Here is a brief review of the major laws, policies and standards that impact instructional technology in the classroom.

A Comprehensive Digital Use Agreement, also referred to as Acceptable Use Guidelines (AUG). A Comprehensive Digital Use Agreement is a document that details the practices a user must agree to in order to gain access to the school's network or the Internet. Most schools, including Duxbury Public Schools, require parents and students to sign our Comprehensive Digital Use Agreement on a yearly basis at the start of the school year.

Teachers, who use technology in the classroom, need to review the Comprehensive Digital Use Agreement with students at the beginning of the year.

The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) is a federal law addressing concerns about access to offensive content over the Internet on school and library computers. It mandates the filtering of content by school districts and public libraries, the use of an Internet safety policy, and education of students about appropriate online behavior. Schools and libraries cannot receive discounts offered by the E-rate program unless they certify that they have an Internet safety policy that includes technology protection measures. For more detailed information on CIPA, visit the government's CIPA website.

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) applies to the online collection of personal information from children under 13, including full name, home address, email address, telephone number or any other information that would allow someone to identify or contact the child. COPPA governs the websites that provide student services to districts and forbids them from collecting information from children under 13 years of age. Districts that do not disclose to a web service provider that their users are under the age of 13 are in violation of the law. This is why all educational sites state that they are not for use by children under the age of 13 without parental permission. For more detailed information, click here.

Teacher and students must follow copyright laws. This website provides basic information on copyright laws. 

Here are links to International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE) instructional technology standards documents:

• For Administrators

• For Students

• For Teachers 

Here is the link to the for the MA Digital Literacy & Computer Science (MADLCS) Standards document.