The Valley Heights school district currently has 8 servers and about 400 computer/laptops.  About 95% of them have internet access.  7 - 12 grade students are assigned a login and email address.

All of the school buildings in USD 498 are connected by a Wireless Network.  They all receive their internet connection through the Valley Heights High School.  Click here to view our WAN map.
 

The Valley Heights School District internet content is filtered and monitored with Sonic Wall.  This is in compliance to the CIPA.

The Valley Heights School District E-Mail is filtered with GWAVA, Beginfinite's Anti-Virus and Anti-Spam Agent for GroupWise.

The Children's Internet Protection Act or CIPA (also known as H.R. 4577) requires K-12 schools and libraries that receive federal funds (e.g., Universal Service Discounts or "E-Rate," Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965) to filter out unwanted Internet content. This includes child pornography, soft-core pornography and obscenity.

First introduced by U.S. Sen. John McCain in 1999, the law was passed in part due to the rising use of computers at public schools and libraries. While parents can theoretically protect their children from unwanted Internet material in the home, having control over what their children see at schools and libraries is another story. The law ties the use of federal funding directly to a mandatory need for adequate, network-based Internet filtering. In order to be eligible for federal technology funds, a school or library must certify with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that it has selected a technology and has implemented a policy to filter or block certain content on computers with Internet access.

School and library administrators can choose any filtering or blocking system that fits local needs. However, simply purchasing and installing a filtering solution doesn't make you compliant - and if you already have a solution in place, you still may not be 100 percent in-line with the new law. Your solution must: Block access to visual depictions of obscenity and child pornography when in use by adults. Block access to visual depictions of obscenity, child pornography, and material harmful to minors when in use by minors. Allow customization for both adults and minors, and have the ability to be disabled at the workstation level for adults.

Any education system applying for federal discounts must provide certification from the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) that filtering technology is in use. For many schools, that means installing a solution that meets the minimum requirements.