Introduction
The Post Oak School uses computers as one way of enhancing its mission to teach the skills, knowledge and behaviors students will need as successful and responsible members in the community, and as life long learners.

Computers provide unequaled opportunities to explore limitless resources for information and communication.

In order to make these resources available to everyone, the school expects those who use the computers will do so in a way that is consistent with the Post Oak School’s educational mission and this policy.

General Guidelines

• Respect the computers and network: keep them safe and undamaged; use limited resources responsibly; and use the computers for educationally appropriate purposes.

• Respect your peers and teachers: be careful and considerate of other people and their work; keep to your own folders, work, and files; and view, save, or send only messages and pictures of which we all might approve.

• Respect creative minds and their creations: give due regard to copyright laws and their coverage of text, program code, music, or video; use only legal software, shareware, or freeware on the school machines.

• Keep us all safe and informed: do notify an adult immediately, if, by accident, you encounter materials that violate rules of appropriate use; we all need to help each other.

• Keep yourself informed: ASK if you do not understand any of these rules, or if you are unsure about whether or not they apply to what you want to do.

• Be responsible: you will be held accountable for your actions and lose privileges if the rules are violated.

Privacy
Employees and students have no expectation of privacy with respect to their school-provided computers. As the owner of the computers, the Post Oak School retains the right, if deemed necessary, to view at any time the data stored in any given computer or on school-supplied disks, including e-mail and data displaying the history of Internet usage, such as web sites viewed by the user. 

Floppy Disks
Disks shall be used to save and store work and data generated for school related purposes.  Teachers issue disks to students and these are the only disks that shall be used in computers at school.  Middle school students may use these disks at home as well as school in order to facilitate completion of assignments.  Data coming into school must be directly related to schoolwork and shall only be transferred on school issued floppy disks.  All other information such as games, computer programs or data on outside disks is not allowed on school computers.

Copyright/License Agreements
The law forbids illegally reproducing copyrighted material.  Users must comply with all software licenses and copyrights.  Users shall not install any software on Post Oak computers or download or copy any software from these computers or the Internet.

Inappropriate Language or Images
No material containing offensive, profane, abusive or impolite language or images is to be created, viewed or accessed.  A good rule to follow is to never make, view or access material that you would not want your teachers and parents to see.  In the event any such material is encountered accidentally, it shall be reported to a teacher immediately.

Use of the Internet

All Internet access at the school is filtered by a firewall. The filtering software is a commercially produced filter product that attempts to block possibly objectionable sites. No filter is perfect. The filter is updated weekly and the filter company’s cyber committee establishes the filtering criteria.  An activity log of all instances where our filter blocks a website is generated and reviewed by the school’s System Administrator. You can go to http://www.cyberpatrol.com for further information about the filter. 

Teachers may permit their students to appropriately access the Internet in a manner consistent with this policy and teacher/adult directives.  Inappropriate use or abuse of Post Oak School computers and/or the Internet will result in denial or restriction of computer use and possible further disciplinary action in accordance with the rules of the School.

Students may NOT access internet-based email accounts for any purpose.  An email address for each classroom has been established.  Any student can direct email to/from that address for school-related purposes only.

The use of Internet chat and Internet gamers are prohibited on all school computers, without exception.

The School has a limited amount of bandwidth for the transfer of information to and from the Internet.  Unless it is specifically for a classroom project, access to streaming media not permitted.  Streaming media is music, video and radio stations.

Students shall not download or install any commercial software, shareware, or freeware onto the school’s computers unless they have written permission from the computer System Administrator.  Students shall not copy another person’s work or intrude into another person’s files without that person’s consent.  Students may not bring any software from home.  Post Oak School prohibits the use of Lime Wire, Macster, Gnutella, or other software whose primary or most likely purpose is copyright violation

Violations
A violation of any school rule and policy, including any provision of this policy, will be addressed pursuant to the Student Conduct Section of the Post Oak School Parent Handbook and may result in disciplinary action and/or loss of privileges.

Parent/Student Agreement Regarding this Policy
Parents and student are expected to read and sign the attached Parent and Student Agreement to indicate their knowledge of and consent to follow this policy.

Acceptable Use Policy Post Oak School Parent Agreement  As a parent or guardian of a student at Post Oak School, I have read the Post Oak School Computer/Internet Acceptable Use Policy informing me about the use of computers at the school.  I have discussed the rules with my child/children, and I understand that this Agreement will be kept on file at the school.  (Questions should be directed to Mirna Andrade-Salgado.)    Parent Name(s): ______________________________________________     (Please print)   Parent Signature(s): ___________________________________________     Date:    ______________________________________________________  Post Oak School Student Agreement As a student at Post Oak School, I have read the Post Oak School Computer/Internet Acceptable Use Policy informing me about the use of computers at the school.  I agree to follow and comply with it and to use the computer and Internet in a constructive manner.  I have discussed the rules with my parent(s) and teacher, have asked any questions I had and understand the rules. Student Name: ________________________________________________ (Please print) Student Signature:    ___________________________________________   Date:     ___________________ `