​​The North Vancouver School District (NVSD) is using the Canadian educational suite for Microsoft 365. All of the components of Microsoft 365 that the school district are using are housed in Canada. All contents within Microsoft 365, including emails and student work, are stored in Canada. NVSD controls and owns all of the content within Microsoft 365. Microsoft's role is limited to that of a data processor.

The North Vancouver School District's Information and Communication Technology (ICT) department creates students' Microsoft 365 email accounts. Students' Microsoft 365 email addresses do not include identifying information. The student name and Personal Education Number are not used to create the email address. Instead, an internal school district generated random six-digit number (e.g., 123456s@sd44.ca), that only the school district can identify to whom it belongs, is used. Unless you have the key, which is only available to the NVSD ICT department and to relevant school administrators and the classroom teacher, the student cannot be identified. NVSD has locked down the email accounts of elementary school students so that emails can only be sent and received from within the NVSD Microsoft 365 environment. 

Microsoft's security system is robust and has been reviewed and approved by the BC provincial government. The Microsoft 365 for education product differs from the commercial Microsoft 365 product. Microsoft has made great effort to ensure the privacy and security of data stored in the Microsoft 365 Education environment. Users accessing Microsoft 365 must log in through a web portal managed by NVSD. The user is authenticated on NVSD servers housed in the school district datacenter. In Microsoft 365 for education, emails and documents are not scanned or indexed to provide hooks for advertising.

A Microsoft 365 account is provided to a NVSD student only while he/she is an enrolled student within the school district. If the student leaves the school district for longer than 30 days, their account will be deactivated and slated for deletion. Deletion of Microsoft 365 accounts occurs automatically as part of year end systems processing.

Terms and Conditions of Use of Microsoft 365

1. The use of Microsoft 365 is governed under the school district's Information and Communication Systems and Resources Policy 609 and the Student Acceptable Use of Technology Agreement.
   
2. School and district codes of conduct are to be followed in both online and face-to-face environments.
   
3. Users are expected to respect all guidelines for privacy and confidentiality from the "Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act" to ensure that personal information is not compromised in public areas.
   
4. Email accounts are provided for educational purposes. The school district respects the privacy of users' email. However, use of NVSD technology services, including Microsoft 365, is not private and may be tracked, archived or monitored/reviewed without prior notice if there are reasonable grounds.
   
5. In accordance with the provincial "Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act", the school district will not intentionally inspect the contents of users' email, or disclose the content to anyone other than the sender, or intended recipient, without the consent of the sender or intended recipient, unless required to do so by law or the policies of the school district.
   
6. District ICT staff will only access email for purposes of resolving technical issues with email accounts at the request of the user.
   
7. Guidelines related to the use of appropriate language and respect for copyright must be followed.
   
8. Transmitting or posting threatening, abusive, illegal, commercial or political materials as defined by School Code of Conduct and District Policy 302: Student Conduct and the Student Acceptable Use of Technology Agreement is prohibited.
   
9. Users should not reveal their passwords or personal information, such as addresses, phone numbers or ages of themselves, other students or employees, when using Microsoft 365. Students should also avoid storing documents and other data that includes information that could be used to identify themselves or others.