Organization: Heritage Community Charter School
Location: Idaho
Grade Levels: K-8
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Devices: iPads, Chromebooks, Windows
How Heritage Community Charter School Overhauled Digital Learning:
4 Key Results with Deledao
To ensure CIPA compliance and student safety, the school transitioned to the Deledao cloud-based AI web filter and student wellness monitoring solutions during the pandemic.
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Years later, Deledao continues to impress Heritage's IT, principal, and teachers with innovative updates to its filter, wellness monitoring, and an added classroom management solution.
The Challenge
In the early days of the pandemic, Heritage Community Charter School faced three problems common to schools everywhere:
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Their standard on-premises appliance-based filter solution didn't work off-campus. This limitation of their legacy filter meant that Heritage wouldn't comply with the federal CIPA requirement off campus, nor would it comply with the Idaho law requiring content filtering on devices sent home due to COVID-19 school closures.
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Even before the pandemic, a concerned parent reached out to Heritage. This parent found out that their child had been searching online for topics related to suicide on a school device and wanted to know why Heritage didn't know about it.
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The price of their current solution had greatly increased.
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Like many other schools, Heritage scrambled to find a solution. They needed to get their students safely online at home as soon as possible.
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“We had to withhold devices from being sent home for 3-4 months until we could find a new solution that worked off campus,” said Paul Hoy, the Director of Technology at Heritage Community Charter School.
“There was a lot of tension at home during the pandemic, so we had to really pay attention and use every tool at our disposal. We needed to have a way to monitor student mental well-being. We weren’t seeing kids every day during the school shutdowns. Even when we were in school previously, we were unaware of students in crisis.”
Finding a solution
Heritage discovered Deledao while evaluating alternatives to their existing filtering solution. The flexibility of the Deledao system and its ability to cater to the unique needs of charter schools were key factors in their decision.
“Because of our charter nature, we have a lot more flexibility in how we structure things, whereas traditional schools tend to be a little bit more uniform in what they do. Our charter is to provide dual immersion in English and Spanish. Other charters in the area have different focuses, and Deledao's adaptability suits these varying requirements.”
Paul Hoy
Director of Technology
Heritage Community Charter School
He then emphasized the system's effectiveness in maintaining student focus: “And if the student is getting distracted, Deledao lets the teacher know regardless of if the student is on or off campus. A teacher could have students in a physical classroom but have a few students join remotely. The teacher would see that Deledao keeps both types of students on track. From that standpoint, Deledao fits the flexibility and variability of charter schools.”
Students also noticed the difference. "Students talk with other students at other schools, and they've mentioned that this filter works so much better than the filters at other schools," Hoy explained. "They can't bypass it like they can with other systems. Deledao's AI models are trained in multiple languages, so they even catch inappropriate content in Spanish. As a Spanish immersion school, that capability was helpful for us to have."
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The real-time AI capabilities of Deledao intrigued Hoy, leading him to choose it over other solutions. Deledao’s patented real-time AI filtering and student wellness monitoring provided a comprehensive solution that met all the school’s needs.
The Result
Since implementing Deledao, Heritage Community Charter School has experienced significant positive outcomes:
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Time Savings and Efficiency: "It's a joy because I hardly spend any time worrying about the content filter. It just works and ensures the students stay on task and that the school stays CIPA-compliant," Paul Hoy states.
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Student Well-being: “We are charged with the well-being of students, so we decided to use Deledao ActivePulse™ to monitor their mental well-being. The reporting is very good and lets us know when children are considering self-harm or if there is cyberbullying activity. Now, we can get them the help they need. Our school principal is very happy with the product.”
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Teacher Satisfaction: “Our teachers are thrilled about Deledao ActiveInstruct™. The teachers say it’s making a huge difference in student productivity. Students are working on what they should be. Since we use the full Deledao solution, it’s nice that all the features are well-integrated and easy to use. It’s a complete package.”
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Student Behavior Management: The functionality of putting highly distracted students in a penalty box has been particularly effective. "Teachers and principals love that they can put students determined to play games into a penalty box. It was easy for me to set up separate rules for a penalty box OU. It stops that one student who can't or won't self-regulate. That student won't be able to distract others, and they can also get their work done."
Overall, Deledao has provided Heritage Community Charter School with a reliable, comprehensive solution that enhances both student safety and productivity, making it a valuable tool for their educational environment.