Privacy & Internet Safeguards

The district utilizes the Google platform for a majority of its remote learning. Google’s privacy policy can be found at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-US. When you accept the Guardian Agreement, the teacher, your student, and our Google Admin in the IT department can see your email address. Our Google Admin can also see a log of any email that went from our system to your email, (the email log is always in place if the email came from PPS as required by law.). We do approve Google Apps and Extensions and do not allow students to download any ones they want. This allows us to keep an eye on what permissions are required for each app, and determine if they pose a risk to students.

This information is also found in Google’s privacy policy. Specifically, the partners they share information with are listed here and with direct links to each partner’s privacy policies.

Portland Public Schools is governed by Google’s core privacy policies and also by the GSuite Terms of Service

Portland Public Schools does not allow services to seek informed consent. Please refer to the Portland Board’s Student and Computer Internet Rules. This policy is shared and families sign a modified version of it when they receive a district-issued device (middle and high schools). This policy has not been uniformly shared with elementary students’ parents during the deployment of Remote Learning.

All inactive student accounts are suspended in Google - this is checked on a daily basis. In order to comply with the state’s retention policies, student emails are maintained for 7 years from the creation of any email, then purged. This purging is also done on a daily basis.

Portland Public Schools has the ability to provide an export of a student’s data to the parent. However, the more data there is, the longer the export will take. Given this, students are asked to download their data at the end of each school year before turning in their device.

Portland Public Schools has a training site for teachers that includes tips on how to video conference effectively, particularly in light of recent "Zoombombing" warnings that are circulating.

PPS has provided guidelines to staff regarding videoconferencing.

These concepts were summarized for parents in the Superintendent’s most recent letter to the community in the following points from the letter:

• No student is required to participate by video or post any pictures in any platform that presents their image online. Students may opt to participate in other ways, such as with audio.

• Teachers may record instruction-oriented group/class settings to allow students the opportunity to review presentations and explanations to ensure understanding and complete assigned instructional tasks. However, students participating in an instructional setting that is being recorded by video will be given the option of participating by other means, such as by phone, if they don’t want to be captured on video. Teachers must inform the students that they intend to record at the start of any activity and that the students have the right to choose how to participate. Any recordings made constitute an educational record and will be preserved and stored safely and according to the Family Education RIghts and Privacy Act (FERPA).

• Students and families should not take screenshots or videos of lessons or other remote learning and share those with others. This could compromise the privacy of teachers and other students. Students also should use tools such as Google Chat for educational purposes only. They must not use these tools to speak badly about or bully anyone.

With Google Classroom you will need to login with your student’s account. You can also ask their teacher to add you to Guardian Summaries, which will send you a weekly digest of their classwork for that class.

Although this has rarely, if ever, been asked, the district would attempt to address this request under the terms of the Board’s policy for accommodating sincerely held beliefs.