Acceptable Use Standards

All use of the District’s electronic networks shall be consistent with the District’s goal of promoting educational excellence by facilitating resource sharing, innovation, and communication. These procedures do not attempt to state all required or prohibited behavior by users. However, some specific examples are provided. The failure of any user to follow these procedures will result in the loss of privileges, disciplinary action, and/or legal action. 

The term electronic networks includes all of the District’s technology resources, including, but not limited to:

1. The District’s local-area and wide-area networks, including wireless networks (Wi-Fi), District-provided Wi-Fi hotspots, and any District servers or other networking infrastructure;
2. Access to the Internet or other online resources via the District’s networking infrastructure or to any District-issued online account from any computer or device, regardless of location;
3. District-owned and District-issued computers, laptops, tablets, phones, or similar devices.

Acceptable Use

Access to the District’s electronic networks must be: (a) for the purpose of education or research, and be consistent with the District’s educational objectives, or (b) for legitimate business use. 

Privileges

Use of the District’s electronic networks is a privilege, not a right, and inappropriate use will result in a cancellation of those privileges. The system administrator or Building Principal will make all decisions regarding whether or not a user has violated these procedures and may deny, revoke, or suspend access at any time. His or her decision is final. 

Unacceptable Use

The user is responsible for his or her actions and activities involving the networks. Some examples of unacceptable uses are: 

1. Using the networks for any illegal activity, including violation of copyright or other intellectual property rights or contracts, or transmitting any material in violation of any State or federal law;
2. Using the electronic networks to engage in conduct prohibited by board policy;
3. Unauthorized downloading of software or other files, regardless of whether it is copyrighted or scanned for malware;
4. Unauthorized use of personal removable media devices (such as flash or thumb drives);
5. Downloading of copyrighted material for other than personal use;
6. Using the electronic networks for private financial or commercial gain;
7. Wastefully using resources, such as file space;
8. Hacking or attempting to hack or gain unauthorized access to files, accounts, resources, or entities by any means;
9. Invading the privacy of individuals, including the unauthorized disclosure, dissemination, and use of information about anyone that is of a personal nature, such as a photograph or video;
10. Using another user’s account or password;
11. Disclosing any network or account password (including your own) to any other person, unless requested by the system administrator;
12. Posting or sending material authored or created by another without his/her consent;
13. Posting or sending anonymous messages;
14. Creating or forwarding chain letters, spam, or other unsolicited messages;
15. Using the electronic networks for commercial or private advertising;
16. Accessing, sending, posting, publishing, or displaying any abusive, obscene, profane, sexual, threatening, harassing, illegal, or knowingly false material;
17. Misrepresenting the user’s identity or the identity of others; and
18. Using the electronic networks while access privileges are suspended or revoked.

Network Etiquette

The user is expected to abide by the generally accepted rules of network etiquette. These include, but are not limited to, the following: 

1. Be polite. Do not become abusive in messages to others. 
2. Use appropriate language. Do not swear, or use vulgarities or any other inappropriate language. 
3. Do not reveal personal information, including the addresses or telephone numbers, of students or colleagues. 
4. Recognize that email is not private. People who operate the system have access to all email. Messages relating to or in support of illegal activities may be reported to the authorities.
5. Do not use the networks in any way that would disrupt its use by other users.
6. Consider all communications and information accessible via the networks to be private property. 

No Warranties

The District makes no warranties of any kind, whether expressed or implied, for the service it is providing. The District will not be responsible for any damages the user suffers. This includes loss of data resulting from delays, non-deliveries, missed-deliveries, or service interruptions caused by its negligence or the user’s errors or omissions. Use of any information obtained via the Internet is at the user’s own risk. The District specifically denies any responsibility for the accuracy or quality of information obtained through its services. 

Indemnification

The user agrees to indemnify the School District for any losses, costs, or damages, including reasonable attorney fees, incurred by the District relating to, or arising out of, any violation of these procedures. 

Security

Network security is a high priority. If the user can identify a security problem on the Network, the user must notify the system administrator or Building Principal. Do not demonstrate the problem to other users. Keep your account and password confidential. Do not use another individual’s account without written permission from that individual. Attempts to log-on to the Network as a system administrator will result in cancellation of user privileges. Any user identified as a security risk may be denied access to the networks.

Vandalism

Vandalism will result in cancellation of privileges and other disciplinary action. Vandalism is defined as any malicious attempt to harm or destroy data of another user, the Internet, or any other network. This includes, but is not limited to, the uploading or creation of computer viruses. 

Telephone Charges

The District assumes no responsibility for any unauthorized charges or fees, including telephone charges, long-distance charges, per-minute surcharges, and/or equipment or line costs. 

Copyright Web Publishing Rules

Copyright law and District policy prohibit the re-publishing of text or graphics found on the web or on District websites or file servers without explicit written permission. 

1. For each re-publication (on a website or file server) of a graphic or a text file that was produced externally, there must be a notice at the bottom of the page crediting the original producer and noting how and when permission was granted. If possible, the notice should also include the web address of the original source. 
2. Students and staff engaged in producing web pages must provide library media specialists with email or hard copy permissions before the web pages are published. Printed evidence of the status of “public domain” documents must be provided. 
3. The absence of a copyright notice may not be interpreted as permission to copy the materials. Only the copyright owner may provide the permission. The manager of the website displaying the material may not be considered a source of permission. 
4. The fair use rules governing student reports in classrooms are less stringent and permit limited use of graphics and text. 
5. Student work may only be published if there is written permission from both the parent/guardian and student.

Use of Email

The District’s email system, and its constituent software, hardware, and data files, are owned and controlled by the School District. The School District provides email to aid students and staff members in fulfilling their duties and responsibilities, and as an education tool. 

1. The District reserves the right to access and disclose the contents of any account on its system, without prior notice or permission from the account’s user. Unauthorized access by any student or staff member to an email account is strictly prohibited. 
2. Each person should use the same degree of care in drafting an email message as would be put into a written memorandum or document. Nothing should be transmitted in an email message that would be inappropriate in a letter or memorandum. 
3. Electronic messages transmitted via the School District’s Internet gateway carry with them an identification of the user’s Internet domain. This domain is a registered name and identifies the author as being with the School District. Great care should be taken, therefore, in the composition of such messages and how such messages might reflect on the name and reputation of the School District. Users will be held personally responsible for the content of any and all email messages transmitted to external recipients. 
4. Any message received from an unknown sender via the Internet should either be immediately deleted or forwarded to the system administrator. Downloading any file attached to any Internet-based message is prohibited unless the user is certain of that message’s authenticity and the nature of the file so transmitted. 
5. Use of the School District’s email system constitutes consent to these regulations. 

Software Regulations and Procedures

The schools and district offices of Woodridge 68 license the use of computer software from a variety of third parties.  The software developer normally copyrights such software.  Unless expressly authorized to do so, Woodridge 68 has no right to make copies of the software except for backup or archival purposes.  The purposes of the regulation are to prevent copyright infringement and to protect the integrity of District 68’s computer environment.

Guidelines

It is the position of the District to respect all computer software copyrights and to adhere to the terms of all software licenses to which the district is a party.  The Director of Technology is the district’s software manager, and is charged with the responsibility for enforcing these guidelines.

District employees may not duplicate any licensed software or related documentation for use either on the District premises or elsewhere unless the District is authorized to do so by the agreement with the licenser. Unauthorized duplication of software may subject employees and/or the District to both civil and criminal penalties under the United States Copyright Act. Employees may not give standalone software to any other employee or any software to non-employees including students, parents, and others.  District employees may use software on local area networks or on multiple machines only in accordance with applicable license agreements.

Acquisition of Software

All software acquired by the District must be purchased using the school or district accounts.  Software acquisition procedures are restricted to ensure that the District has a complete record of all software that has been purchased and can register, support, track and upgrade such software accordingly.

Registration of Software

The schools and district must register every software package.  Software must be registered in the name of the district or school/department in which it is used.  Because of personnel turnover, software should never be registered in the name of the individual user.  IT will keep a record of all district-purchased licenses.

 These records shall include the following information:

• Title and publisher of all software including freeware and public domain
• Date and source of the software acquisition
• Location of each installation as well as the serial number of the hardware on which each copy of the software is installed
• Name of the authorized user(s) – as applicable
• Existence and location of backup copies
• The software product’s serial number.

Non-District Owned Software

Only software purchased or used through the District may be installed on District computers.  Employees and students are not permitted to install non-district owned software or non-district used software on district computers.  Generally, district-owned software cannot be installed on non-district owned computers.  However, if an employee requests to use software on a non-district owned computer, after appropriate approval, the District may purchase a separate package and record it in the software catalog.

 Some software companies provide in their license agreements that home use is permitted under certain circumstances.  Before installing any software, the license must be reviewed.

Software Audits

The IT team reserves the right to conduct an audit at any time.  Any non-licensed or unapproved software found on district/school computers will be uninstalled or the computer will be ghosted and returned to stand settings and programs.

Consequences of Inappropriate Use

All students, staff, and other users of the district computers will be subject to the penalties and reprimands as defined in Board Policy if they are found to be in violation of the Acceptable Use Standards or any law or statute under which the district operates.

Internet Safety

Internet access is limited to only those acceptable uses as detailed in these procedures. Internet safety is almost assured if users will not engage in unacceptable uses, as detailed in these procedures, and otherwise follow these procedures.

Staff members shall supervise students while students are using District Internet access to ensure that the students abide by the Terms and Conditions for Internet access contained in these procedures.

Each District computer with Internet access has a filtering device that blocks entry to visual depictions that are: (1) obscene, (2) pornographic, or (3) harmful or inappropriate for students, as defined by the Children’s Internet Protection Act and as determined by the Superintendent or designee.

The system administrator and Building Principals shall monitor student Internet Access during the school year. During the summer, student Internet Access will not be monitored. Use of the internet will be at the user's own risk.

This agreement may be amended during the year without notice.