Renton School District is committed to the safety of our students. To help protect students while online, the district Chromebooks are filtered and monitored, both at school and off campus.
Monitoring: The district uses GoGuardian for monitoring on student devices. This program provides information regarding student activity online that may indicate unsafe behaviors.
In addition, families have access to the GoGuardian Parent mobile app, which gives parents/guardians information about their children’s online activity and allows them to set additional controls during out-of-school hours. Learn more about GoGuardian Parent in the panel below.
The district begins educating students about digital citizenship as early as Kindergarten and provides resources to help families support their students in safe online practice. Access these resources by visiting our Digital Citizenship and Responsible Use webpage.
IN PROGRESS DUE TO NEW SKYWARD CONNECTION:
We have provided families access to GoGuardian Parent, a mobile app to help keep parents/guardians aware of their children's activity on school-issued devices and provide additional controls during out-of-school hours. Check out this GoGuardian Parent App Demo.
What is GoGuardian Parent?
GoGuardian Parent was created to help provide additional educational support to administrators and teachers by allowing families to see what sites and documents their children are accessing and providing families with additional internet controls at home. The app gives parents a bird's eye view of the apps and websites that their kids are on most often and provides control over school-issued devices during out-of-school hours. The set school hours for student Chromebooks are from 7 am to 3 pm.
With this perspective, families can be made aware of what types of online behavior schools are seeing from students so they can all work together to encourage more effective online habits at home and at school.
What is included in this app?
Top 5 summary of student browsing (apps, extensions, documents, and websites visited)
Teacher interventions
30-day view of websites, videos, documents, apps, and extensions
Ability to block websites on school-issued devices during out-of-school hours
Ability to pause internet access on school-issued devices during out-of-school hours, either on-demand or at a scheduled time
To access the app, please follow the below instructions:
Download the app
iPhone: Visit App Store, search for "GoGuardian Parent" and tap the download button.
Android: Visit Google Play Store, search for"GoGuardian Parent", and tap the download button.
After the app is successfully downloaded and installed, open it up and enter the email address registered in Skyward.
Note: If you need to update your email address in Skyward, you can do so using the Annual Update Form.
Login/Check Email: Check your email on your phone for a link to log in to the app. Tap the "Verify your email", and it will take you straight to the app.
Note: If you don't have access to your email through the device you used to log in, tap on "Login with verification code", and copy and paste the verification code from the email into the app.
If you have any technical issues, you can create a help ticket by selecting the District Technology Support button below.
In Fall 2024, the district will enable GoGuardian Teacher for classroom use in Grades 2-12.
What is GoGuardian Teacher?
GoGuardian Teacher is a classroom monitoring software that gives teachers real-time insight on student device activity during class time.
Why is GoGuardian Teacher only Enabled for Grades 2-12?
GoGuardian Teacher software is compatible with Chromebooks. Only students in Grades 2-12 use Chromebooks in the classroom for learning.
Why Use GoGuardian Teacher?
GoGuardian Teacher has many features that help to create a more efficient and safe online learning environment for students. Using this software, teachers can:
easily launch a specific app, website, or textbook page on all student devices simultaneously
create a collaborative learning environment through digital messaging and screen sharing
identify and address individual need for support
remove access to distracting websites during instruction time
gently and discreetly guide students back to classroom activities if they become off-task
enable a secure online environment that adapts to the needs of each classroom
Concerns and Considerations
Concerns
Considerations
The use of GoGuardian Teacher will take away my privacy.
The purpose of GoGuardian Teacher is to help students stay on track and get the most out of instructional time. The use of this tool is restricted to school hours and the environments created for students are classroom specific. Students should follow responsible use guidelines when using their device, regardless of whether or not teachers are able to see their activity.
I won't know when my teacher is looking at my computer!
Teachers are advised to talk to their students about their expectations for student device use during class time and to be transparent about the use of monitoring software.
Interested in Learning More?
Check out the resources below to understand more about GoGuardian Teacher!
In our schools, we promote digital citizenship, which is good digital practices. Students are coached during their school career regarding practices and behavior that constitutes responsible usage of technology and digital resources.
All students in grades 4 - 12 are issued a school laptop that can go home. In order to protect students while online, the district Chromebooks are filtered and monitored, both at school and off campus using a program called GoGuardian. GoGuardian, provides information regarding student activity online that may indicate unsafe behaviors. Families may receive alerts from our monitoring software if their student has searched for materials which may indicate a self-harm concern. These alerts are meant to provide a family the resources to begin a conversation to address any potential health concerns.
In addition, we have provided families access to GoGuardian Parent, a mobile app to help keep parents/guardians aware of their children's activity on school-issued devices and provide additional controls during out-of-school hours. Learn more about the GoGuardian Parent app in the next tab.
Social Media helps to connect us in powerful ways. Some common platforms are Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, and Whats App. Consider being part of your student’s communities. Some families retain access to their accounts as a condition of their access. Students need our support as they navigate the digital world so it's important to check in with your student regarding their online life.
All students in the district are provided a school email address. Elementary students can only email internally and cannot reach outside the walls of the district while secondary students can. The school district has the ability to investigate claims of inappropriate usage for the district email address.
If you provide your student a personal email address, once your student changes it’s password, you may no longer have access to it to review it. Some students may open their own email accounts that you won’t know about, nor have access to. This is another reason to keep computer usage in the open.
Email addresses should be monitored by you whenever possible to look for inappropriate usage. Email addresses can be used communicate with any other person your student wishes. While digital citizenship coaching will help students understand their usage, it is important to remain engaged with your student as they lack the skills to determine who and what is real.
Some parents supply their student with technology items, like cell phones. Different schools and teachers have different policies on how these devices can be used in a classroom. These devices provide full internet access, often totally controlled by the student, not the school's internet filter. Please consider setting standards with your student for how much time and what kind of access they will receive. Most cellular providers have an add-on service to allow parents to filter the internet content their student can receive. The service may also allow you to have control over the device.
The Renton School District follows a set of guidelines contained in Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) legislation and uses internal controls to protect student records from unauthorized access.
The school district stores most student records in the Skyward Student information System. Certain authorized school district staff are provided access to these records to update and maintain them. Access is also provided to families and in some cases to students. Please be sure you and your student select good passwords to protect this valuable information.
