LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The upcoming first day of school for Jefferson County Public School students will certainly be an unusual one.
What You Need To Know
- JCPS parents ask questions during live panel discussion
- One parent asks about parental controls on school-issued Chromebooks
- Students to start NTI 2.0 next week
- Students to continue picking up lunch at pickup locations
Tuesday morning, kids will log onto laptops for virtual learning, dubbed "NTI 2.0." As parents prepare for the unusual start, some of their questions received answers during a live video Thursday night.
During the question and answer session, parents tried to understand how the new Non-Traditional Instruction (NTI) will work and what to expect.
There were questions about school schedules, Chromebooks, and how to log in and operate the laptops. Panelists say that with just days left until the NTI 2.0 kickoff, parents can still request a Chromebook and Wi-Fi device online.
One parent asked if parental controls were available on the district Chromebooks. District Spokeswoman and panel moderator Renee Murphy read the question aloud.
"There are not parental controls," answered Chief Information Officer Dr. Kermit Belcher, "But we are actually working, and we are meeting about that next week, about deploying. Typically in the past, well not typically, but, we have within our domain, content filtering on the devices. So, content filtering outside of our network is new to a lot of districts."
Belcher's message, for now, is for parents to simply monitor what kids are doing on devices.
Meanwhile, there are some changes to school lunches, too.
Murphy explained that children who usually pay for lunch in a school cafeteria will again need to do so at the pickup locations, at least until a federal regulation is changed.