Randolph Public Schools Internet Acceptable Use Policy

Internet access is available to students and teachers in the Randolph Public Schools. Our goal in providing this service is to promote educational excellence in the Randolph School System by facilitating resource sharing, innovation, and communication. These guidelines are provided here so that you are aware of the responsibilities you are about to acquire.

Terms and conditions:

1. Acceptable Use - Access to the district's internet must be for the purpose of education or research and must be consistent with the educational objectives of the district.

2. Privileges - The use of the district's internet is a privilege and inappropriate use will result in a cancellation of that privilege. The Technology Director, in conjunction with the appropriate building administrator, will make all decisions regarding whether or not a user has violated this policy and may deny, revoke, or suspend access at any time.

3. Unacceptable Use -  You are responsible for your actions and activities involving the network. Some examples of unacceptable uses are:

a. - Using the network for any illegal activity, including violation of copyright or other contracts or transmitting any material in violation of any U.S. or state regulation;
b. - Downloading copyrighted materials for other than personal use;
c. - Using the network for private financial or commercial gain;
d. - Wastefully using resources, such as file space;
e. - Gaining unauthorized access to resources or entities;
f. - Invading the privacy of individuals;
g. - Using another user's account or password;
h. - Posting material authored or created by another without his/her consent;
i. - Posting anonymous messages;
j. - Using the network for commercial or private advertising;
k. - Accessing, submitting, posting, publishing, or displaying any defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, ethnically offensive, harassing or illegal material;
l. - Using the network while access privileges are suspended or revoked.
m. - Plagiarism of any type

4. Network Etiquette - You  are  expected to abide by the generally accepted rules of network etiquette. These include but are not limited to the following:

a. Be polite. Do not become abusive in your messages to others.
b. Use  appropriate  language.  Do  not  swear  or  use  vulgarities  or  any  other inappropriate language.
c. Recognize that electronic mail (e-mail) is not private. People who operate the system have access to all mail. Messages relating to or in support of illegal activities may be reported to the authorities.
d. Do not use the network in any way that would disrupt its use by other users.
e. Consider all communications and information accessible via the network to be private property.
f.  Include your name and school at the bottom of e-mail but never give your home address or phone number.

5. Security - Network security is a high priority. Keep your account and password confidential.

Do not use another individual's account. Attempts to logon to someone else's account or as a system administrator will result in cancellation of user privileges. Any user identified as a security risk may be denied access to the network.

6. 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.

7. Telephone and Credit Card Charges - Randolph Public Schools assumes no responsibility for any unauthorized charges for fees, including credit card charges, telephone charges, long- distance charges, per-minute surcharges, and/or equipment or line costs.

8. Viruses - Users are responsible for checking their own disks and downloaded materials for possible viruses. Randolph Public Schools assumes no responsibility for any damages caused by viruses which may or may not have been acquired on school computers.

9. Inspection - The  equipment and access to the Internet remains the property and responsibility of the Randolph Public Schools which offers it to students for their convenience and educational use. The district reserves the right to limit use or inspect the contents of the files. All users are advised that they have no expectation of privacy in the information contained in school owned or leased machines.

10. Filters - In accordance with the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), Randolph Public Schools uses Internet filtering to restrict access to inappropriate websites which contain visual depictions that are obscene, pornographic, and harmful to minors. Users are cautioned that due to the continuous proliferation of web sites, there can be no guarantee that inappropriate sites will never be accessed.

The full text of the CIPA is available at:
https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/childrens-internet-protection-act

A stronger filtering component to also include, but not limited to: violence, profanity, drugs, cults, militancy/extremism, and gambling will be in place for the elementary and middle schools.

Disabling of filters may be allowed for research assignments and other lawful purposes. Appropriate school personnel, including teachers, curriculum directors, and principals will review requests when received by students and teachers.

11. Personal Devices - Only Randolph Public School managed and owned devices are authorized to connect to the internal network and/or the district wireless network (SchoolName-Network). Personal devices may connect to the wireless network provided for guests (RPS-SchoolName). Users are responsible for all maintenance of personal devices and should ensure that the device is password protected and has an updated antivirus product.  The RPS IT Department is not responsible for any service on personal devices. All policies in this document apply to all personal devices that utilize the RPS network.

12. Information Rights Management - All data transferred through the district and guest networks is subject to audits and eDiscovery. Always be mindful of all district, state and federal guidelines, policies and statutes.

The following storage areas for data are part of the RPS scheduled backup system:

a. - Randolph file shares (mapped h: drive, i: drive and s: drives)  
b. - Office365 OneDrive
c. - Microsoft Teams

The use of USB storage devices (USB thumb drives, USB external hard drives) is not supported.

The Randolph Public Schools reserves the right to update and change this policy at any time without notice.