State guide: Washington

Washington School Internet Safety Laws

Washington districts filter under federal CIPA. The state's own focus is on process: a yearly review of internet safety policies, digital citizenship and media literacy, rules for school service providers, and local phone policies.

Is there a state filter mandate?Not one we are aware of. CIPA sets the filter rules.
What does the state add?An annual policy review, student data rules and phone policy authority.
What changes for IT?Better records, vendor data terms and a yearly settings check.

What CIPA requires of Washington districts

CIPA is the condition attached to E-Rate discounts for internet access and internal connections. Each funding year the district certifies three duties.

Technology protection measure

A filter that blocks visual depictions that are obscene, child pornography, or harmful to minors on computers minors use.

Internet safety policy

A policy on minors' access to inappropriate material, safety in email and chat, hacking, and disclosure of minors' personal data, adopted after public notice and a hearing or meeting.

Monitoring and education

Monitoring of minors' online activities, plus teaching about appropriate online behavior, social networking safety and cyberbullying.

Schools and libraries certify on FCC Form 486, and consortium members on Form 479. For the full federal picture, read what CIPA is and what it does not require.
Built for a yearly review

Settings you can bring to the table once a year

Washington leaves filtering to CIPA but asks every district to review its internet safety policy each year with students, parents and staff in the room. Our hosted CIPA filter is a DNS filter that we run for you, and its policy record and reports show that group what is blocked and what was asked for.

  • Category switches per school keep local choices such as social media and gaming easy to explain
  • Always-allow and always-block lists record the changes that came out of last year's meeting
  • Reports are by school and category, which fits the privacy aims of the SUPER Act
Category switches in the hosted CIPA filter that a Washington review group can read line by line
120M+
domains with a category the review group can discuss
1 DNS setting
at the router or firewall, with no agent on any device
99.99%
of the active internet kept inside those categories
Preview the filter your review group would useTalk about a pilot in one Washington schoolCheck a blocked site for the review notes

What Washington adds beyond CIPA

We are not aware of a Washington statute that sets its own K-12 filtering standard. Filtering bills were proposed in the past, but the state's current additions are about policy process, privacy and phones.

RuleStatusWhat it doesWho it mainly affects
CIPAFederal lawFilter, internet safety policy, monitoring and education for E-Rate recipientsDistricts and libraries on E-Rate
RCW 28A.650.045State lawYearly review of the electronic resources and internet safety policy and procedures, with a wide group of participantsEvery school district
Chapter 28A.604 RCW (SUPER Act)State law, 2015Limits on how school service providers use student personal informationEdtech vendors, district contracts
SB 5346, Chapter 225, Laws of 2026State law, 2026Clarifies school board authority to limit student phone use, adds mobile device use to digital citizenship and calls for OSPI reportingSchool boards, OSPI
OSPI phone guidanceAdvisoryState guidance on student phone use, without enforcement power of its ownDistricts writing phone policies
RCW 28A.650.045

Annual internet safety policy review

  • Since the 2017-18 school year, districts review their policy and procedures on electronic resources and internet safety every year.
  • The review involves students, parents, teachers, teacher-librarians, other staff, administrators and community members with relevant expertise.
  • Districts consider the state model policy developed by the school directors' association with OSPI, their existing resources and best practices for teaching these skills.
  • Digital citizenship covers responsible technology use, media literacy, ethics, security, internet safety and cyberbullying prevention.
Chapter 28A.604 RCW

Student User Privacy in Education Rights Act

  • Applies to school services: sites, apps and online services designed and marketed mainly for K-12 schools and used at the direction of school staff.
  • Services marketed broadly to the public are excluded, even when schools use them.
  • Providers may not use student data for targeted advertising, and may not build student profiles except for school purposes or with consent.
  • District contract terms often extend the same limits to subcontractors.
SB 5346 of 2026

Phone policies and digital citizenship

  • Approved on March 25, 2026, effective June 11, 2026, as Chapter 225, Laws of 2026.
  • Clarifies that school boards have authority to adopt policies limiting student phone use.
  • Updates the digital citizenship definition to cover student mobile device use.
  • Asks OSPI to report on district policies and recommend practices. It does not itself require a ban.
Watch list

Further phone legislation

  • The governor has backed a statewide phone-free schools proposal beyond the 2026 law.
  • An OSPI survey reported in the bill materials found many districts restrict devices during instructional time only.
  • Check the current status of any new bill before changing your policy, since details may shift between sessions.

What this means for filtering and monitoring

Washington leaves the technology choice to CIPA and to the district. What the state adds is a yearly chance, and duty, to check that the policy and the filter still match.

Filter: legal minimum

  • Block the CIPA visual depiction categories for every student group.
  • Cover take-home devices, not only the campus network.
  • Block proxies and anonymizers that would bypass the filter.

Filter: local choices

  • Social media, streaming, gaming and AI tools by grade band.
  • Open media literacy resources, news and reference sites for research.
  • Record each choice in the annual review notes.

Monitoring: CIPA duty

  • Monitor minors' online activity in a reasonable, proportionate way.
  • Use category reports and alert review for routine oversight.
  • Send cyberbullying alerts to the right student services staff.

Monitoring: privacy

  • Check whether a monitoring vendor is a school service provider under the SUPER Act.
  • Limit named browsing logs and set a retention period.
  • Tell families what is monitored on school devices.

CIPA core categories for student policies

AdultLingerie/Swimsuits/Intimate ApparelDatingGamblingIllegal DrugsWeaponsViolenceHate/DiscriminationVPN / Proxy / Anonymizers

Common local choices to revisit in the annual review

Social NetworkingStreaming MediaGamingAI / LLM ToolsAlcoholTobaccoFile Sharing/P2PForums / Message Boards
Our category database covers 120 million categorized domains, and about 300,000 newly registered domains are categorized every day. That keeps category blocks current between reviews. See the full web filtering categories taxonomy.
Media literacy without over-blocking

How news, fact-check and reference sites are labelled, next to a social and an AI example

Teachers in the review will ask whether media-literacy sites are open. These lookups come from our database, and the multi-category names show why a quick look before blocking pays off.

DomainCategories in our dataWhat the review group can conclude
snopes.comNews/MediaOpen with the News/Media category for media-literacy lessons
factcheck.orgNews/Media, Political, Education/ReferenceThree categories, so no single block should shut it
wikipedia.orgEducation/ReferenceReference use that students expect to find open
commonsensemedia.orgArts & Entertainment, Education/ReferenceUseful for families and for digital citizenship lessons
tiktok.comSocial Networking, Streaming MediaA local choice by grade band
openai.comAI / LLM ToolsA separate AI category the review can decide on
Bring a lookup to the next review meeting

Running the annual internet safety policy review

RCW 28A.650.045 makes the review a yearly habit. A four-step routine keeps it short and useful, and leaves a clean record behind.

1

Gather the data

Pull filter settings, unblock requests, monitoring summaries and any incidents from the past year.

2

Convene the group

Invite students, parents, teachers, teacher-librarians, staff, administrators and community members with expertise.

3

Compare and decide

Check the policy against the model policy and current practice. Agree any category or procedure changes.

4

Record and apply

Write up the outcome, update the filter, and file the notes with the board's records.

If the review changes the CIPA internet safety policy itself, give reasonable public notice and hold a public hearing or meeting before adoption. Our internet safety policy guide lists what the policy must cover.

Questions for teachers

Which blocked sites got in the way of lessons? Which risky sites got through? Did unblock requests get answered in time for class?

Questions for students

Do the rules make sense to you? Where do you feel unsafe online? Which lessons on digital citizenship helped?

Questions for families

Is it clear what the filter does on take-home devices? Do you know how to report a concern or ask about monitoring?

Washington school compliance checklist

Grouped by when the work happens. The general CIPA compliance checklist covers the federal items in more depth.

Before the school year

Confirm CIPA categories are blockedFor every student group and building.
CIPA
Check take-home filteringTest sample devices on home networks.
CIPA
Update the phone policyUse the board authority confirmed in 2026 and current OSPI guidance.
SB 5346
Brief staffOn monitoring, reporting and unblock requests.
CIPA

During the year

Review monitoring reportsOn a set schedule, with named reviewers.
CIPA
Teach digital citizenshipMedia literacy, internet safety and cyberbullying lessons.
CIPA, RCW 28A.650.045
Log unblock decisionsWho asked, what was decided and why.
Good practice
Check new vendor contractsAgainst SUPER Act limits on student data.
Chapter 28A.604 RCW

Once a year

Hold the policy reviewWith the full participant group.
RCW 28A.650.045
Public notice and hearingIf the internet safety policy changes.
CIPA
File E-Rate certificationForm 486, or Form 479 through a consortium.
CIPA
Set log retentionAnd match it to the records schedule.
Privacy

Evidence to keep, by owner

Grouping records by the person who owns them makes the yearly review and any E-Rate audit far easier.

School board and superintendent's office
  • Adopted internet safety and electronic resources policy, with minutes
  • Public notice and minutes of the CIPA hearing or meeting
  • Annual review notes and the list of participant groups
  • Adopted phone policy and family notice
Technology department
  • Filter policy export or screenshots, dated each school year
  • Off-campus test results for sample devices
  • Unblock request log with reasons
  • Log retention setting and records schedule reference
Teaching and learning
  • Digital citizenship and media literacy curriculum map
  • Lesson plans on internet safety and cyberbullying by grade band
  • Teacher feedback gathered for the annual review
Procurement and data privacy
  • Filtering and monitoring vendor contracts and data agreements
  • Notes on whether each vendor is a school service provider under the SUPER Act
  • Deletion confirmations at contract end
E-Rate coordinator
  • Filed Form 486 or Form 479 for each funding year
  • Copies of the policy and filter evidence used for certification

Privacy questions often overlap with federal rules. See student data privacy and filtering, and for devices at home, how to enforce CIPA off campus.

Away from school Wi-Fi

School laptops at home stay on the same page

The review asks whether families understand what the filter does on take-home devices. With a private encrypted link, the same category rules follow a laptop or phone off the network, and staff can still open adult research for 15, 30 or 60 minutes with a log.

Explain take-home coverage to families

Phone policies and the school network

The 2026 law leaves phone rules to local boards. Whatever your board decides, a few network facts shape how the policy works in practice.

Cellular data is outside the filter

A personal phone on its own data plan never reaches the district network. Storage rules and classroom practice, not filter settings, govern that traffic.

School Wi-Fi is inside it

Phones allowed at lunch or between classes may join school Wi-Fi. Put every student-reachable network, including guest Wi-Fi, under the student filter policy.

School devices carry more load

When phones are put away, more browsing happens on district devices. Their CIPA filter, on and off campus, becomes the main control.

Since SB 5346 adds student mobile device use to the digital citizenship definition, phone habits fit naturally into the same lessons and the same annual review as internet safety.

Media literacy goals and over-blocking

Washington asks districts to build media literacy and digital citizenship. Students cannot learn to judge sources if the filter hides most of them, so the annual review should check for over-blocking.

Resource typeWhy it gets blockedBetter approach
News coverage of crime, war or extremismViolence or Hate/Discrimination signals in the textAllow News/Media for older grades, keep the CIPA visual categories blocked
Health and sex education pagesWords that resemble adult contentUse a filter that ranks a site's main category, so health sites are not treated as adult
Fact-checking and source analysis sitesShared hosting or new domainsAllow Education/Reference and review new domains through the unblock log
Video examples for lessons on misinformationStreaming Media blocked by defaultAllow teacher-led access through a staff or class policy
Historical art and museum collectionsClassical artwork flagged as nudityReview on request and allow by group, with a recorded reason

Questions to ask filtering and monitoring vendors

Filters see which student visited which site and when. Under the SUPER Act and your own policy, that data needs clear limits in the contract.

Data handling

  • Which student identifiers do you receive, and can we turn some off?
  • Do you ever use student data for advertising or profiles? The answer should be no.
  • Which subcontractors process our data, and are they bound by the same terms?
  • How and when is data deleted at contract end?

Coverage and accuracy

  • How quickly are newly registered domains categorized?
  • Can one site carry several categories, ranked by how much of it they describe?
  • Does filtering follow devices off campus?
  • Can we scope an unblock to one group without changing others?
Districts that prefer to keep browsing data in house can run category lookups inside their own systems. Our database is delivered as files with a lookup API, so fewer student records need to leave the district.

Common myths about Washington school internet rules

A few assumptions come up again and again in Washington districts. Clearing them up early makes the annual review shorter and calmer.

"Washington has a state filter list"

We are not aware of one. The filter's legal minimum comes from CIPA, and the district sets everything above that through its own policy.

"The 2026 law banned phones"

SB 5346 confirms board authority and asks OSPI for reporting. Whether to restrict phones bell to bell, in class only, or not at all remains a local decision for now.

"The annual review is a formality"

The law names who should take part. A real review with teachers, students and families is also the best way to catch over-blocking and gaps.

"Monitoring means watching every screen"

CIPA asks for monitoring of minors' online activity. Category-level reports and alert review usually meet that need without live screen viewing.

"Adults can never be unblocked"

CIPA lets an authorized person disable the filter for an adult doing bona fide research or other lawful work. Write down who may do it.

"Public apps are covered by the SUPER Act"

Services marketed broadly to the public are excluded from the school service definition, so check general apps through your own review instead.

The annual review checklist, with and without a hosted filter

Each row is something Washington districts gather or change when RCW 28A.650.045 comes around.

Review taskDone by handHosted CIPA filter
List what is blocked for each student groupCopy settings from several tools into a documentCategory switches show it for each school or branch
Count the unblock requestsSearch through inboxes and ticketsAlways-allow lists and the policy record show what was opened
Check that bypass tools stay outA hand-kept list of proxy sitesVPN/Proxy/Anonymizers blocked as a category, even during a staff PIN bypass
Test take-home devicesDepends on how each device is set upA private encrypted link applies the same rules away from the network
Show what is monitoredHard to say across several toolsActivity reports by school and category; it is not a classroom screen tool
File notes for the boardAssemble exports before the meetingA log export and reports ready on request
See what a Washington review would getAsk what Washington coverage would cost

Washington school internet safety FAQ

Does Washington have its own school web filtering law?

We are not aware of a Washington statute that sets a K-12 filtering standard beyond CIPA. The state adds the annual policy review, the SUPER Act for school service providers and clarified phone policy authority.

What does RCW 28A.650.045 require?

A yearly review of the district's electronic resources and internet safety policy and procedures since 2017-18, involving students, parents, staff, teacher-librarians, administrators and community members with expertise.

Does Washington require schools to ban phones?

Not under the 2026 law. SB 5346 clarifies that boards may limit student phone use and asks OSPI to report. It does not require a ban. Check for later legislation.

What is the SUPER Act?

Chapter 28A.604 RCW, passed in 2015, limits how school service providers use student personal information, including bans on targeted advertising and on profiles outside school purposes.

Must we change filter settings every year?

No. The law asks for a review. Many districts confirm their settings, adjust a few categories from teacher feedback and record the result.

Who should lead the annual review?

Many districts give the review to a technology or curriculum leader who gathers the data, runs the meeting and writes up the outcome. The board keeps final authority over policy changes, and the notes go into the board's records.

Do the state rules cover private schools?

The annual review law is written for school districts. CIPA applies to any school, public or private, that takes E-Rate internet discounts. Private schools should confirm their position with counsel.

Other state school internet laws

California school internet safety laws Ohio SB 29 school compliance Michigan school internet safety laws New Jersey school internet safety laws Virginia school internet safety laws Arizona school internet safety laws

Need another state? Our school internet safety laws by state page links to all of them.

Not legal advice. This page summarizes federal and Washington rules in our own words for general information. Statutes, session laws and OSPI guidance change, and details here may not reflect the latest version. Check the current RCW and confirm your obligations with district counsel.

Related guides

We price according to the number of Washington schools and devices, and a quote reaches you in one business day. Begin with a pilot in one school, and your review group can look at real blocks and reports at the next meeting.

Talk to us about your Washington district

Bring your annual review notes and device numbers. We will show how our CIPA category coverage and the hosted CIPA filter pilot can support a cleaner review each year.

Talk to us about your district