Scheduling Settings: Out of School Mode

Out of School mode allows the application of different sets of filtering and monitoring rules for when students are "Out of School," as defined by the In School Hours and the School IP Range. Out of School Mode settings can be found on the Scheduling Settings page within the General Settings of Org Management.

Navigate to manage.goguardian.com and click on Products -> General to Enable Out of School Mode.

Enable Out of School Mode is Off by default. When Out of School Mode is off, monitoring and policies configured on the "At School" assign page will be applied 24/7, on and off-campus.

When Out of School Mode is enabled, the "At Home" assign page is activated, allowing for a completely new set of policies for after school hours or when students are off-campus as well as disabling monitoring or filtering completely while a student is considered "out of school."

When Out of School Mode is enabled, conditions for "In School" must be defined by In School hours or In School hours plus a public IP range.

Common Scenarios for Out of School Mode

Scenario 1, Default. When Out of School mode is NOT toggled on, the same filtering policies will apply 24/7.

Scenario 2, Enable Out of School Mode, Filter and Monitor.

Intended for schools who would like to apply a secondary policy when students are not defined by the "In School" hours or IP Range.

Scenario 3, Enable Out of School Mode, Filter only, No Monitoring.

Intended for schools who would like to ensure that a the GoGuardian filter applies outside of school hours, but who do not wish to monitor any devices after school hours or when logged into a network outside the designated IP range.

Filter During Out of School Mode

Filter refers to GoGuardian features that interact with or block web content.

GoGuardian Admin - Website and YouTube filtering via Policies
GoGuardian Smart Alerts - Message Trigger Action
GoGuardian Smart Alerts - Block Content Trigger Action

When Out of School Mode is enabled, it is most popular to also enable Filter During Out of School Mode.

Monitor During Out of School Mode

Monitor refers to GoGuardian features that record students' web activity.

GoGuardian Admin - Recording student browsing history
GoGuardian Smart Alerts - Generating Alerts for enabled categories
GoGuardian Smart Alerts - Assigned Alert Notification emails
GoGuardian Teacher monitoring - Students in classrooms but "out of school" according to the configuration settings will show as "monitoring restricted" to teachers.

When "Monitor During Out of School Mode" is turned off, each of these features will be disabled when Out of School Mode conditions are met.

How to Duplicate a Policy

To duplicate a policy, please navigate to the My Policies section of the Custom Policies tab.

Configuration > Custom Policies > My Policies

For example, you might want to duplicate your In School or Default policy, and rename it "Out of School" but remove websites blocked during school such as social media sites. Out of School Mode can be configured for this kind of flexibility.

How to Define "In School"

"In School" can be defined by In School hours or by In School hours OR one or more public IP ranges. When In School Mode is off, GoGuardian will filter content and monitor web activity 24/7. Before In School settings can be configured, Out of School Mode must first be enabled.

Define In School by School Hours

When a student connects to the internet during school hours defined in Scheduling Settings, they will receive In School filtering policies. Outside of the defined school hours, your students will receive Out of School filtering policies.

Navigate to Scheduling Settings
Enable Out of School Mode
Select days of the week
Select school hours for each day
Click the Save hours button to update school hours

Define In School by School Hours and Public IP Range

When a student connects to the internet during your defined school hours and is connected to your school's network, they will receive In School settings. When connecting from any other network with an IP address outside of your defined public IP range or in your school's network after school hours, they will receive Out of School Mode settings.

Navigate to Scheduling Settings
Enable Out of School Mode
Select days of the week
Select school hours for each day
Click the Save hours button to update school hours
Enter a public IP address as a starting point for your IP range
Enter a public IP address as an ending point for your IP range
Click the Add new range to update your IP settings

Ensure that the IP range provided is your network's Public IP range. Internal IP ranges are not supported.

Note: Out of School Mode does not support an IP range only. If a public IP range is defined, In School hours must also be defined. As a workaround, "IP range only" can be accomplished by defining a public IP range and selecting 12am-12am for each day.

How to Enable Out of School Mode Settings 24/7

In order to set school hours from 12am-12am, be sure to select the top 12:00 am time slot in the left panel and the bottom 12:00 am time slot in the right panel.

Left Panel

Right Panel

Once this is set, you can add the desired IP range, so that any users outside of that range will have Out of School Mode settings applying to their monitoring and filtering instead of the In School Mode settings.

Parent Communications

We recommend communicating with parents/guardians in some form to let them know when students are filtered and monitored.

Here is an example based on Scenario 1 when Out of School Mode is disabled and the same filtering applies 24/7.

“[Insert school/district name] helps protect your student while browsing the internet using GoGuardian. When the student is logged into the browser on their device, and the GoGuardian extensions are present, GoGuardian is both filtering and monitoring their browsing at all times."

To view the parent/guardian letter template, click here.