As part of classroom work in Oak Harbor Public Schools and keeping the district’s levy promises around technology, we are actively using educational technology tools to help better engage students and provide greater learning opportunities. The district partnered with Google to provide access to Google for Education (GAFE).  G Suite for Education is used by thousands of K-12 schools and universities worldwide and makes collaboration tools available for students to virtually work on documents, presentations, and projects via the web.

Google Apps for Education supports our mission and beliefs for a world-class education by integrating educational tools that:

• support high levels of creativity and innovation,
• enable teachers or students to create sustainable learning experiences that stretch across content areas, and
• provide students with tools that are similar to those that are utilized in the workforce.

The following tools are an example of what is available for students under the G Suite for Education platform:

• Google Docs/Drive – Create and share a variety of online documents, from word processing and spreadsheets to forms and presentations — all with mobile access.
• Google Classroom – Classroom makes it easy for learners and instructors to connect with streamlined assignments, collaboration, and communication tools to make learning more productive and meaningful.
• Google Sites –  A platform for creating a website, blog, or student portfolio that can be privately shared or publicly published with multiple authors.

Privacy and Parental Access to Student Accounts

Oak Harbor Public Schools complies with the legal requirements of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

The G Suite for Education accounts are property of Oak Harbor Public Schools.  This means content in these accounts may be accessed or searched by delegated OHPS employees (IT Staff, Administrators, etc.) in accordance with the school district policy.  Emails sent from student to student, or student to staff, are not considered private and will be monitored and audited.

The district encourages parents to discuss the acceptable use of email. Most employees are asked to only use work email for work purposes, and employers have access to view and limit use of email to make sure it is used appropriately. The same will be true of school email accounts.

Acceptable Use & Misuse of G Suite Account

Students should consider their Google account and email as an extension of the classroom, subject to the same rules of respect and courtesy that we expect in school. Students are responsible for their own behavior at all times and their strict adherence to the Oak Harbor Public Schools policy (Internet Safety and Acceptable Use Policy).

Students who misuse their accounts will be referred to their school’s administrator who will deal with any infraction on a case-by-case basis.

Why use G Suite for Education?

• To provide access to current technology applications and free tools designed for collaboration with other students and teachers
• To give students the ability to work on their documents in school or at home 
• To facilitate “paperless” transfer of work between students and teachers
• To provide adequate, long-term storage space for student work and student portfolios
• Cost savings in terms of software licensing and document storage

Why do our students need Google Accounts?

The integration of both school-owned and student-owned mobile devices has prompted an immediate need for students to be able to save, share, move, and backup content they create to and from devices and computers.  All of these tasks have one element they all require – an email address.  By establishing a G Suite for Education account for your child, they will have access to all of the above-described collaboration tools and a secure, district-monitored email address.

How are Oak Harbor Public Schools and Google linked together?

The Google agreement with OHPS provides access to Google applications and storage. While Google hosts these services off-site, the District maintains the ability to manage users, groups, and settings, much like other locally hosted systems.  This means that OHPS can grant and remove user access, and control other settings to ensure a safe and secure collaboration environment for students and teachers.

What personal student information and student education records will be stored in G Suite for Education?

Google does not request any personal information from students and the District does not provide personal student data (ex. birthdate, address, phone number, grades, test scores) to Google.  That information resides in the OHPS student information system (SKYWARD) and is not stored nor available to Google.