For Families

  • Information, Ideas, Resources and More...

    Partnership For Success

    It Takes A Village

    With the advent of the Internet, social media and 24x7 information access, ensuring our students have the skills to safely and effectively navigate the web in and out of school is a critical component of preparing them for their futures. Cupertino Union School District is committed to working together with parents to provide safe and informed access for our students.

     
     

    Parent/Guardian Workshops

    Join us to learn about some of these important topics at a middle school near you and geared toward parents/guardians of middle school students. Information on dates/times and sign up will come directly from your child's middle school via Blackboard Connect.

      

    Device Management Tips

    ScreenGuide App
      screenguide app

    ScreenGuide empowers parents to protect their children from inappropriate content, control overexposure, balance the quality and quantity of time spent on digital devices, and also understand what their children are doing with their mobile devices. 

     

    Parent/Guardian Control

    If you are using your own iPad (legacy option) there are a few restrictions that we are not able to set at the district level that may be of interest to you, since you have control over setting those restrictions. The Restrictions Passcode is different from the Unlock passcode that the student uses daily. Only the parents should know the Restrictions Passcode

    For legacy iPads, we recommend turning off access to FaceTime, News, Installing Apps, and In-App Purchases. (These are already turned off for district owned iPads)

    iMessage Settings - CUSD encourages students to use Google Hangouts for messaging with each other regarding academic work. Hangout messages are archived in case of inappropriate use or bullying.

    iMessage is turned off for district owned devices and for all devices when on the school network.

    For all iPad users - parents may wish to restrict the content available through Apple's iTunes store. We have set these at what the district believes is a reasonable level for middle school students; however as a parent you may wish to further restrict these permissions.

    Please Do Not Set Apps lower than 17+ as some legitimate apps such as Chrome are rated as 17+ since they have access to the Internet. If you lower this age setting, your child may not receive an app they need for class.

    iPad Privacy Settings - Apple allows you to control what information each app has access to. You are welcome to modify these setting if you desire. Please be aware that by making a change you may prevent an app from having access to information it needs to function.

    Game Center controls - You are able to block your child from adding friends to the Game Center or from engaging with other online players in multi player games.

    Managing Location Settings - You can control which apps have access to your current location.

     

    Web Filtering

    Internet Protection

    Ensuring students are accessing the Internet responsibly both at school and at home requires a combination of "over the shoulder" monitoring, periodically reviewing student Internet activity and educating students on the appropriate use of the Internet.

    All activity at school is filtered via our district's internet filter. When the device leaves our network to go home, the filtering is switched to a mobile web filter. 

    Digital Citizenship

    Resources for Home

    Classroom blogs and other online media are powerful tools that open up communication between students, parents, and teachers. Please help with responsible use of online tools by reviewing the Common Sense media family tool kit and parent resources.

     

    Google Classroom

    Resources for Learning

    Google Classroom is a learning management system to help simplify creating, distributing

    and grading assignments. Many teachers use Google Classroom to send and receive student assignments in their classrooms.

     

    Google Classroom Student Guide

     
     

    Google Apps for Education

    Resources for Collaboration

    Cupertino Union School District is a Google Apps for Education (GAFE) district. Teachers and Students utilize GAFE to build 21st Century Learning environments focused on Communication, Collaboration, Creativity and Critical Thinking.

    Google Apps For Education Information for Parents

    Google Apps Essentials

     

    Screen Time

    Information About Screen Time

    How much time children spend using technology during the day is a concern for many parents. Recent studies have differentiated between active screen time and passive screen time but everyone agrees that setting expectations for overall screen time for children is important to providing a well rounded learning experience.