Why do legitimate educational web sites get blocked?
The Internet filtering software that NPS uses occasionally makes mistakes or mis-categorizes a legitimate web site, and sometimes we don’t know about it until we are notified. The web sites that NPS blocks are by listed by categories that are provided to NPS by our Internet filtering provider company. Sometimes a legitimate educational web site can accidentally be put in the wrong category by the filtering company and we are unaware of the mistake. If you find that a legitimate web site is getting blocked, please notify us by going to the online filtering request form and let us know the name of the legitimate web site that is being blocked.
Here is a link to the form: http://sbo.nps.k12.va.us/forms/netfilter/index.htm (Internal Link)
Why do we need Internet filtering?
Norfolk Public Schools is required by Virginia State Law and VDOE to use Internet filtering for all Internet access. There are also Federal requirements under CIPA (the Children’s Internet Protection Act) that Norfolk Public Schools is required to follow in order to receive federal funding for technology. CIPA imposes certain types of requirements on any school or library that receives funding for Internet access or internal connections from the E-rate program – a program that makes certain communications technology more affordable for eligible schools and libraries.
For more info about CIPA please visit: http://www.fcc.gov/guides/childrens-internet-protection-act
Who decides what web sites are allowed?
The NPS Internet Safety Committee works together to make decisions about what web sites are considered appropriate and inappropriate for the school district. The committee consists of members from both the Academics Department and Information Technology Department. A request form is available online where a teacher or staff member can send a request to the Internet Safety Committee to have a web site blocked or unblocked. Please note: All requests require at least 24 hours to be processed.
Here is a link to the form: http://sbo.nps.k12.va.us/forms/netfilter/index.htm (internal Link)