Austin, TX, Sept. 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Students in Kansas City Public Schools are going back to school this year with Chromebooks filtered and monitored with Lightspeed Systems Relay. The Relay platform is a complete solution to filter, manage, monitor, protect, and analyze online activity in schools. The District evaluated, selected, and implemented the platform over the summer to increase safety, improve communication, and deliver more powerful reports.
For the last five years, every single Kansas City Public Schools student has been equipped with a laptop "in order to ensure that they are fluent in technology by the time they go to college and launch their careers," explains the District web site. As the 1:1 program has matured, the District recognized the need to replace its firewall filtering solution with something that offered more holistic filtering, monitoring, and reporting both on and off campus.
After an exhaustive review of its options, Kansas City Public Schools selected Relay by Lightspeed Systems. The platform gives the district internet filtering on and off campus; classroom management and screen monitoring; safety monitoring; reporting; and much more. In addition to the Chromebooks, Relay works on other devices and platforms across the District.
"We looked at a lot of other products. However, Relay was the only one that met all our needs in one product," shared Joe Phillips, Director of Technology for Kansas City Public Schools. "Relay offers the best multi-platform solutions to meet our needs to filter content, monitor use, analyze usage data for staff and students, and manage which apps and sites our students can use on- or off-campus."
With students back on campus and classes in full swing, the District is already reaping the benefits of Relay. "I have been most impressed with the ease of use for my staff to implement each of the features," Phillips said.
Among the specific needs that led the District to Relay was a way to address parent concerns about the 1:1 program. In addition to the filtering and safety functions, Relay offers integrated and automated Parent Reports as well as holistic reporting on all user activity. Phillips explained: "Parents have a lot of concerns about privacy, screen time, and the value of technology for instruction. Relay is able to help us alleviate these with actual quantitative data rather than qualitative stories or concepts."
Kansas City Public Schools joins more than 28,000 schools that count on the market-leading Relay filtering and monitoring platform. Schools interested in better filtering, safety, usage reporting, classroom monitoring, and parent reports can request a demo to see it for themselves at: www.lightspeedsystems.com/demo
About Lightspeed Systems
Lightspeed Systems partners with schools to make learning safe, mobile and easily managed. Partnered with 6,500 districts in the United States and 28,000 schools around the world, Lightspeed Systems offers integrated filtering, management, monitoring, and protection for schools through its groundbreaking platform, Relay. Headquartered in Austin, TX (with offices in Portland and the U.K.), Lightspeed serves over 15 million students in 35 countries. To learn more, visit https://www.lightspeedsystems.com.