Filtering and Archiving

​Beaverton School District is bound by both law and Board Policy to filter internet access.

​​​Law - Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA)

​​​​​Federal law that imposes restrictions on any school or library receiving funding from E-rate for internet access to comply with certain provisions concerning filtering and instruction around Digital Citizenship​.  Filtering must be provided on the internet connection to the district.

​​Board Policy

​The School Board has adopted Board Policy IIBGA which acknowledges CIPA and confirms the Board's commitment to protecting access to inappropriate content.

Beaverton School District uses a set of firewalls from Palo Alto Networks that provides Internet filtering on all devices connected to the BSD network.

Palo Alto Firewalls filters websites by matching their URL against a vendor maintained category database. BSD determines which categories as a whole are blocked. 

Category filtering is not an exact science and websites can be miscategorized. For websites that are miscategorized, anyone can go to https://urlfiltering.paloaltonetworks.com and request the site to be re-evaluated by Palo Alto Networks.

If a site is correctly categorized, staff can submit a Help Desk ticket to have the site reviewed and added to a filter "allow" or "deny" list for greater flexibility. 

Lightspeed Relay is an agent-based filter installed on all student BSD Chromebooks, iPads, Macs and Windows computers, allowing the filtering of these devices while not connected to the BSD Network. 

Lightspeed Relay agent filters websites by matching their URL against a vendor maintained category database. BSD determines which categories as a whole are blocked.

Category filtering is not an exact science and websites can be miscategorized. For websites that are miscategorized, anyone can go to https://archive.lightspeedsystems.com and request the site to be re-evaluated by Lightspeed Systems.

If a site is correctly categorized, staff can submit a Help Desk ticket to have the site reviewed and added to a filter "allow" or "deny" list for greater flexibility. 

Internet Activity Parent Reports

Lightspeed Relay is also configured to send out weekly Internet Activity reports to each student's guardian that summarize how they have been using BSD devices over the previous week. To learn more check out our Internet Activity Parent Reports page.

Youtube on iPads

Due to limitations in iOS, the Lightspeed Relay agent is unable to filter Youtube on iPads. We are working with Lightspeed's development team on this issue. In the meantime, BSD highly recommends to monitor your student's use of Youtube while on a iPad. 

BSD Teachers have access to a Chromebook management tool called Lightspeed Classroom, which gives teachers the ability to ...

• See aggregate views of student browsing activity and status
• Broadcast teacher or student screens to the rest of the class
• View student screens in real time, pull browsing histories, and record device activity
• Send quick messages (e.g., “Are you done?” and “Need help?”) and receive replies from students
• Lock device screens and send content links
• Limit student web access to a website or group of websites for the class period, and release students when they change their status to “done.”

The use of Lightspeed Classroom by teachers is restricted to school hours only and will be restricted to on-campus only when students return to traditional in school instruction. 

Students have access to many of the Google Apps such as Gmail, Hangouts and Google Drive. The use of their district Google account allows them to collaboratively work on class assignments, communicate with teachers and produce high level projects and research.  All written communication is archived as part of the GSuite system.

GMail

​As agreed to in the district Digital Resources Agreement​ form, all students will be assigned a login name and email account. This is the students' official BSD email until they are no longer enrolled.  Though all communication is archived and Google does have a powerful spam filter in place, the District cannot assure that users will not be exposed to unsoliceted information.

Google chat

Google Chat is the Instant Messaging application built within the Google Suite and is turned off for turned off for all BSD student accounts.​

Google SafeSearch

Google SafeSearch is enforced on all student issued Chromebooks and iPads.

YouTube

When logged into the Chrome Browser or on a Chromebook YouTube restricted​ mode is enforced. 

Due to limitations in iOS, the Lightspeed Relay agent is unable to filter Youtube on iPads. We are working with the development team on . In the meantime, BSD highly recommends to monitor your student's use of Youtube while on a iPad. 

Social Media

​​​Elementary and Middle School students cannot access Social Media on these devices.  This includes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other systems that fall into the Social Media Category.   Social Media is open to High School students.

​​Instant Messaging

Instant Messaging as a category is blocked at the Elementary and open at the Middle and High School levels.  Individual Instant Messaging applications may be blocked due to various reasons.  

​​​​Late Night Use

The district does not restrict use of the chromebook to any specific time periods due to very different family, work and homework situations.  Some parents/guardians have chosen to have the Chromebook plugged in each night outside of the student's bedroom when concerned about late night usage.

​​Netflix or Other Paid Services Use​​

Many paid services such as Netflix are not restricted from use by the district.  Access to the service, payment and use of that systems login and password is at the discretion of the parent/guardian.

If you are interested in providing additional filtering of BSD devices while they are in your home, we recommend looking into hardware-based home Internet Filters. These devices can be connected to your home network and provide easy to use interfaces for limiting your child's internet use.  

Beaverton School District does not support any parental control products that require software to be installed on BSD equipment to function. This is due to the disruptions these products cause during on-campus instruction.