Utah Education Network
May 10, 1998


Mr. Michael A. Sims
738 East 6th St. Apt 1C
New York, NY 10009

Dear Mr. Sims

Thank you for your request for the information contained in your
letter.  I have been out of town and am just now able to respond to
your request.

As a scholar and journalist, you will undoubtably appreciate that much
of the information that you have requested is available via the Utah
Education Network home page.  The address is www.uen.org.

You will find various links to the information available.  However, to
save you some time, specific links will access some of the specific
information which you have requested.  I have listed several of these
below.

 1.	The Acceptable Use Policy can be found at
 www.uen.org/cgi-bin/websql/utahlink/policy.hts.  You will also note
 that there is a general Utah Education Network (Network) acceptable
 use policy and policies for each of the public school districts in
 the state.

 2.	The report to the State Board of Education was actually a report
 to a subcommittee of the Board and was generally verbal in nature.
 The minutes of the subcommittee might be available to you; however,
 we are not the `owners' of that information and do not have direct
 access to it.

 3.	Computer log files of Internet sites accessed through our network.
  Each of the school districts chooses (completely at their
 discretion) whether or not to filter and can select sites to filter
 (or which they would choose not to filter) for their district and for
 each of the schools within their district.  Each log is maintained by
 the Network for and in behalf of the districts.  The districts are
 the `owners' of the data contained in the logs.  The Utah Education
 Network acts only as the custodian of the data and is not authorized
 to release those detailed logs.  The information which you request
 can be obtained only by requesting it from the owners and then only
 if it is not considered and/or designated as `private' under the
 referenced statute.  Generally, the logs could be considered as
 `private' inasmuch as they reflect individual student and/or teacher
 accesses to the information available on the Internet.  4.	Records of
 sites `blocked' are a part of the above addressed logs.

 5.	Obviously, the logs referenced in the Associated Press story are
 the same logs as noted above.

 6.	The public school districts in the state of Utah have the legal
 obligation to determine the curriculum materials which are available
 to the students in their schools.  The Utah State Board of Education
 has polices that specifically address the kinds of materials with are
 deemed not to be appropriate for the classroom.  The schools
 districts in the state are acutely aware of the challenge of
 providing the students which they serve with `world-class'
 educational opportunities while not introducing or permitting to be
 introduced materials which are in violation of the State Board's
 Policies or which may violate the `community standards' regarding
 pornography.   

  Libraries and Institutions of Higher Education generally do not
  filter materials available to their students, faculty, or patrons.
  However, libraries may institute similar criteria as they might
  presently utilize in building and/or maintaining their collections.
  There are several software packages which permit libraries to
  implement criteria which is inclusive of sites and information which
  is aligned with their selection criteria.

  Additional informational regarding filtering categories and
  statistics in aggregate form for the public schools of the state is
  available at www.helpdesk.k12.ut.us/filtercon.htm.

 7.	As noted earlier, the public school districts have the option as
 to whether or not to filter.  The decision is under their direct
 control and specifically related to their policies regarding
 curriculum materials available to their students.  Additionally, they
 have the option to select to either permit or to preclude access to
 any specific site.

 8.	Documents that describe the effectiveness of the filtering
 software are available on the above referenced web addresses.

 9.	There is not a document which `tallies' the costs involved. 
 Filtering is a service which is offered to the public school
 districts of the state and is provided as a function of the
 Networks's Help-desk facility.

 10.	There is not a document which `orders' the Utah Education Network
 to provide `filtered Internet access'.  As noted, it is service which
 is available to the public school districts.  It should also be noted
 that legislative language requiring all school districts in the state
 to filter Internet access was introduced in the 1997 Legislative
 Session.  The bill was modified to establish a commission which
 reviewed the present procedures and options available to the
 districts.  The commission determined that the process, procedures
 and options available to the districts were adequate and were
 appropriately aligned with state law and the policies of the State
 Board of Education.

I believe that this answers each and all of your questions and
appropriately reflects our desire to act as the steward and/or
custodian of the data referenced herein under the Utah Government
Records Access and Management Act.

If I can be of any further assistance, please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,



Stephen Hess, Executive Director