Parents, an educator and an AI consultant pushed the Beaverton School District board on Dec. 9 to tighten student device access, citing distraction, access to inappropriate content and legal liability; district IT leadership described current filtering and cybersecurity work and said more monitoring is under way.

Jessica Bernards, an educator and AI consultant, told the board that district Chromebooks currently allow “wide open access to a good chunk of the Internet,” and recommended switching from a 'deny list' to an 'allow list' so students can only reach approved instructional sites.

Why it matters: Speakers said open access risks student wellbeing and exposes the district to legal liability if students access harmful content. Board members asked IT for details about filtering, telemetry and GenAI monitoring; district leaders said technology and curriculum teams are coordinating to balance instructional needs and safety.

What IT reported: CIO Steve Langford said the district manages roughly 55,000 devices and more than 40,000 identities across 54 schools. He reported about “80,000 phishing attempts” this school year and roughly 5,000 incidents that required human review. Langford described an ERP replacement that begins with core financials in January and moves to HR/payroll in June, and said filtering is applied by category and grade level, with stricter rules for younger students.

On GenAI and telemetry: Langford said GenAI tools were not among the top 20 categories of system‑wide use in the latest filter logs, but that his team is monitoring trends and working with teaching and learning to limit entertainment access and prioritize instructional sites. Board members asked for more granular telemetry on device usage and for staff to return with additional detail about GenAI visibility and response plans.

Public offers of help: Jessica Bernards offered free consulting help to configure allowlist settings and embed instructional content; the board and staff signaled interest in follow‑up technical and instructional coordination.

Ending: IT committed to return with further detail on telemetry, GenAI use and the district’s filtering strategy; parents and experts asked the board to prioritize a transition to allowlist controls where feasible.