Reports, guides, handbooks Policy Handbook 2019-20 | Page 58

• Web announcements promoting a business are prohibited by district Solicitation Policy. The Superintendent/Associate Superintendents may make exceptions if benefits are judged sufficient to merit exception. Student Internet Use: Under the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), districts are re- quired to restrict minors’access to internet-based materials. The District has licensed a commercial internet filtering package that meets or exceeds the CIPA requirements for student protection. Students using district-provided Internet access must first have the permission of and must be supervised by the district's profes- sional staff. Students using district-provided Internet access are responsible for good behavior on line just as they are in a class- room or other area of the school. If students use their personal device using their own data plan (3G/4G), they will not be filtered by the district Internet filter. Inappropriate use of the Internet using a personal data plan will be subject to discipline. The same general rules for behavior and communications apply. COMMUNICATION TOOLS Staff email The district manages an email system for staff business/commu- nications purposes. All email messages are retained on the system until deleted by the staff member. Staff are expected to remove old messages in a timely fashion; system administrators may remove such messages if not attended to regularly by the individual user. Electronic messages stored on district servers are treated like any other school property. That said, system administrators will not intentionally inspect the contents of a user’s email account or disclose such contents to other than the sender or intended recipient without the consent of the sender or intended recipient, unless required to do so by law or District policies, or to investi- gate complaints regarding email which is alleged to contain material contrary to District policies. Staff members are provided with district email accounts to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of communication, both within the organization and with the broader community. Staff using email to correspond with parents and students must adhere to the following: • Staff must use a school-provided email account for all parent and student communications. Use of a staff personal email account for parent/student communication is not authorized. • Email is not an effective medium for contentious, emotional, or highly confidential issues. These issues are more effectively dealt with through a phone call or personal meeting. • Email messages to parents should be consistent with profes- sional practices used for other correspondence. This includes grammar, format, and salutation. • Email to students should be consistent with professional practices for other correspondence and may not include content of a personal nature. • All emails that reside on the District servers are not confiden- tial. Email messages may be requested by the public under the Right-to-Know Law and may, unless they are exempt under the law, be open to public inspection. 56 • Emails should be short and directional in nature and include only the facts. • Communicate only with parents at email addresses listed in the Student Information System (SIS) unless steps have been taken to verify that the communication is occurring with a parent/guardian that has educational rights for the student. • Communicate with students using only the email address listed in the SIS. That email address is the official, district-pro- vided student email account. • Carbon copy parents on emails to students. • Care should be given when using student names. Refer to students by first name, initials, or “your son/daughter,” depending on the content. Do not discuss nonrelated students. Staff are required to: • Check email at least daily • Respond to email messages in a timely fashion, usually considered to be within 2 working days. • Delete messages after reading them. If you need to keep messages for any reason, file them in personal folders rather than the Exchange server folders. • Avoid sending enclosures larger than 1 MB. For large file transfers, used shared folders on building servers. • Subscribe only to list services that are critical to your job responsibilities. • Do not forward or otherwise respond to “chainmail” type communications. • Do not respond to spam or phishing attempts by clicking on any links or providing any account information. Know that district network/communications staff will NEVER ask for account information via email. • Do not send email messages to all staff. Messages you would like to send to all staff should be sent to the Communications and Public Relations Department for inclusion in staff e-newsletter if appropriate. Student email: Secondary (grades 6 through 12) students will be provided dis- trict email accounts through our Anoka-Hennepin Apps system to promote effective communication. District-provided student email accounts are a privilege and district guidelines regarding the use of student email must be strictly followed. Student email ac- counts must be used for educational purposes only. If a student receives email with libelous, defamatory, offensive, racist, or obscene remarks, they are required to retain the mail and report it to a teacher immediately. Acceptable use of student email includes: • Email should be used to communicate with a teacher regarding assignments, class projects, and class activities. • Email should be used to include links to share homework documents created in Google Docs with the teacher or fellow students. Enclosing documents in an email is discouraged. • Email communication between students should be used to facilitate collaboration, planning, and research for school- related projects and activities. ahschools.us/policies 2019-20 School Handbook