myON follows the expertise and guidance of our publishing partners regarding appropriate reading level, interest level, and subject-matter suitability. We also understand that some topics are appropriate for different audiences based on the local guidelines, requirements, customs, culture, and norms of the communities that we serve. Educators need to be empowered with choice and control for their students, keeping educators at the center of those decisions. Therefore, we provide administrators with tools to control access to news articles as needed.
District Administrator Settings
In the district Account Options, district administrators can choose the minimum grade levels that can see news articles that are flagged as belonging to one of two special categories:
- Sensitive content: This flag indicates the content may be sensitive for some students, typically because the subject matter relates to violence.
- Legislation-related content: This flag indicates the article may refer to topics that are regulated in schools by the legislatures of some states.
When administrators and teachers view articles that have one of these flags, a notice will tell them that the article has been flagged and the type of flag that has been applied.
District administrators can also allow building administrators to choose different settings for their own buildings.
Follow these steps to change the settings:
- At the top of the page, select My District, then District settings.
- Select the Account Options tab.
- Under "myON News Management," choose your preferred settings:
Sensitive Content
In the drop-down list under "Sensitive content," choose the lowest grade level that should have access to news articles with that flag. By default, this is set to "Pre-K," which would mean all students can access and read these articles. If you choose a grade level, students in that grade and higher grades can access the articles. If you choose "No Access," no students or teachers can access the articles. (Teachers are only affected by the No Access setting.)
Below the setting, the check box lets you decide whether building administrators can choose different settings for their own buildings. Check the box if you want to allow building administrators to do this.
Legislation-Related Content
In the drop-down list under "Legislation-related content," choose the lowest grade level that should have access to articles with that flag. As in the sensitive content setting, students in the grade level you selected and higher grade levels will see the news articles; younger students will not. "No Access" means no students or teachers can access the articles.
Below that setting, use the check box to choose whether to allow building administrators to choose different settings for their own buildings.
Allowing Building Administrators to Set Minimum Grade Levels Directly on News Articles
District administrators can set a minimum grade level for any specific news article while viewing the article. If you check the last box under myON News Management, building administrators can do so as well for their own buildings, and their settings for each article will be used for students in their building instead of the district administrator settings.
- When you're done, select Save to save your changes.
Building Administrator Settings
Building administrators can also choose myON News Management settings if district administrators have chosen to allow it. For more information, see Building Administrator Building Settings Overview.
Setting the Minimum Grade Level for Specific Articles
District administrators can also set minimum grade levels for specific articles, regardless of whether the articles are flagged sensitive content or legislation-related content. Building administrators can also do this if the district administrator allows them to set grade levels for any article. Administrators can do this while viewing a day's news articles, or they can search for the articles on their Account News tab.
Searching for Articles by Keywords, Minimum Grade Level Settings, Flags, or Release Dates
If you are a district administrator, select My District, then District settings. Then, select the News tab.
If you are a building administrator, select My School, then Account, and then the News tab.
On the News tab, you will see several search options:
- Article title and content: Search for words that appear in titles or in the articles themselves.
- Minimum grade: Search for articles that have any minimum grade setting or a specific setting.
- Flag: Search for articles flagged sensitive content or legislation-related content.
- Release date: Find articles that were released in the last week, month, 3 months, 6 months, or year. This is a good way to find recent articles that you haven't yet reviewed.
Any search option left blank is not applied. After choosing search options, select Search.
In the search results, you'll see the following for each article:
- title
- minimum grade level ("Pre-K" if no change was made to the level)
- who set the minimum grade level (if anyone)
- the flag if the article has one
- the release date
By default, the list is sorted by release date, with the most recent articles first, but you can select any column heading to sort by that column.
To open an article in a new tab, select the title of the article.
Choosing Minimum Grade Levels for Multiple Articles
You can set minimum grade levels for multiple articles in the News tab's search results:
- Check each article in the search results that you want to choose a setting for. Note: Building administrators who aren't allowed to set minimum grade levels for news articles will not see check boxes.
- Above the search results, use the drop-down list to choose the minimum grade level that will be allowed to read these articles.
- Select Save to the right of the drop-down list. After you save, you will see the new value in the Minimum Grade column and your name in the Set By column.
Choosing Minimum Grade Levels for an Open Article
If you have selected an article to open it, or if you have opened an article from the myON News tab while viewing the day's news, you can set a minimum grade level in the article itself (or choose not to allow student access). District administrators always see this option; building administrators also see it if they are allowed to set minimum grade levels for news articles. (Building administrators with this option also see the district setting as shown below.)
To set a minimum grade level for an article, select the drop-down list below the article title and the flag (if there is a flag). After choosing a setting, select Save to apply it to your students.
What Administrators See When Articles Have Minimum Grade Levels
After restrictions have been applied to an article, on the main news page for the day, administrators will see a message telling them that the article has grade-level restrictions applied.
What Students See When They Can't Access an Article
When students don't have access to an article, they see the message "This article is unavailable" instead of seeing the article title and image. Teachers also see this message if the article setting is "No Access."