Equipment for students' off-site use

[gsk]

I was just wondering if any of you had any agreements for students/parents to sign or policies about the risks and responsibilities for using school-owned equipment at home. What do you do about filtering, monitoring, repairs, maintenence and updates? If you transfer responsibility of this to parents - how do you do it?

 

Thanks,

[noelmm]

We ask parents to come in and sign a form agreeing that they are fully responsible for both the hardware and the way in which it is used although the laptop is still owned by the school.

 

The laptop will be a standalone device and we make the parents fully aware that we are not responsible for backing up of any data, antivirus etc. and parents have always been happy with this. We also give the student a limited access account so that they are not able to install any software (some clever students get around this) and we do not provide any user account for anyone else, if any software is required the student needs to bring the laptop into us and we do the install.

 

As a final measure we ensure that both the student and parent is shown how to use the device and once again we verbally confirm that the parent is fully responsible for the device and how it is used. and then we ask them to sign the form, one copy for them and one for us.

[theeggmaster]

We run a Chromebook scheme with parental contributions. The parents pay either outright or over 2 - 3 years. This includes warranty, accidental damage and theft cover for the period of payment (or in the case of outright purchase, 2 or 3 years depending on choice). We ask the parents to treat the devices as if they are their own until they transfer over after the 2 - 3 years. During the first year while the devices are covered under manufacturer's warranty, we'll ask the parents to drop them in and we'll give them a quick check to see if WiFi is turned on, screen brightness or volume is turned up etc, and if they are not working, they go back to the parents. The warranty and repairs are directly between the parents and the company, so we don't get involved much at all.

 

We put the Chromebooks on our Google Admin, so we can apply policies, but they are very relaxed for these devices. We don't provide filtering or monitoring if the devices are at home, but when they are in school they are covered by our Smoothwall filtering.

[gsk]

We run a Chromebook scheme with parental contributions. The parents pay either outright or over 2 - 3 years. This includes warranty, accidental damage and theft cover for the period of payment (or in the case of outright purchase, 2 or 3 years depending on choice). We ask the parents to treat the devices as if they are their own until they transfer over after the 2 - 3 years. During the first year while the devices are covered under manufacturer's warranty, we'll ask the parents to drop them in and we'll give them a quick check to see if WiFi is turned on, screen brightness or volume is turned up etc, and if they are not working, they go back to the parents. The warranty and repairs are directly between the parents and the company, so we don't get involved much at all.

 

We put the Chromebooks on our Google Admin, so we can apply policies, but they are very relaxed for these devices. We don't provide filtering or monitoring if the devices are at home, but when they are in school they are covered by our Smoothwall filtering.

 

Thanks, do you have any policies or agreements where it's written that the risk, particularly in filtering and security, lies with the parents? That's the bit I want to get phrased correctly.

 

Thanks,

[theeggmaster]

We have a section at the bottom of the Parent/Carer Information document that says:

 

Important Note: You will not be entering into a financial agreement with the school, but with . We have no involvement with the financial side of the agreement and make no profit from this arrangement. The school will only provide Internet filtering and security while the device is used in school, through our school systems. At home, this will be the responsibility of parents/carers and the Chromebook user.

[truebluesteve]

We've had a number of iPads given back to us broken after being loaned to students and we've never had any money back for the repairs despite the parents and students signing a form to say they will look after them, etc., etc. In fact I've just been asked to supply another today - which I will do, but whether we get it back in the same state is anyone's guess.

[gsk]

Thanks all that's brilliant.