North Beach K-5 Technology Acceptable Use Policy

Personal devices are discouraged at school, including wearable technology. There are instances where the teacher may allow a personal device to be used for an educational purpose and brought to school, but this will always require prior teacher approval. If the teacher hasn?t approved having a device at school, please leave it at home.

All use of electronic devices on school grounds and all use of district electronic resources must be for educational purposes . This includes use of school equipment and personal devices. Some examples of educational uses of technology include using the Internet for research, creating multimedia projects, reading eBooks, word processing, and using calculators and graphing software. Some examples of non-educational activities that are not allowed at school include playing games, using apps, taking pictures, or texting friends or family. Students using school and district online resources from home must also follow this policy. This includes use of the Source, district subscriptions to online databases, and other resources provided by teachers such as blogs and wikis.

Personal devices that may be used with prior teacher permission at school include eReaders (e.g. Kindles, Nooks), iPods or iPads, notebooks and laptops, used for educational purposes only. Any of these devices, as well as cell phones, wearable technology such as watches or games, brought to school without teacher permission or that are being used for non-educational purposes will be kept in the office for parent/guardian pick-up.

Security and Safety

The school is not responsible for lost, stolen, or damaged personal electronic devices. Students who bring personal devices to school do so at their own risk. No investigation or compensation will occur in the event of stolen or damaged student-owned devices.

Using technology in a harmful and unsafe manner is not allowed and is subject to disciplinary action. Use of technology must not violate the Seattle Public Schools’ cyberbullying policy:

It is the policy of the Seattle School Board to prohibit harassment, intimidation, and bullying by any means, including but not limited to electronic, written, oral or physical acts, either direct or indirect, when such intentional electronic, oral, written or physical acts physically harm, substantially interfere with a student?s education, threaten the overall educational environment and/or substantially disrupt the operation of school.This includes, but is not limited to, harassment, intimidation, and bullying based upon race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, economic status, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, marital status, physical appearance, or mental, physical, or sensory disability

This prohibition shall apply to all District employees, volunteers, parents/guardians, and students, including conduct between students, between adults, and between adults and students.

Wireless Usage

Members of the North Beach community are allowed to use the guest wireless network on their personal devices for educational use only. The wireless password is available in the library. Student use of the wireless network will be granted on a case-by-case basis and in collaboration with the classroom teacher.

The wireless network uses the same filtering software as the district’s computers. The school cannot guarantee that students will be closely monitored at all times they are using the wireless network, such as before and after school, lunch and passing periods. Parents and guardians who are concerned about unsupervised use should consider not providing their students with Internet enabled devices.

The school does not guarantee privacy for data transmitted on the wireless network. All data uploaded or downloaded on the network should be school appropriate. Students are advised to avoid sending any personal data or images electronically.

North Beach encourages all parents to discuss this policy with their child. Policy updated 2019-20