Gresham-Barlow School District outlines K–12 digital citizenship curriculum and home tools for parents

Gresham-Barlow School District Superintendent Tracy Klinger hosted a parent webinar to explain how the district teaches digital citizenship and the tools families can use at home to help students use devices safely. Presenters walked through the district’s K–12 curriculum, district family apps and four layers of home protections, and answered parents’ technical and policy questions.

The district introduced Common Sense Media’s K–12 digital citizenship materials as its chosen curriculum, which Jay Roger Hay, the district’s Technology and Innovations instructional coach, said the district began using in 2020. "We started this curriculum in 2020," Hay said, and described six recurring topics — responsible tech and life balance, online privacy, digital footprint, online community norms, cyberbullying and identifying bias in media — that are adapted by grade level.

Jeff Gibbs, the district’s Executive Director of Technology Services, demonstrated parent-facing tools available on the district website and explained how parents can use them. Gibbs described ParentView for attendance and report‑card information, FirstView for bus tracking and notifications, Canvas for assignment and course materials and ParentSquare for district and teacher communications. "And what this app is is it will allow you to view your students' web browsing history," Gibbs said about the newly launched Lightspeed Parent Portal, and he added the portal also provides controls that can turn off the internet to a district Chromebook.

Gibbs organized recommendations for home use into four layers of protection. First, he urged parents to build an open relationship with children and model online behavior so students come to adults with problems. Second, he recommended web filtering options: DNS‑based filters (examples mentioned included Cloudflare and OpenDNS) that are configured at the home router and software solutions such as Bark for monitoring activity on cellular connections. Third, Gibbs described device‑level parental controls — Apple Screen Time, Google Family Link and settings on smart TVs and game consoles — and encouraged parents to configure them device by device. Fourth, he recommended rules and non‑screen activities to create balance and warned parents about emerging risks, including AI companions and the mental‑health effects of social media.

Hay and Gibbs said lessons are available in Canvas and that K–8 materials are provided in English and Spanish; Hay walked through a second‑grade activity used to prompt classroom conversations. During the Q&A, parents asked whether parental controls can be enforced once a child turns 13 and whether DNS filters block streaming or news sites. Gibbs said DNS filters block malicious or adult content but do not typically block mainstream news or Netflix and noted there is no perfect web filter. On the Lightspeed parent‑portal account problems, Gibbs advised parents to ensure the email they use to sign up matches the email listed in ParentView so the service can match them to their students.

The district said it will distribute a document with links and step‑by‑step instructions for the tools discussed and will email those resources to parents who complete a short survey starting the next day. Superintendent Klinger closed by thanking presenters and interpreters and inviting parents to provide feedback to guide future webinars.