Clover School District

Dear Clover School District Families:

Our district seeks to continuously provide students with varied and high-quality reading materials in print and digital formats. Per school board policy, we want to ensure all resources are carefully selected to avoid sexual, ethnic, racial, or religious stereotypes or biases. (IJKA) We continue to seek a variety of new resources because our board believes that the availability of carefully selected and widely varied supplementary materials enhances students' opportunity to learn and acquire knowledge (IJK) and is consistent with the educational goals of our district. (IJNDB)

Epic is a digital reading platform with a collection of over 40,000 fiction and non-fiction titles from over 250 publishers. Using this free online tool, teachers provide time in class for students to read high-interest books on their reading levels and complete research for standards-based projects. We recognize that some online platforms may contain resources that are not consistent with the values of everyone. While we are careful to assign texts that avoid biases and stereotypes, in some online platforms, like Epic, our teachers cannot curate the collection of titles for which students are able to search. The library of books in Epic is available to students during the school day.  If a student opens a book during the school day, he/she is able to continue reading that book at home but doesn’t have permission to search/open other titles at home. Parents have the right to request that their children not access these online applications. Parents may also review available titles and challenge them if desired.

• We encourage you to explore the Epic site to learn more. We have also developed a video snapshot of how we use Epic in Clover schools.
• Parents can view titles their students are reading in online platforms and the search history on the student iPad.
• Parents may challenge a specific title via board policy (KEC)
• Parents may request that the app be removed from a student’s iPad through our opt-out form. (IJKA-E4)

Please access this letter online at www.clover.k12.sc.us then under for “For Parents” tab select “Third Party App Information.”

The benefit of having good online and print titles, is that it increases student access--thus developing both a love of reading and critical reading skills.

Please contact your school principal if you would like more information on the digital platforms or use the opt-out form if you would prefer the apps be removed from your child’s device.

Reading is essential to school success and having access to digital text will help ensure our students continue growing. Thank you for partnering with us to provide learning opportunities for our students.