All Students at St. Catherine School must submit a signed agreement for Acceptable Use of the School's Technology. These forms are sent home with the students and they must return them signed before they may use school computers. Below is the policy that all students and faculty must abide by.

It is the intention of St. Catherine School to promote educational excellence by facilitating access to current technologies. In keeping with this intention we encourage our students to participate in all forms of information technology and the opportunities they afford.

The use of computer services at St. Catherine School is a privilege, not a right. Students are expected to make responsible, ethical and appropriate use of computers and information services at all times. Network and computer services include: use of personal and school computers including laptops and peripherals, the Internet, campus e-mail and all associated software. Students and school personnel should realize that these services are finite and costly and that such things as time, money and hardware are wrongfully appropriated when these services are abused.

St. Catherine School holds specific expectations for students at each grade level and school personnel regarding their use of computers before, during and after school in either the computer lab or classroom. The following Rules of Conduct apply to information services. Users:

May use only their passwords and are responsible for keeping them private.

May use services for the purpose of educational/school related activity.

Shall report any security problems of misuse of the network to the teacher, network administrator or principal.

May not reconfigure or tamper with the network system in any way.

May not unlawfully copy software or information.

May not use peer to peer file sharing for downloading copyrighted material such as music, videos or software. In essence, may not violate copyright laws.

May not use instant messaging software.

Must properly cite all information that is acquired from electronic sources and used in their assignments.

Are held responsible for all activity conducted on his/her user account.

May not run unauthorized computer games.

May not send or display offensive messages or pictures.

May not use obscene or suggestive language.

May not harass, attack, or insult others.

May not trespass in another person’s folder, files or other intellectual property.

The internet allows students and staff to interact with millions of computers in the world wide community. Because access to the Internet provides connections to other computer systems world-wide, students and parents/guardians of the students should understand that the school cannot control the content of the information available on these other systems. St. Catherine School provides all the necessary firewall protection that current technology allows to protect our students. Student usage will be monitored by the classroom teachers and the network administrator. St. Catherine School prohibits the viewing of offensive materials. School staff has access to electronic means of enforcing this policy. Students and their parents/guardians and school personnel must be aware that access to the Internet will be withdrawn from those who do not respect the rights of others or who do not follow the rules and regulations established in this Acceptable Use Policy. Failure to follow these procedures while on the Internet will subject violators to disciplinary action.

St. Catherine School has been granted through the Beaumont Foundation of America a wireless laptop mobile computer lab. Students and teachers may use laptops in the lab or in the classroom when they are available for teacher directed and supervised assignments. In addition to following standards for acceptable use, students and teachers must take care against negligent physical misuse and/or accidental damage to laptops.

Failure to comply with these standards of acceptable use of St. Catherine School technology will result in the very least, suspension or withdrawal of network privileges.

I have read and understand the Acceptable Use Policy and promise to follow all the rules outlined above.

User Signature ________________________________________ Date ______________

I have read and understand the Acceptable Use Policy and have discussed it with my child.

Parent/Guardian Signature _______________________________ Date ______________

As part or your child’s educational program, s/he may have the opportunity to publish assignments on St. Catherine School’s web site. These documents might include a class home page, a story, a poem, a drawing, a multimedia research project or a photo of class activities. In addition to class work, students may be recognized for organizational memberships or other achievements such as Student Council or Honor Roll. We think this is an exciting and enriching opportunity for your child.

We will publish documents and/or photos only with your written permission. Please consider the following information, then sign and return this form on to your child’s teacher.