Students Online in Public Schools Procedures

Guidance

A Sample Letter to Parents (Appendix A) and Permission for Students to have an Online Services Account (Appendix B) are provided as templates.

The sample Online Services Acceptable Use Agreements are written for three phases of schooling: K-2 (Appendix C); 3-6 (Appendix D) and 7-12 (Appendix E) and change in complexity and detail. 

These documents can be modified to include school logos and additional school-related information where schools have their own licences for online services. 

Note as online services continue to grow, it is recommended that agreements be reviewed regularly. 

Logon reminder notice

The notice below should be displayed to all students when accessing the internet through the Department’s network.

“Appropriate Use of Online Services

When using any of the WA Department of Education’s online services you agree;

• to the rules set out in the Acceptable Use Agreement
• to give consent to the Department monitoring these services
• that any misuse of these services could result in disciplinary action.”

Guidance

Refer to the Department Account Manager (DAM) for the Student User Guide (staff only)

Note when resetting students’ passwords in DAM tick the forced change at next logon box.  Students will be directed to make the change at their next login.

Student passwords can also be managed by classroom teachers in Connect.  In this instance teachers need to remind students when logging into Connect to change their password in My Connect. 

Guidance

The Australian Government’s Office of the eSafety Commissioner provides information and resources to support safe, positive experiences for young people online

Information is also available from Access resources for online safety in Ikon (staff only)

Content filtering

The Department of Education provides a level of content filtering that blocks sites based on category.

Note blocks are applied to sites that have been identified as unsuitable for the education market.  Many schools also operate local filtering systems to block sites deemed inappropriate for their school in an endeavour to reduce the risk of student exposure to inappropriate content.

Schools wishing to have further sites blocked at a system level should contact the Customer Service Centre (CSC) on 9264 5555 or raise a request.
 

Guidance

The site manager is responsible for confirming that a risk assessment of the online third party service provider has been completed and that the third party service meets a genuine teaching and learning, administration or communication need.

Online third party services often require separate account creation and login credentials, and provide content, activities or transactions via the internet. These services often require schools to provide personal information of student and/or parents.

Site managers should:

• identify third party services which hold personal information for students;
• check the Third Party Services Catalogue on Ikon (staff only) for an appropriate online service. Review the risk assessment of the Third Party Service Provider (staff only) and manage online third party services at your school;
• implement the appropriate notification or consent option for an individual or their parent as specified in the Third Party Service Risk Report;
• implement actionable treatments from the Risk Assessment Report for the chosen online services; and
• implement an annual (or ad-hoc if required) parental notification/consent process with provisions to opt-out from using specific applications.

If a required online service  is not included in the Third Party Services Catalogue, request an online service risk assessment by Raising a Request.

An Online Third Party Service – Parent Letter (Appendix G) outlines how third party services are used in schools and the need for parent consent for some third party services.

Provide this parent letter alongside the Online Third Party Services – Parent Notification Form (Appendix H) and/or Online Third Party Services – Parent Consent and Agreement Form (Appendix I). Appendix I has the opt-out option and includes an optional verbal consent template. This information can be given to parents in hardcopy or electronic formats. Schools can provide a list of online services directly to parents or publish a list of the online services on the school website.

Risk assessment and consent are not required for Department-provided online services or services that do not collect personal information.

Information regarding translation and interpreting services to assist schools in communicating this information to parents can be found on Ikon (staff only).

Third party online services are those provided by an external organisation, consultant or independent contractor and may be free or paid. Examples of education specific Third Party Service Providers include applications such as Google Apps for Education, Seesaw, Studyladder, Skoolbag, Reading Eggs, Mathletics, and ClassDojo.  Third party services may be accessed via websites or downloaded from retailers such as Apple iTunes, Google Play and Office365. Third party social media services, which may also hold personal information, could include Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Guidance

Site Managers and staff should:

• follow procedures for fairness and due process where there is an alleged misuse or breach of acceptable use, for example  by investigating any reported misuse and, where possible, accurately retracing misuse to the offender;
• seek further clarification from Child Protection in Department of Education Sites Procedures for Principals, Child Protection in Department of Education Site Procedures for Teachers and Respond to a student disclosure of abuse in Ikon (staff only) if the matter requires support from the Department of Communities.
• tailor disciplinary action taken in relation to students to meet specific concerns related to the breach (for example counselling, parental involvement, police involvement), and assist students in gaining the self-discipline necessary to behave appropriately when using the online services; and
• promptly address inappropriate online/social media posts that are either defamatory, misrepresent the school and its intellectual property, display objectionable content or incite violence or threaten the safety of students or staff. Site Managers and staff should keep a record of the nature and the location of the offensive inappropriate content and block, unfollow or hide people and inappropriate posts that appear on your school's page or feed. Refer to the Office of the eSafety Commissioner.

When sexually explicit or child exploitation material has been located on a student’s mobile phone or electronic device or if sexually explicit or child exploitation material has been or is alleged to have been distributed to others, site managers and staff should  refer to the relevant procedure in the Child Protection in Department of Education Sites policy and procedures.

To access more information, refer to Escalate inappropriate social media content (staff only) and Report sexually explicit or child exploitation material (staff only).