Supporting David's Law in Texas

Supporting “David’s Law” in Texas

David’s Law aims to bring awareness and enforce new policies related to cyberbullying prevention and mediation to schools.

Protecting students from online dangers has always been important, but with more schools using technology for learning, students are more accessible to risks online. According to a CDC survey conducted in Texas, 14.7% of students were cyberbullied 12 months before the survey. Texas has state legislature in place, like David’s Law, to aim at preventing bullying, harassment, and intimidation in schools and districts.

What is cyberbullying?

As defined by David’s Law, “Cyberbullying” means “bullying arising from a pattern of acts or one significant act that is done through the use of any electronic communication device, including a cellular or other type of telephone, a computer, a camera, electronic mail, instant messaging, text messaging, a social media application, an Internet website, or any other Internet-based communication tool.”

How are schools affected by this law?

This law applies to public schools, as well as open-enrolment charter schools. Private schools are not included.
Schools must have a notice procedure in place under their bullying policy.
Schools must notify the parent or guardian of the alleged victim by the third business day after an incident is reported.
Schools must notify the parent or guardian of the alleged bully within a reasonable amount of time after the incident is reported.
Schools must have procedures in place to allow students to report an incident anonymously.
A principal or a person designated by the principal (other than a school counselor) can report bullying that rises to the level of being a crime to law enforcement officials.
Schools can remove a student who is engaging in bullying activity from class and place them in a disciplinary alternative education program or expel them, if they encourage a student to commit or attempt to commit suicide.
Schools and school personnel who report criminal bullying to law enforcement gain strong protection from civil or criminal liabilities and from disciplinary action.
A school counselor’s responsibilities will now include acting as an impartial, non-reporting resource for interpersonal student conflicts concerning bullying.
Schools must promote mental health education.
Cyberbullied minors (or their parent/guardian) can now seek injunctive relief (such as a temporary restraining order and/or an injunction) against the cyberbully and their parents.

Education solutions that support this law

Find out how our education solutions support this law, helping to create a safer online environment for all students.

NetSupport School – In-school classroom management

For over 32 years, NetSupport School is the market-leading multi-platform Classroom Management software solution for schools, supporting teachers with a wealth of assessment, monitoring, collaboration and eSafety features – to support effective learning in a safe environment.

Authorized/restricted website and application lists can ensure students are focused and help minimize student distraction and access to inappropriate content.
Monitor students’ current Internet use by viewing real-time thumbnails of their PCs to ensure they are on task – plus, teachers can create a record of Internet history use to be printed or saved for later reference.
Real-time keyboard monitoring provides a simple view of each active student and their current keyboard input – a crucial aspect in detecting e-safety issues and can be used to identify inappropriate behavior.
Teachers can show their screen or a student’s screen to demonstrate positive digital interactions while promoting appropriate technology use, helping to create good digital citizens.
Student feedback mode allows teachers to gauge students’ wellbeing and get insight into whether they need extra support.
The Technician Console allows schools to apply ‘always on’ internet, application, printing policies and more.

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classroom.cloud - Online teaching and learning

classroom.cloud provides a range of features to help teachers manage and control online class behavior (helping to keep students focused and safe), plus a set of simple yet effective teaching tools to support engaging and meaningful learning – whether it’s taking place in school or remotely at home.

Teachers can show their screen to demonstrate positive digital interactions while promoting appropriate technology use, helping to create good digital citizens.
Monitor students’ screens to see what they’re typing and who they’re collaborating with in real time to ensure they’re on task and remain focused on the lesson.
‘Allowed’ and ‘restricted’ website/application lists help teachers provide a safe learning environment by ensuring students can only access relevant websites and are shielded from unsuitable content during lesson time.
Keyword monitoring (powered by over 14,000 phrases covering a range of eSafety topics) helps to provide insight into trending issues – plus, schools and districts can also add their own keywords.
Word cloud of trending topics helps teachers to quickly spot trends and identify potential risks – with detailed reporting to further protect students.
Identify and support vulnerable students with the contextual intelligence Risk Index. This assesses the context and history of a student’s current activities (the device used, time of day, websites visited, and applications used) and considers them alongside any previous alerts they may have triggered.
Keeping track of events is super easy, as all new events are flagged as being ‘new’ and progress can be marked to ensure all supporting staff are aware.
Choose your monitoring settings to reduce false alarms by excluding certain applications and websites (including Microsoft Teams) from being monitored to focus on more high-risk areas.
Keeping things super secure is a breeze with two levels of staff access to ensure only authorized users have access and control over online safety settings.
Set monitoring hours to specify when students are being monitored, for example, only during school hours, at all times when using their school devices, or only on the school network.

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NetSupport DNA – IT Management with school-wide eSafety

In addition to providing IT Management tools, NetSupport DNA also includes a built-in internet safety toolkit as standard to help enhance schools’ internet safety policies. It provides the tools needed to identify students at risk, prevent them being exposed to inappropriate online content, encourage greater digital citizenship, and fulfil a school’s internet safety duties – all in line with ISTE guidance.

Keyword and phrase monitoring tool allows schools to quickly gain insights into what students are typing, searching for, or copying online – and it’s available in multiple language packs.
Innovative word cloud helps to easily highlight trending topics across the school – while appropriate staff are alerted through email, real-time pop-ups or summary reports, prompting them to review the triggered event.
Contextual intelligence-based Risk Index automatically flags high-risk events and vulnerable students, creating a risk index number for each event, based on sophisticated contextual intelligence risk analysis.
‘History of Concerns’ is available to help identify students that were flagged as vulnerable or at-risk, ensuring they have extra support.
Report a concern allows students to reach out for support in confidence to a teacher they trust, and teachers can also add any concerns they have about a student.
Age-appropriate Internet monitoring tools ensure students are using the Internet properly with age-appropriate profiles – creating a safer Internet with parameters to allow students the flexibility to learn about the online world in safety.
Apps and games can also be blocked or restricted to help schools add an extra layer of security and keep students on task. The application metering reports reveal application use, helping to ensure usage complies with school policy.