Top 10 Reasons Districts Choose Lightspeed Systems

At Lightspeed Systems, we’ve been helping K-12 communities provide safe, secure, and equitable education for over 25 years. There are many reasons to love our comprehensive portfolio of security, safety, and classroom solutions, but clients consistently list the below as their favorite things about partnering with Lightspeed Systems:

2. Ease of Use

In addition to exceptional support, Lightspeed products are easy to deploy, easy to configure, and easy to use. “I’ve seen a lot of complicated software options, but Lightspeed is not one of them. It’s easy to set up and use, and the dashboards are easy to read,” states John Sedgwick, Technology Integration Specialist, Anderson Community Schools Corporation.

Modern interfaces, easy-to-navigate dashboards, and intuitive workflows make it easy for districts to leverage the power of Lightspeed technologies to reduce IT administration, increase teacher efficiency, and above all, improve student safety, security, and productivity. “One of the things that’s impressive to me is how user friendly the platform is and that it doesn’t take a whole team of technical staff to administer,” states Jim Farmer, Chief Technical Officer, Fayette County Public Schools.

Plus, the reporting is intuitive and easy-to-use. “We don’t have to ‘live in the tool’ to pull reports since it’s straightforward to use and interpret them,” says Casey Keiser, Director of Technology, Moon Area School District. John Lenhart, Systems Administrator at Dallastown Area School District adds, “Running the reports is easy enough to use that we were able to show our principals and other administrators how to use the system so that they’d be able to do it themselves.”

3. Granular controls for customization and flexibility

Clients turn to Lightspeed technologies for flexibility and control to promote learning and exploration within their diverse digital ecosystems—without hindering productivity or compromising end-user privacy. “When we saw how granular we could be with Lightspeed Filter, we knew it was the right fit for us,” says Ethan Dancy, Technology Support Manager at Iredell-Statesville School District. “Before, if one school wanted something blocked but another school didn’t, we weren’t able to help them. Now, with Lightspeed Filter, we’re able to support different teachers with their different approaches to the material.”

Clients love how easy it is to manage and update policies and reports to fit the exact needs of their district. “Our previous filter didn’t allow for us to make changes the way Lightspeed does,” says Dr. Tina Barrios, Assistant Superintendent of Information Systems and Technology, Polk County Public Schools. “With a district of our size and diversity in students who live in a rural versus an urban area, the ability to make changes to our filtering policy and update device policies remotely is one of the most valuable features of the filter.”

4. YouTube and social media controls

SmartPlay, Lightspeed Filter’s YouTube filtering feature, stands out as a game-changer for many of our clients. While other YouTube filtering options can be restrictive or time-consuming, SmartPlay, with customizable policy controls, makes it easy to allow educational YouTube channels (including teacher channels) while blocking the inappropriate content and time wasters.

“We wanted to allow YouTube but only in a limited, controlled fashion. SmartPlay has allowed us to give students access to YouTube in such a way that we feel confident they are safe from inappropriate content,” explains Andrew Moore, IT Director, Glens Ferry School District.

With settings designed specifically for K-12 education, district IT teams can unleash the power of educational content on YouTube while blocking content that is inappropriate or potentially harmful.

5. Detailed reports and insights

Lightspeed’s powerful reporting features provide districts with actionable insights into student activity and technology usage. Leveraging customizable reporting dashboards, drill-down capabilities, and user-friendly interfaces, district IT leaders and staff can easily analyze and share data to optimize their edtech ecosystems, improve instruction, and promote student data privacy and safety.

“[Lightspeed] Digital Insight provides us with the chance to see what is really being used and how it is being used,” said Dr. Sharon Shewbridge, Director of Instructional Technology, Virginia Beach City Public Schools.

Districts can harness these insights to make data-backed decisions on budget, purchasing, security, and professional development. “This data is so important because it opens up a conversation for us with our stakeholders about how apps are being used vs. what we expected when we initially licensed the applications,” states Justin Steele, Supervisor of Educational Technology, Caddo Parish Public Schools. “[Lightspeed] Digital Insight has helped us prioritize certain applications over others by giving us transparency into how often those tools are used, and therefore valued by our district.”

6. Comprehensive, robust functionality

Lightspeed’s cloud-based, device-level protections work across all devices, operating systems, and learning environments to ensure students are protected no matter where they are learning. “We operate all types of devices,” says Kyle Berger, Chief Technology Officer, Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District. “Lightspeed’s importance for us is tremendous because we’re able to branch out across all these platforms, which is usually a logistical nightmare for districts. Lightspeed has really been a lifesaver for us.”

With over 130 categorizations, out-of-the-box blocking of unknowns, social media controls, and after school rules, Lightspeed Filter is the most comprehensive web filtering solution. Lightspeed Digital Insight enables districts to view robust analytics, streamline data privacy management, simplify app approvals, and ensure equitable connectivity for all students.

Additionally, Lightspeed Alert offers 50% more visibility of student activity with integrations and device agents triggering alerts that other safety management tools miss. “Lightspeed looks at everything, and we get these alerts in real time,” explained Christi Frias, Student Services Director, San Marcos Unified School District. “I don’t have to sift through anything because that is all done for me by Lightspeed.”

7. Performance and reliability

Beyond robust functionality and actionable insights they cannot get from other providers, our clients appreciate the consistent performance and reliability of Lightspeed products. From filtering to alerts, Lightspeed products are dependable and accurate, meaning less time spent managing or troubleshooting. When discussing their move to Lightspeed, one client shared, “Lightspeed just worked better, the previous product was full of holes and extremely difficult to use.”

According to Brian Zimmer, Director of Education Technology and Information at Webster Central School District, Lightspeed Filter is “the most reliable filter I’ve ever used.” He adds, “The reporting is much more accurate from Lightspeed than we saw with competing solutions.”

“Lightspeed Filter just works better in lots of ways,” says John Mansell, Director Student Services, Lauderdale County School District. “Now I can actually go home and get eight hours of sleep a night.”

8. Continuous innovation and product development

More than any specific tool, many clients credit continuous development and a strong, open partnership with Lightspeed for their success. “The most important aspect of our partnership with Lightspeed has been the continued development, how they listen to customer feedback, adapt to the industry, and continue to advance the product,” says Kyle Berger, Chief Technology Officer, Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District. “This constant learning and development within the Lightspeed platform has helped us keep up with the threats and sites that are constantly growing on the internet.”

From regular website recategorizations to harder to bypass advancements to even smarter AI capabilities, Lightspeed is Lightspeed is constantly developing and evolving to meet our clients’ needs, new cybersecurity threats, and the ever-changing edtech landscape.

“Having a partner that truly listens and develops with you has been the most important thing. That’s the true value for any school district,” concludes Berger.

9. Real-time visibility into student online activity

With Lightspeed solutions, our clients can finally answer the question “What are our students doing online?” Our technologies provide districts with a real-time picture of what their students are doing online, including visibility of the following:

• All student and staff on-device usage, including top websites, apps, blocks, searches, and more
• Student classroom online activity, including AI monitoring
• Student connectivity issues
• District edtech usage
• App privacy policies
• Online warning signs of self-harm, bullying, and violence

Easy access to this information helps enables rapid and informed decision making while reducing IT administration and troubleshooting time. It also increases teacher efficiency, and improves student safety, security, and productivity.

“Lightspeed Filter has allowed our district to reclaim visibility to what students are doing online,” emphasizes John Lenhart, Systems Administrator, Dallastown Area School District. Anthony Padrnos, Director of Technology at Osseo Public Schools, adds, “From a data security and privacy perspective, this solution gives me a full picture of device activity and visibility into applications, services, and websites being used so I can act when necessary to block malicious sites.”

“Lightspeed Digital Insight lets us see all of our data in one place, making it easy to review subscription renewals as well as track utilization,” says Suzy Brooks, Director of Instructional Technology, Mashpee Public Schools, “best of all, we have end-to-end visibility—across all schools, devices, and applications.”

“From a threat management perspective, [Lightspeed Alert] is a critical piece. If we have someone we are concerned about, we can come into Lightspeed and vet what they have been searching for and writing about. We can search specific terms to see who has searched them, when, and how many times. We can drill down to see if there has been other concerning activity,” explains Christi Frias, Student Services Director, San Marcos Unified School District.

10. Human review of alerts

Many clients consider the ability to leverage Lightspeed’s experienced, in-house team of Safety Specialists to review alerts essential to their district’s success and satisfaction with online student safety. With safety specialists reviewing alerts 24/7/365 and immediately escalating high and imminent threats to designated district personnel, districts can augment staff resources and feel confident that urgent issues will be prioritized. “Before we had the support of Lightspeed safety specialists, I was doing all the alert review myself. I was losing sleep and working throughout the night. This has been a game-changer for me,” states Judy Burgess, Director of Equity and Student Services at Visalia Unified School District.

Human review enables districts, like San Marcos Unified School District, to implement tiered support structures, including Lightspeed Safety Specialists, district-level contacts, and site-level contacts. “The human review component has been critical in how we are able to strategically implement Lightspeed Alert and use if effectively within the district,” emphasizes Christi Frias, Student Services Director at San Marcos USD. “Without this, there was a liability, and people felt responsible for always monitoring alerts. The worry that they might miss something weighed heavily on staff. We now have a lot of layers in place, so each staff person isn’t responsible for stopping every threat.”

Learn more

At Lightspeed Systems, we work hard to provide the best, most innovative solutions to make online learning safe and effective for every student we serve, in every school, every single day.

Connect with us for more information on how Lightspeed Systems can provide your district with best-in-class tools for online student safety and instructional effectiveness.