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School-issued devices: what you control (and don’t)

School-owned Chromebooks and iPads follow school policies, not yours. Here’s what you can change and what to ask for.

Topic guide·Last reviewed 2026-04-22·1 min read·by Lexeprint Inc.
Illustration of a school-issued iPad with a ruler and notebook

What you actually control on a school-issued device

If the device is owned by the school, the school’s IT admin configures policies through an MDM (Mobile Device Management) system. You typically cannot override their settings. You can:

  • Apply your home network’s DNS filtering when the device is on your WiFi.
  • Ask the school to tighten their MDM policies.
  • Monitor usage by asking your child to walk you through recent tabs and apps.
  • Set usage rules at home (no school device in the bedroom, for instance).

What you can’t control

  • Installing your own parental-control software. Most school MDMs will block it or remove it on next sync.
  • Changing the device’s Google / Apple / Microsoft account.
  • Deleting the school’s monitoring profile without violating your school use agreement.

Questions to ask your school

  1. What content categories does the school filter? Does it apply off-campus?
  2. Does the school use activity-monitoring software like Gaggle, GoGuardian, Lightspeed, Bark for Schools? What does it flag?
  3. Who receives those alerts, and when does the parent get notified?
  4. Are student search histories logged? For how long?
  5. Is AI-assisted monitoring (e.g., LLM-based flagging) being used?
  6. What happens at home — does the filter still apply?
  7. If I want tighter filtering at home, what’s the approved way?

Printable version

Take our school-device questions sheet to your next parent-teacher night.

Keep home protection at home

Even if the school device is locked down on its own, a home network DNS filter gives an extra layer. See the router guide.