Carbon County needed to be confident that the district would provide a content filter and still be CIPA compliant when students were at home or off the district network. They also needed to provide teachers with easy-to-use tools to control and guide classroom instruction.
Securly earned the trust of all stakeholders with their cloud-based content filter technology, Classroom management tools, robust MDM tailored specifically for schools, and ability to provide expansion into AI and safety services.
When Joshua Jerome, Chief Technology Officer for Carbon County School District One in Wyoming, first arrived at the district in 2013, he had his sights set high: His vision was firmly fixed on the cloud.
With a lower price point, less management required, and more security, the benefits of cloud-based solutions were obvious. In addition, cloud-based services offered more visibility for all stakeholders, including parents.
In his first year, Jerome overhauled the technology infrastructure, upgrading the network, wireless, servers, and battery backup system, establishing email accounts for every student, and moving as many applications and processes as possible to cloud-based or hosted services.
"Once we had our bandwidth, wireless networks, and VOIP
all up to speed and current, it was time to let devices go home"
Joshua Jerome,
Technology Director, Carbon County School District One
Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the district needed to ensure that students who were taking devices home would have a secure content filter and still be CIPA compliant. "We own the devices; how much liability do we have?” he asked at the time. “How do we protect ourselves? How do we protect our students and ensure they are safe?"
Securly delivered the solution and CIPA compliance Jerome sought. Carbon County, which serves 1,800 K-12 students throughout five buildings that are located at the Little Snake River Valley and in Rawlins, Wyoming, implemented Securly Filter in 2016 to provide full visibility into all online activity—on or off campus.
The district manages 2,500 Chromebooks in total, providing them to every student, teacher, and member of the support staff.
In 2018, Jerome added Securly Classroom, a cloud-based classroom management tool, to the mix. District teachers are able to monitor students and keep their attention without having to hover and scold, and if one or two kids are being problematic, it's easy to isolate those kids and put them on the right track.
While Carbon County is fortunate to have active, engaged teachers who circulate around the room and provide individualized instruction, Securly Classroom allows teachers to tune in even if they remain at the front of the classroom or are home sick.
Trust was a key factor for Jerome in his initial choice of Securly as well as his decision to add more of their products to his overall tech package.
"I wanted something easy to deploy and that teachers were familiar with and would use."
"I need products and services that allow us to have the safest and most secure scenarios, and good relationships with our partners so that they can further help with our quest to provide a quality education. And I'm big on having one partner to do everything."
"Securly products and services have helped me greatly to secure the trust of school administrators, teachers, students, and parents," he says.
Having all of Securly's services consolidated through one trusted partner has been a boon for Jerome, who has to deal with approximately 20 different vendors for his district's educational apps and another 30 when it comes to his network and infrastructure.
Not so with Securly; instead, Jerome has one point of contact and one bill. Not only does this save him time and headaches, but, as he says, "if you build a relationship so that your technology partner knows exactly what you want, your culture, and how you want it done, you're going to be way more effective.
Our Securly customer success manager has taken the time to truly understand our device management needs and student safety goals."
The open and effective collaboration and communication Jerome enjoys with Securly is in turn passed along to his clients—the students, educators, and community—so they can do what they need to do. "That's delivering and receiving a quality education that has security and confidence to back it up."
Given his positive experience with Filter and Classroom, bundling in additional Securly products made perfect sense to Jerome, both financially and for ease of use. This spring, the district purchased Securly Aware, which uses AI to conduct sophisticated, context-based scans of email, Google Docs, and Google Drive.
"This past year, especially with COVID-19 and other scenarios, we wanted even more oversight."
Adding in Securly On-Call was the logical next step—to be truly CIPA compliant, the district needed complete GSuite monitoring. On-Call is composed of a team of highly trained specialists working with AI to analyze flagged activity notifications around the clock.
Initially, the district had looked into hiring a full-time "safety person" to field such alerts. "My special services director was a huge advocate of getting a combination of AI technology and actual human beings reviewing activity," says Jerome.
“So it made perfect sense to integrate On-Call into our Securly bundle.” On-Call will be rolling out shortly in the district, as will Securly Home. But already, Jerome is finding the enhanced services greatly beneficial in the challenging environment presented by COVID-19, and is excited to see how they continue to perform.
For now, the staff at Carbon County remains focused on getting through the end of the 2019-20 school year and continuing to "improve student's growth and achievement while we operate as a healthy, safe, and effective learning community."
Carbon County School District One is located at the Little Snake River Valley and in Rawlins, Wyoming.
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Securly was founded in 2013 with a single intention to keep kids safe online. Securly develops solutions that keep kids safe & engaged online, at school, and at home. From tools that help adults create a kid-friendlier Internet, to an AI that recognizes signs of bullying and even intuits risks of self-harm, Securly breaks new ground and innovates to meet modern problems head-on. For every child that we empower to stand strong, for each kid that chooses hope over hopelessness, Securly is motivated to continue forging ahead.
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