Superintendent Toni Jones said this decision came after there were "issues with students watching videos that were not necessary for learning grade-level content."
"Principals and parents had been asking for us to turn it off, as it is not necessary for learning in pre-K-5," she said.
With the decision to limit YouTube access, Greenwich joined school districts across the state in monitoring how students access videos on the platform. Policies vary from district to district, with some banning certain grades from accessing YouTube completely, and others restricting what content specific age groups can view.
Some school districts use YouTube's restricted mode, including both Milford Public Schools and Norwalk Public Schools, to control what students can access.
"This is to ensure a safer online environment by filtering out content that may include explicit language, violence or material deemed inappropriate for children, based on YouTube's algorithms," according to a statement from Norwalk school officials. "Students can only view 'approved' videos and cannot view video comments."
Emily Flamme, Milford's communications coordinator, said her district also uses a web filter called Securly to regulate student access on online platforms, including YouTube.
Other districts also use web filters to regulate what students can view on online platforms, including on YouTube. In Ridgefield, Superintendent Susie Da Silva said they use Go Guardian, which helps restrict YouTube content in a way that is "applicable" to a grade level.
She said that students in kindergarten through third grade do not have their own district-provided device, so "Chromebooks are only used in certain situations under direct teacher supervision."
For fourth through eighth graders, students have a district-provided device and are allowed to bring it home to complete school work. However, "all filtering, including filtering of YouTube content, continues outside of the school district on the device," Da Silva said.
Once students hit high school, they have the choice to use a district device or their own. Therefore, "all filtering, including filtering of YouTube content continues on school property, however outside of school property students can access content with their own device," Da Silva said.
HOW DO POLICIES AFFECT TEACHERS?
Some districts, such as Westport and Meriden, base their YouTube policies off of Google since that is where their school accounts are based.
Due to Google's rules, Natalie Carrignan, Westport technology director, said the district's teachers have had to abide by various policies when it comes to screening YouTube videos in class.
"We occasionally hear some teacher frustration that things aren't as easy as they once were, or wish they could be," Carrignan said.
"However, no instructional leader has reported that teachers are unable to deliver instruction or meet curricular objectives," she added.
Though, as of this winter, Carrignan said Westport learned that Google confirmed in a meeting with Connecticut technology leaders that "teachers can now insert a YouTube link directly into a Google Classroom assignment, and students will only see that specific video."
"Alternatively, teachers can embed the video directly into Google Slides and set the permissions so students can only view that content," she said,
Meriden teachers, similar to those in Westport, have had to "adjust their practices as the technology requirements have changed," said Susan Moore, director of instructional technology and curriculum for Meriden Public Schools.
"We do our best to keep them informed of the changes and provide professional development on how to ensure the videos needed for instruction are available," Moore added.
In Southington, since students in all grades are only allowed to view content appropriate for 13 years and younger, teachers must get approval to screen YouTube videos that have a higher age restriction "to verify it is academically appropriate," Superintendent Steven Madancy said.
He said there is no way to completely ban access as "teachers in all content areas rely heavily on YouTube videos as part of their curriculum."
"It would be nearly impossible to replace all of those videos, especially when most of the resources would have a cost associated," Madancy added.
Jones, Greenwich's superintendent, said elementary school teachers still can access YouTube, even though their students are fully restricted from viewing the platform on their district-provided devices, both in and out of school.
She said this is to ensure that teachers can continue to "pull from a YouTube channel or page to share a primary resource, like a famous speech or natural events video from National Geographic."
FUTURE RESTRICTIONS
For some Connecticut school districts, the work is not done when it comes to restricting student YouTube access.
This is the case for Brookfield Public Schools.
Brookfield currently restricts YouTube across all grades in the district and students cannot use their school account to "log into, or create content on YouTube" through their district account, Superintendent John Barile said.
He said his district "is looking even further to limit said access to YouTube in order to shield (students) from increasing instances of inappropriate content posted on YouTube, and to continue to protect their student data privacy." But, the district will do this in a way to ensure teachers can still use the platform "as a teaching tool."
"We plan to provide our faculty with alternate options to embed (and) share important videos to complement instruction," Barile said.
Southington is also working to enhance its YouTube policy, Madancy said, through a collaboration between the technology and curriculum departments. This is so the district can "find a balance between curricular resources and protecting student online activity."
In Milford, Flamme said that while her district does have ways to filter the content students view on YouTube, district officials are planning to develop "a protocol regarding YouTube access to be implemented in the 2025-26 school year."
For other districts, officials chose to not further restrict the platform, including in Greenwich, where the initial plan was to ban YouTube through eighth grade instead of just at the elementary level.
But Jones said that brought "many challenges."
"YouTube is utilized heavily in the middle school curriculum for research and other purposes," she said. "YouTube has specific channels which are outstanding resources for students' learning, such as National Geographic, NASA, Smithsonian, Discovery Education, the National Park Service and more. There are links directly embedded in many of our middle school resources."
In some districts, though, community members are asking the officials to do even more when it comes to restricting student YouTube access. This is the case for Norwalk where people are asking the district to block YouTube completely for students.
"When this occurs, we engage in discussions with the parents to ensure they understand that there are valuable educational resources we access on YouTube," Norwalk Public Schools officials said in a statement. "These resources necessitate monitored access, which we have effectively implemented."
Staff writers Brian Gioele, Kaitlin Keane, Sandra Diamond Fox, Crystal Elescano, Cassandra Day, and Ciara Hooks contributed to this report.
©2025 The Hour (Norwalk, Conn.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
