BOARD INTENT
It is the intent of the Board to provide access to electronic information resources for district staff, teachers and students. This policy is based on the belief that access to electronic information resources creates critical educational opportunities for students and teachers. The Superintendent or designee shall develop administrative procedures to administer the electronic resources of the district.

AVAILABILITY OF ACCESS
Access to the District's electronic communications system, including the Internet, shall be made available to students and employees exclusively for instructional and administrative purposes and in accordance with administrative regulations.

Access to the District's electronic communications system is a privilege, not a right. All users shall be required to acknowledge receipt and understanding of all administrative regulations governing use of the system and shall agree in writing to comply with such regulations and guidelines. Noncompliance with applicable regulations may result in suspension or termination of privileges and other disciplinary action consistent with district policies. [See DH, FNC, FNCJ, FO and the Student Code of Conduct] Violations of law may result in criminal prosecution as well as disciplinary action by the district.

ACCEPTABLE USE
The Superintendent or designee shall develop and implement administrative regulations, guidelines and user agreements, consistent with the purposes and mission of the district and with law and policy governing copyright. [See EFE]

MONITORED USE
Electronic mail transmissions and other use of the electronic communications system by students and employees shall not be considered confidential and may be monitored at any time by designated district staff to ensure appropriate use for educational or administrative purposes.

DISCLAIMER OF LIABILITY
The district shall not be liable for users` inappropriate use of electronic communication resources or violations of copyright restrictions, users` mistakes or negligence or costs incurred by users. The district shall not be responsible for ensuring the accuracy or usability of any information found on the Internet.

With access to computers and people all over the world also comes the availability of materials that may not be considered to be of educational value in the context of the school setting. The district will strictly enforce rules that restrict access to objectionable material. The District will make every effort to filter and block inappropriate material; however, on a global network, it is impossible to control all materials. The district believes that the valuable information available on the worldwide network far outweighs the possibility that users may see or access materials that are not consistent with the educational goals of the district. Opinions, advice, services and all other information available on the Internet are for informational purposes and are not guaranteed to be correct. Users are urged to seek professional advice for specific individual situations.

As outlined in the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), the District has implemented an Internet safety policy that addresses:

• Access by minors to inappropriate matter on the Internet and the World Wide Web;
• The safety and security of minors when using electronic mail, chat rooms, and other forms of direct electronic communications;
• Unauthorized access, including "hacking," and other unlawful activities by minors on-line;
• Unauthorized disclosure, use, and dissemination of personal identification information regarding minors; and
• Measures designed to restrict minors' access to materials harmful to minors.

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION AND DATA MANAGEMENT
The Superintendent or designee will oversee the district's electronic communications system.

The district's system will be used only for administrative and educational purposes consistent with the district's mission and goals. Commercial use of the district's system is strictly prohibited.

The district will provide training to employees in proper use of the system and will provide all users with copies of acceptable use guidelines. All training in the use of the district's system will emphasize the ethical use of this resource.

Copyrighted software or data may not be placed on any system connected to the district's system without permission from the holder of the copyright. Only the owner(s) or individuals the owners specifically authorizes may upload copyrighted material to the system.

The district-level Technology Steering Committee will establish an Electronic Information Resources subcommittee. This subcommittee will be composed of administrators, teachers, students, and parents and will be chaired by the Superintendent’s designee. The roles and responsibilities of the subcommittee will include:

• Reviewing and modifying district policies and procedures on electronic information access.
• Determining which Internet services shall be available to Conroe ISD students, teachers, and staff.
• Reviewing security and safe access software for maintaining appropriate access to Internet sites and resources.
• Reviewing information about specific sites for educational value and adherence to district guidelines on appropriate behavior.
• Reviewing possible subscriptions to Usenet groups for educational value.
• Determining the use of database filters and other programs designed to review and restrict access to the Internet.
• Reviewing violations of district standards and policy related to electronic information and district networks.
• Developing policies for reviewing and monitoring all district home page resources available on the district server.

Additionally, the committee will serve as a forum for parents, staff, and students with questions about the Internet and its use to further educational goals.

SYSTEM ACCESS
Access to the district's electronic communications system will be governed as follows:

1. The District will implement and maintain appropriate technology for filtering Internet sites containing material considered inappropriate or harmful to minors.
2. Attempts to circumvent the District's filtering system are prohibited.   Students who use anonymous proxies will be subject to a suspension and/or a revocation of privileges on the District's system and will be subject to disciplinary action in accordance with the Student Code of Conduct.
3. All Internet access will be filtered for minors and adults on computers with Internet access provided by the school.
4. All passwords must be kept confidential and should not be shared.
5. Any student user identified as a security risk or having violated district and/or campus computer-use guidelines may be denied access to the district's system.

CAMPUS-LEVEL COORDINATOR RESPONSIBILITIES
As the campus-level coordinator for the electronic communications system, the principal or designee will:

1. Be responsible for disseminating and enforcing applicable district policies and acceptable use guidelines for the district's system at the campus level.
2. Ensuring that all users of the district's system complete and sign an agreement in the Student Handbook to abide by district policies and administrative regulations regarding such use.
3. Ensure that employees supervising students who use the district's system provide training emphasizing the appropriate use of this resource.
4. Be authorized to monitor or examine all system activities, including electronic mail transmissions, as deemed appropriate to ensure proper use of the system.

INDIVIDUAL USER RESPONSIBILITIES
The individual in whose name a system account is issued will be responsible at all times for its proper use. The following standards will apply to all users of the District's electronic information/communications systems:

ON LINE CONDUCT

1.      The individual in whose name a system account is issued will be responsible at all times for its proper use.

2.      The system may not be used for illegal purposes, in support of illegal activities, or for any other activity prohibited by district policy.

3.      System users may not use another person's system account without written permission from the campus administrator or System Administrator, as appropriate.

4.      Students may not distribute personal information about themselves or others by means of the electronic communications system.

5.      System users must purge electronic mail in accordance with established retention guidelines.

6.      System users may redistribute copyrighted programs or data only with the written permission of the copyright holder or designees. Such permission must be specified in the document or must be obtained directly from the copyright holder or designee in accordance with applicable copyright laws, district policy and administrative regulations.

7.      System users should avoid actions that are likely to increase the risk of introducing viruses to the system, such as opening email messages from unknown senders and loading data from unprotected computers.

8.      System users may not send or post messages that are abusive, obscene, pornographic, sexually oriented, threatening, harassing, damaging to another's reputation, or illegal.

9.      Attempts to circumvent the District's content filtering system are prohibited.   Students who disable, attempt to disable a filtering device, or use anonymous proxies will be subject to a suspension and/or a revocation of privileges on the District's system and will be subject to disciplinary action in accordance with the Student Code of Conduct.

VANDALISM PROHIBITED
Any malicious attempt to harm or destroy district equipment or materials, data of another user of the district's system or any of the agencies or other networks that are connected to the internet is prohibited. Deliberate attempts to degrade or disrupt system performance may be viewed as violations of district policy and administrative regulations and, possible, as criminal activity under applicable state and federal laws. This includes, but is not limited to, the uploading or creating of computer viruses.

Vandalism as defined above will result in the cancellation of system use privileges and will require restitution for costs associated with system restoration, hardware or software costs.

FORGERY PROHIBITED
Forgery or attempted forgery of electronic mail messages is prohibited. Attempts to read, delete, copy or modify the electronic mail of other system users or deliberate interference with the ability of other system users to send/receive electronic mail, or the use of another person’s user ID and/or password is prohibited.

INFORMATION CONTENT/THIRD PARTY SUPPLIED INFORMATION
System users and parents of students with access to the district's system should be aware that use of the system may provide access to other electronic communications systems in the global electronic network that may contain inaccurate and/or objectionable material.

A student knowingly bringing prohibited materials into the school's electronic environment will be subject to a suspension and/or a revocation of privileges on the district's system and will be subject to disciplinary action in accordance with the Student Code of Conduct.

An employee knowingly bringing prohibited materials into the school's electronic environment will be subject to disciplinary action in accordance with district policies and/or procedures.

DISTRICT WEB SITE
The District will maintain a District Web site for the purpose of informing employees, students, parents, and members of the community of District programs, policies, and practices. 

No personally identifiable information regarding a student will be published on a Web site controlled by the District without written permission from the student’s parent.

District employees, trustees, and members of the public will not be permitted to publish personal Web pages using District resources.

NETWORK ETIQUETTE
System users are expected to observe the following network etiquette:

1.      Be polite; messages typed in capital letters are the computer equivalent of shouting and are considered rude.

2.      Use appropriate language; swearing, vulgarity, ethnic or racial slurs and any other inflammatory language are prohibited.

3.      Pretending to be someone else when sending/receiving messages is considered inappropriate.

4.      Transmitting obscene messages or pictures is prohibited.

5.      Revealing personal addresses or phone numbers of the user or others is prohibited.

6.      Using the network in such a way that would disrupt the use of the network by other users is prohibited.

TERMINATION/REVOCATION OF SYSTEM USER ACCOUNT
The district may suspend or revoke a system user's access to the district's system upon violation of district policy and/or administrative regulations regarding acceptable use.

Termination of an employee's account or of a student's access will be effective on the date the principal or System Administrator receives notice of student withdrawal or of revocation of system privileges or on a future date if so specified in the notice.

DISCLAIMER
The district's system is provided on an "as is, as available" basis. The district does not make any warranties, whether expressed or implied, including, without limitation, those of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose with respect to any services provided by the system and any information nor software contained therein. The district does not warrant that the functions or services performed by, or that the information or software contained on, the system will meet the system user's requirements, or that the system will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that defects will be corrected.

Opinions, advice, services and all other information expressed by system users, information providers, service providers, or other third party individuals in the system are those of the providers and not the district.

The district will cooperate fully with local, state or federal officials in any investigation concerning or relating to misuse of the district's electronic communications system.

COPYRIGHT COMPLIANCE
The use of District technology in violation of any law, including copyright law, is prohibited.   Copyrighted or licensed software or data may not be placed on any system connected to the District’s system without permission from the holder of the copyright or license.

No person will be allowed to use the District’s technology to post, publicize, or duplicate information in violation of copyright law. 

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