Got Chromebooks? This Is the Best Way to Manage Internet Access After School

Differentiating your internet access policies is a must when you’re filtering K-12 schools. In a recent Lightspeed Systems community poll, 66 percent of K-12 IT teams said they differentiate policies for teachers and students.

Customizing policies by students versus teachers is a great way to ensure everyone receives appropriate internet access at your school. But at Lightspeed we recognize that your internet access policies need to be even more granular, accommodating students who go online during school hours, after school hours, on campus and off campus.

In Web Filter 3: Longhorn, IT can create create schedules for policies to control internet access by time of day. This is handy for establishing policies for in-school device use. It’s also helpful if, for example, you want to open up student internet access on evenings and weekends so students can explore social media and gaming sites.

Time- and location-based policies were your No. 1 feature requests for Relay for Google Chrome — and we’re happy to say it’s arrived!

In just a few steps, After-School Rules allows IT to set different Chromebook internet policies for during and after school.

We speak to a lot of school IT professionals and know that one size does not fit all when it comes to after-school filtering. After-School Rules gives you the power and flexibility to accomplish your goals. For instance, you can:

• Set your After-School Rules based on time of day or external IP address. We give you total control!
  Set access by database category, adjust YouTube settings, and enable or disable filtering and reporting.
• Set rules for individual group or OUs.
  Turn internet access on or off after school, if devices aren’t intended to go home with students.
• Turn filtering on or off.
• Turn reporting on or off.
• With this fantastic new feature release in Relay, we empower you with the flexibility and control to manage your filtering policies for your district’s unique needs.

Ready to start using After-School rules? Review these simple instructions to set it up in Relay. Does After-School Rules sound like something your Chromebook deployment needs?