Bellefonte Area School District Acceptable Use Policy

Revised 5/02 Approved 8/02

Section 1. Introduction

The Bellefonte Area School District has made available to students, faculty and staff access to the BASD.net network and the internet. Individuals accessing BASD.net and/or the internet are required to read and adhere to the policies and principles of the acceptable use policy (AUP) and to understand their rights and responsibilities associated with being granted this access.

The following policy on usage and access is in addition to any and all policies (either current or future) set forth by the BASD School Board and/or the BASD Technology Committee. Students who have access to the BASD.net need to understand that this policy is in addition to all information provided in the student handbook or policies developed by building-level technology groups.  When using BASD.net resources and equipment, students are expected to exhibit appropriate behavior just as they are in the classroom.

Users can be held legally responsible for all content stored on BASD.net computers and servers.

Section 2: Terms and Conditions for Use of BASD.net Network & Internet Access

A. Educational Applications

The purpose of providing access to the BASD.net network and the internet is to support education within the schools of the Bellefonte Area School District by providing access to unique, up-to-date resources and the opportunity for collaborative work. The use of a BASD account must be in support of education, academic research, or district administrative operations and must be consistent with this acceptable use policy.

Activities that are not considered legitimate educational applications include, but are not limited to: illegal activity, for-profit activities (unless school sponsored), distribution of hate mail, discriminating remarks, possession or distribution of material in violation of copyright laws, or the possession or distribution of obscene or pornographic material.

The same standards of intellectual and academic honesty and plagiarism that apply to other forms of published work also apply to electronic information.  Failure to properly document material that is copied and pasted from an online resource is plagiarism.

Students are not permitted to:

·        send or receive email or other forms of electronic communication

·        download, install, copy or use unauthorized software, hardware or copyrighted material

·        download, copy or play games

Teachers may permit the above activities, under their direct supervision, as long as the activities are in support of education, academic research, or district administrative operations and are consistent with this acceptable use policy.

B. Access

Access to the BASD.net network and the internet is a privilege, not a right.  All BASD students and employees are provided with BASD.net user accounts.  Inappropriate use may result in a cancellation of those privileges. Each user of the BASD.net network is responsible for any and all activity initiated by his or her account. Users are responsible for selecting a secure password for their account and for keeping the password secret at all times. Passwords must never be given out to someone claiming to be a BASD.net member.  Authorized BASD employees have full access privileges and do not need to know individual users’ passwords. 

C. Use of Email

Students are not permitted to send or receive email or other forms of electronic communication without the specific approval of a teacher or administrator.  Email accounts shall be provided for all BASD employees and shall be used to support education, district administrative operations and to improve communication between staff members and parents.  Electronic mail and files stored on BASD.net servers are not guaranteed to be private.  Antivirus software will be used to reduce the spread of unwanted and/or malicious files.  Each user must take steps (verify that antivirus software is installed, do not open attachments from unknown senders) to reduce the spread of viruses and malicious files throughout the BASD.net network.

D. Internet Filtering Policy

In order to remain eligible for certain federal funds, to comply with the Children’s Internet Protection Act, and to provide a safeguard to help prevent the accidental access of inappropriate material, internet access will be filtered using filtering software.  The filtering, which is provided by N₂H₂ Bess Internet Filtering Service, will be in place for all computers. The Bess service uses a combination of both electronic searches as well as review by a web analysis team (see www.n2h2.com for more information). 

Use of a filtering program does not remove the responsibility of network users to restrict their online activities to activities that comply with the guidelines and standards of the acceptable use policy. 

E. System Security and Integrity

The use and operation of BASD.net is subject to the following advisory:

BASD employees will make every effort to prevent loss of data in the event of hardware/software failure or through human error. Backup copies of data stored on BASD.net servers are made on a regular schedule. It must be recognized, however, that in rare cases it may not be possible to restore the latest version of every data file, and some data loss may occur. Because these cases are outside of BASD.net’s control, BASD employees or the Bellefonte Area School District cannot be held liable for any loss of data arising directly or indirectly from the failure of hardware, software or from human error.   It is a good practice to keep at least one back up copy of any file or document that would be missed if it were deleted.

Vandalism in an electronic form is any intent to harm or destroy data of another user or any agencies or networks that are connected to BASD.net. This includes, but is not limited to, the transfer or creation of computer viruses. It must also be understood that intentionally damaging the integrity of data is in violation of this policy. Any user that can identify a security problem (or the possibility of a security problem) has the responsibility to notify a staff member immediately.

F.  Storage of Files

File storage on BASD.net servers is provided for individuals with BASD.net user accounts.  Storing files on a server allows a user to access the files from any computer in the school district that is connected to the BASD.net network.  Users are encouraged to use the network drive as one method of backing up files (back ups should also be made on removable storage media, if available). 

As with all other areas of computer use, use of the BASD.net servers must be in support of education, academic research, or district administrative operations and must be consistent with this acceptable use policy.  Files stored on BASD.net servers are not private.  The network administrator may periodically conduct searches of network files in order to identify files that require large amounts of storage space or are in violation of this policy.  Files that violate this acceptable use policy may be deleted without warning under the direction of the network administrator.

G. Account Termination

Authorized BASD employees may disable or terminate an account at any time it is deemed necessary based on the following:

Any violation of this acceptable use policy, students who have withdrawn from the district or have graduated, faculty, staff members and guests who have left the district.

Authorized BASD employees will notify the user, in writing, within two weeks with a reason for the rejection, suspension or termination. 

Users whose accounts have been disabled or terminated have the following rights:

To be notified, in writing, of the reason for the disablement or termination.

To submit a written appeal to arrange for a meeting with authorized BASD employees. Students must have a parent or guardian present at this meeting.

H.  Guidelines for Use of Web Space

Web space on BASD.net servers is available to employees of the school district for use in the support of school related activities.  By obtaining web space on the BASD.net servers, the user accepts responsibility for any and all content contained within the assigned space.  Content is anything contained in a BASD web site and any web pages linked to a BASD.net web page.  Links to school related web pages hosted on servers other than BASD.net will be established after a request has been submitted to and approved by the district technology committee.

Content Guidelines

The following guidelines apply to both web pages hosted by BASD.net as defined above and web pages linked from BASD.net.

·         The purpose of BASD.net web pages is to support education and district administrative operations.  All content should reflect this purpose. 

·        All content must be in compliance with the BASD.net acceptable use policy and all applicable copyright laws.

·        Users are solely responsible for all files contained in their own directory, and can be held legally liable for the contents of their web site.

·        Web pages may not contain objectionable material or link to objectionable material. Objectionable material is determined on a case-by-case basis by BASD technology committee.  All content must represent Bellefonte Area Schools in a positive manner. 

·        Except in cases of public domain (events open to the public), photos of students may not be published to a web page without the approval of the building administrator.  Parents who object to having photos of their student published to a web site must notify their student’s building administrator.

·        Except in cases of public domain (events open to the public), names of students will not be published with photos without the permission of a parent or guardian.

·        School groups who have web pages linked from BASD.net, but hosted on other servers, will provide a hyperlink back to an appropriate BASD.net web page.

·        Every effort must be made to keep content up-to-date and free of spelling or grammatical errors.

·        The services of BASD.net are provided on an "as is" basis without warranties of any kind, either expressed or implied.

·        Authorized BASD employees may remove accounts or links to web pages without reason at any time.

·         Each web site should include the email address and name or initials of the person responsible for the site.

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