Communicating with Parents/Guardians

We know your school/district wants to be transparent with its families about the use of online services such as GoGuardian in the classroom. GoGuardian wants to help support your school/district in transparently communicating about how GoGuardian product(s) improve their child’s digital learning environment, how our product(s) work, how our product(s) treat student privacy, and how your school or parents/guardians can customize GoGuardian.  

To facilitate this conversation, you will find resources on this webpage that are intended as templates for schools/districts to use in communicating with their students’ parents/guardians/families about GoGuardian. Because we believe that schools/districts are the experts at understanding their school communities’ policies, norms, relationships, and laws, these template resources should be customized by your schools/districts to align with their particular school’s/district’s community’s needs.

If you are a parent or guardian looking for more information about GoGuardian Beacon, please contact your child’s school/district.  

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1) Determine which GoGuardian product(s) your school/district uses.

GoGuardian offers a suite of different product options for schools/districts, so your school’s/district’s communication/letter home to parents/guardians should describe the particular GoGuardian products that your school/district has adopted. For example, GoGuardian offers Admin, Teacher, Beacon, Fleet, and Director. Our resources below are divided below into (1) resources specific to GoGuardian Admin and GoGuardian Teacher; and (2) resources specific to GoGuardian Beacon.

2) Determine which policies or settings that your school/district has selected.

Your school/district has a variety of different settings / policy options to choose from in GoGuardian products. For example, your school/district can decide whether “in school” and “out of school” settings should be different and can customize settings for different age groups or students through organizational units (OU) based settings.  

3) Determine whether your school/district should obtain parental/guardian consent or add opt-out language in letter/communication home to parents/guardians about GoGuardian.  

GoGuardian’s sample letter/communication to parents/guardians does not include any consent  language (i.e., language asking parents to sign the letter home agreeing to the use of GoGuardian with their child) or opt-out language (i.e., language telling parents/guardians that they can opt their child out of GoGuardian).  GoGuardian obtains school-based consent under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (see Question M in the FTC’s Comply with COPPA FAQs if you have questions about school-based consent).  

However, depending on your particular school’s/district’s local laws, policies, and/or community norms, your school/district may either be legally required to,or may want to, require parental consent or opt-out ability explicitly in your school/district’s communication / letter home to parents/guardians about GoGuardian.  If you have questions or want to add such language, please consult your legal and policy team.