Update on New CIPA Requirement to Teach Online Safety
Message Posted March 2, 2009
In October 2008, we let you know of a new federal law -- "Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act" -- which contained a new CIPA requirement which requires schools' Internet Safety Policies to include "... educating minors about appropriate online behavior, including interacting with other individuals on social networking websites and in chat rooms and cyberbullying awareness and response." Essentially this means that schools will be required to teach online safety to students as a prerequisite to receiving E-rate funding. The language in the new law does not place these same requirements on libraries.
Last week many applicants began receiving e-mails from at least one vendor who sells Internet safety and compliance packages, warning applicants that they must be compliant with the new CIPA requirement as of October 10, 2008 or else risk losing their E-rate funding. This statement is false.
The FCC has not yet provided guidance on the specific requirements under the new law and has set no deadline for compliance (the law also did not set an effective date). We are in regular contact with FCC officials and no decisions whatsoever have been made or guidance issued beyond what was included in the new law. If a consultant or vendor tells you otherwise, they are misinformed. However, we understand that the FCC may issue a Notice of Public Rulemaking (NPRM) later this year to ask for applicants' input on implementing the new law. The State E-rate Coordinators also have sent a detailed list of issues/questions for the FCC to consider, such as whether the online safety can be an assembly-type program, what frequency the online safety education must entail, whether the training must be provided to every student in grades K-12, and must the school conduct another public hearing if the existing Internet Safety Policy (or AUP) already addresses this issue (to name just a few).
We will keep you posted as implementation of this new requirement proceeds. But in the meantime, we do recommend that if you are currently writing or rewriting your Internet Safety Policy, be sure to include a provision dealing with educating minors about appropriate online behavior, including interacting with other individuals on social networking sites and chat rooms, and cyberbullying awareness and response. In addition, your school should be thinking about how you will actually implement the new law when it does become effective, if you aren't providing such online behavior education already.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me at jtschell@comcast.net.
-- Julie
Julie Tritt Schell
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