Mustang Public Schools

District's existing filter failed to keep up with evolving digital demands

"Our prior product was meeting the requirements of the law, but was really not developing and moving forward,” Shrick explains. The district needed a filtering solution that would help them keep up with new digital challenges like generative AI, proxy websites, and student workarounds.

Staff lacked visibility into student online safety risks beyond Google Drive

Beyond strengthening their filter foundation, Schrick says, “What we were really missing was the monitoring component.” Because the district’s existing solution only monitored within Google Drive, they knew they were missing potential student risks in other online spaces. “If the students didn’t type something inappropriate in Google Drive, we weren’t picking those up.”

Teachers needed control over student devices in the classroom

Three years after rolling out student Chromebooks, the district hadn’t yet secured a classroom management platform.

Schrick explains that it had been challenging to prioritize the district’s shifting budget and needs. “We’re one of the fastest-growing school districts in Oklahoma, so we’ve had to spend a lot of our funding on building new schools and providing these devices.”

Despite the district’s investment into its 1:1 initiatives, without a classroom management platform, Mustang’s teachers struggled to keep students focused and manage device distractions. Fed up with a lack of solutions, some teaching staff even considered resignation. “That’s how bad it had gotten,” Schrick recalls.

Parents had no oversight when school-issued devices went home

Providing students with 1:1 Chromebooks also created uncertainty for the parents. “Staff and admins were having conversations with guardians asking: ‘How are you protecting my child?’”

Many parents didn’t want their students spending free time on sites like YouTube, which the district allows for educational purposes. “Because this was a district-owned device, parents felt they had no access to manage what their children were doing.”

To address these challenges and gain better control of their student 1:1 device initiative, Mustang worked with Linewize to deploy a suite of tools designed to create a safer digital environment for all students:

Linewize Filter: Mustang ran a 6-month trial with Linewize Filter before rolling it out district-wide. The district also added the Content-aware Module to blur inappropriate images in real time, across all websites.

Classwize: Mustang added Classwize, which integrates with the Filter, to give teachers the ability to monitor student screens, keep students on task, and unblock specific sites during class that are normally blocked by the filter.

Linewize Monitor: The district implemented Monitor’s 24/7 threat detection to assess at-risk student online behavior across all online spaces, and alert school staff in real time to safety risks. They added the Cloud Scan module to scan/flag inappropriate imagery in the cloud storage

Qustodio Parent App: Mustang brought in Qustodio to give parents a tool to supervise online activity on their children’s school devices, manage screen time, and pause the internet. They also received free access to the features and benefits for a personal device.

Students get the immediate intervention & support they need

Schrick shares that soon after launching Linewize Monitor, the district received three serious alerts: two for students who had expressed suicidal intentions, and one regarding a student being groomed towards a human trafficking situation.

Schrick says he’ll never forget the experience. “I remember the phone call, telling me that this child—a 5th grader—is communicating with an adult they’re preparing to meet up with. That was one of those scary times where I knew we’re going to save this child.”

Thanks to Monitor, the district received alerts immediately and was able to intervene and find mental health support for the students.

Teachers can keep students focused on learning

With Classwize in place, teachers finally have the control they need in the classroom.

Mustang’s teachers can see every student’s screen in real time, and use Focus sessions to limit student access to specific sites during class. The user-friendly dashboard makes it easy for them to send messages to their entire class or individual students, and reward students by temporarily opening up more internet access.

Parents can manage their children’s screen time

The district was extremely proud to achieve over 20% parent adoption of the Qustodio Parent App within the first 6 months of launching.

With Qustodio, parents can set screen time limits, use ‘Pause Internet’ at home, and add filter rules on school-issued devices outside of school hours (without impacting the district’s fixed filter policies). “As soon as I provided it to them, they said, ‘Oh, this is absolutely wonderful.’”

Staff are more equipped to support parents

Introducing a parent app has benefited Mustang’s teachers and admins, as well. “Our staff felt alleviated by providing this content to the guardians to have direct access to see what their child’s accessing on and off school hours.”

Staff members also utilize the Online Safety Hub—a free digital resource center for Linewize partner districts— to direct parents to an expert source for online safety education.

“With the Hub, we’re able to share a resource to help parents understand more about what we’re filtering and what we’re trying to protect their students from—so they can guide their students, as well.”

District receives fewer student safety alerts, since engaging parents

The district has seen a noticeable drop in safety alerts from Monitor, since parents began adopting Qustodio. He attributes this to improved parent involvement and collaboration, and students know that both the school and their parents are watching out to keep them safe.

“That also helps my admin staff, who have to deal with all those alerts on a regular basis. Whether it’s been over a weekend or an evening, they pick up those notifications. So to see them drop has really helped the workload.”

Mustang has built a cohesive culture of online safety

“It’s that big triangle,” says Schrick, “We’ve got to have all the pieces in play, all three angles. We get the parents, the students, and the teachers involved. We’ve got the triangle to keep moving forward with our education.”

“I promote it to everybody—all of my cohorts around the state, and outside, if I can. I’ve been nothing but pleased with the product.”

Watch the video below to hear how Mustang Public Schools rolled out Qustodio to their parent community, and the impact they've seen since doing so.