/guardian.

Individual E-mail Accounts for District Employees

District employees shall be provided with an individual account and dial-up access to the system.

Supervision of Students

Student use of the Internet shall be supervised by qualified staff.

District Web Site

The board authorizes the chief school administrator to establish and maintain a district web site. The purpose of the web site will be to inform the district educational community of district programs, policies and practices. Individual schools and classes may also establish web sites that include information on the activities of that school or class. The building principal shall oversee these web sites.

The Chief School Administrator shall publish and disseminate guidelines on acceptable material for these web sites. The chief school administrator shall also ensure that district and school web sites do not disclose personally identifiable information about students without prior written consent from parents/guardians. Consent shall be obtained. “Personally identifiable information” refers to student names, photos, addresses, e-mail addresses, phone numbers and locations and times of class trips.

Parental Notification and Responsibility

The Chief School Administrator shall ensure that parents/guardians are notified about the district network and the rules governing its use. Parents/guardians shall sign an agreement to allow their child(ren) to have an individual account. Parents/guardians who do not wish their child(ren) to have access to the Internet must notify the principal in writing.

Acceptable Use

Student Safety Practices

Students shall not post personal contact information about themselves or others. Nor shall students engage in any kind of personal contact with individuals they meet online. Attempts at contact from such individuals shall be reported immediately to the staff person monitoring that child’s access to the Internet. Personal contact information includes but is not limited to names, home/school/work addresses, telephone numbers, or personal photographs.

Prohibited Activities

Users shall not attempt to gain unauthorized access to the district system or to any other computer system through the district system, nor shall they go beyond their authorized access. This includes attempting to log in through another individual’s account or accessing another’s files.

Users shall not deliberately attempt to disrupt the district’s computer system performance or destroy data by spreading computer viruses, worms, “Trojan Horses,” trap door program codes or any similar product that can damage computer systems, firewalls, servers or network systems.

Users shall not use the district system to engage in illegal activities.

Users shall not access material that is profane or obscene, that advocates illegal acts, or that advocates violence or hate. Inadvertent access to such material should be reported immediately to the supervising staff person.

Users shall not plagiarize material that is available on the Internet. Plagiarism is presenting another’s ideas/words as one’s own.

Users shall not infringe on copyrighted material and shall follow all dictates of copyright law and the applicable policies of this district.

Prohibited Language

Prohibited language applies to public messages, private messages, and material posted on web pages.

Users shall not send or receive messages that contain obscene, profane, lewd, vulgar, rude, inflammatory, or threatening language.

Users shall not use the system to spread messages that can reasonably be interpreted as harassing, discriminatory or defamatory.

System Security

Users are responsible for their accounts and should take all reasonable precautions to prevent unauthorized access to them. In no case should a user provide his/her password to another individual.

Users shall immediately notify the supervising staff person or data processing department if they detect a possible security problem.

Users shall not access the system solely for the purpose of searching for security problems.

Users shall not install or download software or other applications without permission of the supervising staff person.

Users shall follow all district virus protection procedures when installing or downloading approved software.

System Limits

Users shall access the system only for educational, professional or career development activities. This applies to discussion group mail lists, instant message services and participation in Internet “chat room” conversations.

Users shall check e-mail frequently and delete messages promptly.

Privacy Rights

Users shall respect the privacy of messages that they receive and refrain from reposting messages without the approval of the sender.

Users shall not publish private information about another individual.

Implementation

The Chief School Administrator shall prepare regulations to implement this policy.

II. ACCEPTABLE USE OF COMPUTER NETWORK/COMPUTER AND RESOURCES

The Board recognizes that as telecommunications and other new technologies shift the manner in which information is accessed, communicated and transferred that those changes will alter the nature of teaching and learning. Access to telecommunications will allow pupils to explore databases, libraries, Internet sites, bulletin boards and the like while exchanging information with individuals throughout the world. The Board supports access by users to information sources but reserves the right to limit in school use to materials appropriate to educational purposes. The Board directs the Superintendent to effect training of teaching staff members in skills appropriate to analyzing and evaluating such resources as to appropriateness for educational purposes.

The Board also recognizes that telecommunications will allow users access to information sources that have not been pre-screened by educators using Board approved standards. The Board therefore adopts the following standards of conduct for the use of any of the computers on or associated with the computer network and declares unethical, unacceptable or illegal behavior as just cause for taking disciplinary action, limiting or revoking computer or network access privileges and/or instituting legal action.

The Board provides access to computer network/computers for educational purposes only. The Board retains the right to restrict or terminate users access to the computer network or any computers at any time, for any reason. The Board retains the right to have district personnel monitor network activity, in any form necessary, to maintain the integrity of the network and insure its proper use.

Standards for Use of Computer Network/Computers

Any individual engaging the following actions when using the computer network/computers shall be subject to discipline or legal action:

1. Using the computer network/computers for illegal, inappropriate or obscene purposes, or in support of such activities. Illegal activities are defined as activities, which violate federal, state, local laws and regulations. Inappropriate activities are defined as those that violate the intended use of the network/computers. Obscene activities shall be defined as a violation of generally accepted social standards for use of publicly owned and operated communication vehicles.
2. Using the computer network/computers to violate copyrights, institutional or third party copyrights, license agreements or other contracts
3. Using the computer network/computers in a manner that:

1. Intentionally disrupts network traffic or crashes the network;

2. Degrades or disrupts equipment or system performance;

3. Uses the computing resources of the school district for commercial purposes, financial gain or fraud;

4. Steals or alters data or other intellectual property;

5. Gains or seeks unauthorized access to the files of others or vandalizes the data of another user on this or any other network;

6. Gains or seeks unauthorized access to resources or entities;

7. Forges electronic mail messages or uses an account owned by others;

8. Invades privacy of others;

9. Posts anonymous messages;

10. Loads or stores any software not owned/approved on the network/computer;

11. Possess any data which is a violation of this policy and/or

12. Engages in other activities that do not advance the educational purposes for which computer network/computers are provided

13. Demo provisions

Consent Requirement

No pupil shall be allowed to use the computer network and the Internet unless they shall have filed with Principal’s Office a consent form signed by the pupil and his/her parent(s) or guardian(s).

Violations

Individuals violating this policy shall be subject to the consequences as indicated in Regulation 6142.10 and other appropriate discipline which includes but are not limited to:

1. Use of the Computer Network/Computers only under direct supervision;
2. Suspension of network privileges;
3. Revocation of network privileges;
4. Suspension of computer privileges;
5. Revocation of computer privileges;
6. Suspension from school;
7. Expulsion from school; and/or
8. Legal action and prosecution by the authorities.

First Reading: May 24, 2004

Adopted: June 21, 2004

Legal References:

N.J.S.A. 2A:38A-1 et seq. Computer System

N.J.S.A. 2C:20-25 Computer Related Theft

N.J.S.A. 18A:7A-11 Annual report of local school district; contents;

annual report of commissioner; report on

improvement of basic skills

N.J.S.A. 18A:36-35 School Internet websites; disclosure of certain student information prohibited

N.J.A.C. 6A:24-1.1 et seq. Urban Education Reform in the Abbott Districts

See particularly:

N.J.A.C. 6A:24-1.4, 2.2, 4.1, 6.1

N.J.A.C. 6A:30-1.1 et seq. Evaluation of the Performance of School Districts

17 U.S.C. 101 United States Copyright Law

47 U.S.C. 254(h) Children’s Internet Protection Act

N.J. v. T.L.O. 469 U.S. 325 (1985)

O’Connor v. Ortega 480 U.S. 709 (1987)

No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Pub. L. 107-110, 20 U.S.C.A. 6301 et seq.

Manual for the Evaluation of Local School Districts (September 2002)

Possible

Cross References:

*1111 District publications

*3514 Equipment

3543 Office services

*3570 District records and reports

4118.2/4218.2 Freedom of speech (staff)

*5114 Suspension and expulsion

*5124 Reporting to parents/guardians

*5131 Conduct/discipline

*5131.5 Vandalism/violence

*5142 Pupil safety

5145.2 Freedom of speech/expression (students)

*6144 Controversial issues

*6145.3 Publications

6161 Equipment, books and materials

*Indicates policy is included in the Critical Policy Reference Manual.

Consent and Waiver Agreement

Computer Network/Computer and Internet Access

The following Agreement must be read and signed by the pupil and his/her parent(s) or legal guardian(s).

By signing this Consent and Waiver Agreement, I _____________________ (print name) and my parent(s) or legal guardian(s) state that we have discussed the rights and responsibilities contained herein and I agree to abide by the restrictions contained in this agreement.

Further, my parent(s) or legal guardian(s) and I are hereby advised that the Board and its employees do not have control over the information on the Internet, although the Board shall attempt to provide prudent and available barriers to objectionable material. Sites accessible by way of the Internet may contain material that is illegal, defamatory, inaccurate or potentially offensive to certain individuals. The intention of the Board is to make the Internet available for the purpose of furthering its educational goals and objectives. The Board does not guarantee that pupils will not find some means to access materials not linked with those goals and objectives.

Because the school district provides, through connection to the Internet, access to other computer systems around the world, pupils and their parent(s) or legal guardian(s) understand that the Board and its employees have no control over content. While most of the content available on the Internet is innocuous and much of it a valuable educational resource, some objectionable material exists. The Board will provide pupil access to Internet resources only in supervised environments and has taken steps to lock out objectionable areas to the extent possible, but potential dangers remain. Pupils and their parents/guardians are advised that some systems may contain defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, racially offensive, or otherwise illegal material. The Board and the system administrators do not condone the use of such materials and do not permit usage of such materials in the school environment. Parent(s) or legal guardian(s) having accounts on the system should be aware of the existence of such materials and monitor home usage of the school district computer network/computer. Pupils knowingly bringing such materials into the school environment will be disciplined in accordance with Board policies and regulations and such activities may result in termination of such pupils’ accounts on the computer network and their independent use of computers.

The Board believes that the benefits to staff and pupils from access to the Internet in the form of information resources and opportunities for collaboration, outweighs the disadvantages of access. Ultimately, the Board recognizes that it is the responsibility of parent(s) and legal guardian(s) to set and convey the standards the pupil should follow over and above school standards. To that end, the Board respects each family’s right to determine whether or not to permit the pupil to use computer network/computer and Internet access.

Specific conditions and services on the computer network/computers and the Internet change from time to time and the Board makes no warranties with respect to services and specifically assumes no responsibility for:

1. The content of any information or advice received by a pupil form a source outside of the school district or any costs that are incurred as a result of seeking or accepting such advice;
2. Any costs, liability or damages caused by pupil use of the computer network/computer or the Internet;
3. Any consequences of service interruptions or changes whether or not they were under the control of school district staff; and/or
4. The privacy of electronic mail.

By signing this agreement all signatures agree that the Board and its employees shall not be held liable for the use of the computer network and the Internet and that all users will abide by the following terms:

1. Use of the computer network/computers and the Internet shall be for educational purposes;
2. Use of the computer network/computers and the Internet shall not be for illegal purposes of any kind;
3. The computer network and the Internet shall not be used to transmit threatening, obscene or harassing material in any form;
4. Pupils will not disrupt the computer network/computers and the Internet services by any unauthorized personal action;
5. Pupils will not attempt to gain access or access any computer sites or files for which they do not have authorization.
6. Pupils will not copy information in any form to which individuals or organizations hold copyright with specific written permission from those individuals or organizations;
7. Pupils will not engage in game playing on computer network/computers except when authorized to do so for educational purposes;
8. Pupils will print materials for educational purposes only to authorized printers; and/or
9. Pupils will not engage in other activities that do not advance the educational purposes for which computer networks/computers are provided.

Violations

Individuals violating this policy shall be subject to the consequences as indicated in Regulation 6142.10 and other appropriate discipline which includes but are not limited to:

1. Use of Computer Network/Computers only under direct supervision;
2. Suspension of network privileges;
3. Revocation of network privileges;
4. Suspension of computer privileges;
5. Revocation of computer privileges;
6. Suspension from school;
7. Expulsion from school; and/or
8. Legal action and prosecution by the authorities.

It is understood that the Staff members may monitor pupil activity on the computer network/computers and Internet and that they may access any files stored by pupils on district computers or at a remote site accessed by district computers. It is further understood that the principal or the Superintendent may discontinue the computer network/computers and the Internet access privileges and may discipline any pupil who violates the terms of this agreement.

Pupil Name: ____________________________(Please Print)

Pupil Signature: ______________________________

Grade: _________

All parent(s) or legal guardian(s) legally responsible for the pupil must sign this agreement to grant the pupil access to the school district computer networks and the Internet.

Parent/Guardian: ____________________________________(Please Print)

Parent/Guardian Signature: _____________________________________ Date________

Parent/Guardian: ___________________________________(Please Print)

Parent/Guardian Signature: _____________________________________ Date