• Safety, Security and Privacy in the Digital Age


    Asheville City Schools takes a strong stance about the safety, security and privacy of our students' digital presence. We understand that nothing is more important than the well being of your children.

    The best way for your children to learn appropriate behavior on the internet is through conversation within the family. The best way to keep your child safe is to talk to them about how they use the internet. 

    Internet Safety

    Students in every grade, kindergarten through twelfth, learn how to be safe on the internet. Our curriculum addresses internet safety and privacy, cyber-bullying, online etiquette, copyright, and responsible use of social media. You can view the curriculum on the following sites:

    Internet Filter

    In compliance with federal law, Asheville City Schools filters internet content. Filtering is intended to block access to pornographic content, extreme depictions of violence and hate, entertainment, gambling and other inappropriate content. No filter is perfect so we err on the side of being over-protective. At times, our filter falsely blocks a website that is not offensive. Faculty and students are able to submit a blocked website or page for review by trained instructional personnel. 

    Google Apps for Education

    Asheville City Schools provides a Google Apps account to all students. This is in a controlled domain that Asheville City Schools personnel manage. We are able to allow high school students active email accounts while elementary school children only have email activated when the teacher needs it.

    Google is a trusted partner of K-12 education. The Google account we provide is governed by a different agreement than publicly available free Google accounts. This PDF describes the care Google takes with your child's data. 

    You can read more about Google's commitment to education on the Google Education Trust website, excerpted below:

    We don't sell your Google Apps for Education data to third parties and we do not share personal information placed in our systems with third parties, except in the few exceptional circumstances described in your Google Apps agreement and our Privacy Policy, such as when you ask us to share it or when we are required to do so by law. For full details, please refer to your Google Apps agreement and the "Information Sharing" section of our Privacy Policy.

    Google Apps for Education users own their data, not Google. The data that schools put into our systems is theirs, and we believe it should stay that way—it says so in our contracts.

    • We provide powerful, easy-to-use management tools, and dashboards help administrators keep track of their organization's services, usage and data.
    • We only keep your data as long as schools require us to keep it.
    • If an education department, school or university decides to no longer use Google we make it easy for them to take their data with them.