State Recommendations for Public School Internet Acceptable Use Policies and Guidelines

A. It is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that each public school corporation in Indiana establish an Internet Acceptable Use Policy that is consistent with existing policies for print media, and that the local Internet Acceptable Use Policy include:

1. A brief explanation of the Internet, content that is available via the Internet, and the potential educational value of students access to the Internet.

 

2. Disclaimer limiting the school corporation's liability relative to:

 

a. Information stored on school corporation diskettes, hard drives or servers.

 

b. Information retrieved through school corporation computers, networks or on-line resources.

 

c. Personal property used to access school corporation computers, networks or on-line resources.

 

d. Unauthorized financial obligations resulting from use of school corporation resources/accounts to access the Internet.

3. Parent/guardian responsibilities.

4. A description of the privacy rights and limitations of school sponsored/managed Internet accounts.

5. Notification that, even though the school corporation may use technical means to limit student Internet access, these limits do not provide a foolproof means for enforcing the provisions of local acceptable use policies.

6. Notification that all provisions of the policy are subordinate to local, state and federal statute.

7. Notification to parents/guardians that it is possible for students to purchase goods and services via the Internet, and that these purchases could potentially result in unwantedfinancial obligations.

B. It is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that each public school corporation in Indiana develop guidelines that:

1. Include suggestions to help parents and students to take full advantage of Internet access from home or public access terminals.

2. Require students of an appropriate age to read and sign (indicating their acceptance of the provisions and agreement to comply) the school corporation's Acceptable use Policy.

3. Describe appropriate staff use of school corporation Internet resources/accounts.

4. For internal use, assign specific staff with special security, management and account responsibilities associated with the school corporation's Internet resources and accounts.

5. Include procedure for users to subscribe to Internet service, such as listservers and news groups.