Customizable filtering system to be installed in every school
Kentucy’s Department of Education is implementing a new content filtering system for all 173 K-12 school districts statewide, as a followup to a massive connectivity push that’s seeing faster internet in schools across the state.
Recently, Kentucky made headlines when it announced that, thanks to a partnership with AT&T, it would be providing schools with access to high-speed, fiber-based connectivity [1] of more than 480 Megabits per second—the first state in the nation to promise such speeds. The new connectivity exceeds a national network infrastructure benchmark of 100 Mbps, which was set by the State Educational Technology Directors Association.
Now the state is partnering with Lightspeed Systems and will begin using that company’s Rocket Web Filter [2] to provide on- and off-campus content filtering for 1,233 Kentucky schools (that’s every school in the state). The filtering system lets schools target mobile and stationary devices with customizable policies and drill-down reporting.
“The Lightspeed Systems solution allows each of Kentucky’s school districts to customize its own experience regarding Internet content management, and also provides the granularity and reporting capability district and state leaders require for future online capacity planning,” said Chuck Austin, Product Manager for the Kentucky Department of Education.
“The Kentucky Department of Education’s efforts to bring technology into schools have made Kentucky a model for 21st-century learning,” says Lightspeed Systems President Brian Thomas. “We are proud to be part of their successful mission to make safe online access available to every K-12 student.”
Material from a press release was used in this report.