ITR002 – Instructional Technology Tools (ITT) and Enterprise Systems Selection Rule

Purpose

Ensuring the safety of student data is an important goal for Lincoln Public Schools. To this end, Lincoln Public Schools has instituted an Instructional Technology Tools Selection process to evaluate Instructional Technology Tools (ITT) before student data are shared.

Committee

The district has established a review committee consisting of representatives from various departments including, at minimum, Computing Services and Curriculum with current representation also from Assessment & Evaluation, Library Media Services, and Special Education. The committee evaluates tools to ensure that they meet district standards for data privacy and secure integration with Lincoln Public Schools systems as set forth in other rules concerning identity access management, account provisioning and data sharing.

ITT Guidelines

Approved ITT must adhere to strong data privacy practices. ITT that are available for use for students under 13 years of age must be COPPA compliant. Terms of Service for approved ITT must also allow for use by students and provide the ability to ensure the proper use of content that may be created within an ITT.

In order to provide a more cohesive learning environment, Lincoln Public Schools requires Single Sign On for ITT which require accounts. This ensures that students are able to use their district provided account on any ITT that they are asked to use in the classroom, removing the necessity for a student to keep track of many different accounts. This provision also ensures that student data is only stored on authorized systems.

Many ITT require information about course enrollment for students. If this information is required or deemed necessary by Lincoln Public Schools, this process must be automated using an approved information sharing method as listed in ITR004.

Waivers

If an ITT can not meet all of the guidelines, but is integral to curriculum or other necessary activities, a waiver may be granted. The waiver will specify the requirements that are being waived for the ITT and an expiration date. A waiver is granted on a temporary basis. It is expected that by the end of the waiver period that either the ITT will have changed to meet the requirements set forth by Lincoln Public Schools, or that an alternative ITT will be found for use instead.

Waivers are granted at the sole discretion of the Information Security Office. Waiver extensions must be requested and reviewed prior to their expiration.

Enterprise ITT

As an ITT is considered for district adoption Computing Services makes a determination of whether its implementation constitutes an enterprise project subject to IT governance. LPS uses modified language from the Nebraska Information Technology Commission to define an enterprise project as: an endeavor undertaken over a fixed period of time using information technology that would have a significant effect on instructional practice and/or business function, significantly increases the functional scope of an implemented solution, affects multiple curriculum areas, departments or entire schools, or requires Board approval to purchase. An enterprise system, as referenced in Board Regulation 3550.2, is similarly defined and its implementation, therefore, constitutes an enterprise project.

The technical criteria considered prior to undertaking an enterprise project comes in the form of three questions that require an affirmative response.

1. Is it technically feasible to provide the articulated functionality?
2. Does the proposed solution provide the desired functionality as part of the overall strategy associated with the CLASS plan? In other words, is the proposed solution the right technology to meet the stated requirements in the context of the existing interoperable systems/applications ecosystem?
3. Are the human, fiscal and temporal resources available to successfully implement, support, sustain and leverage the solution?

Responsibilities

Staff is responsible for checking the approval status of an ITT prior to use with students or using it to store, manipulate, process or present Lincoln Public Schools data. This information is available at http://lps.org/go/matrix. Staff must not direct students to use ITT that are not marked as approved on the matrix.

If an ITT requires additional parental consent, consent must be acquired prior to use of the ITT with students. The consent forms must be retained by the staff member for the duration of the ITT use by the students for whom consent is obtained. If an ITT is marked as approved with parameters, instructional staff are required to use the ITT consistent with the parameters to be compliant with this rule.