by Ziv Golan ‘26

This past January MCPS announced that it would no longer be funding the online monitoring software Go Guardian for the 2024-25 school year as part of a slew of budget cuts. This prompted discontent from teachers who believed that without Go Guardian monitoring student behavior on Chromebooks would become a much more difficult task to manage. With the announcement that Go Guardian was cut MCPS Chief of Strategic Initiatives, Stephanie Sheron, added that the county would be on the lookout for possible cheaper alternatives to the platform. After significant pressure from teachers, MCPS began more heavily researching other options, eventually landing on the platform Lightspeed.

An August memo sent to MCPS principals by Sheron and Kara Trenkamp, the Director of the Department of Digital Innovation, announced the addition of Lightspeed for classroom monitoring purposes. The memo described how the county had researched a variety of platforms, piloting two different ones at the end of last school year before deciding on Lightspeed. According to the memo, Lightspeed is accessible to teachers via the Clever portal which is where many sites used frequently by students and teachers, including Naviance, are accessed.

Lightspeed describes itself as a platform that protects students from inappropriate sites anywhere they learn. The platform also incorporates an alert system that aids in preventing suicide, cyberbullying, and violence. The system flags emails, chats, or any other indicators that students are a danger to themselves or anyone else, alerting school staff members along with specially trained Lightspeed safety specialists who can help resolve the situation. The system also includes familiar elements from Go Guardian, including Classroom Management software allowing teachers to monitor students’ screens and close tabs they shouldn’t be on. The platform is used by school districts across the country and has received high praise, according to the company.