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GoGuardian Discover wins 2026 CODiE Award for best emerging edtech for administrators and launches New Screen Time Insights dashboard. The recognition underscores Discover's role in helping district leaders make informed decisions about app governance, ROI, and screen value. LOS ANGELES, CA - July 17, 2026 - GoGuardian, the leader in education technology supporting more than 25 million students and 10,000 schools nationwide, today announced that GoGuardian Discover has been named a 2026 CODiE Award Winner for best emerging edtech for administrators. The CODiE Awards recognize the most innovative products, platforms, and services across technology and education. Winners are selected through a rigorous evaluation process led by independent industry experts who assess each solution based on innovation, functionality, market impact, and overall value. Selected from 228 finalists across 75 categories, the 2026 CODiE Award winners represent the solutions setting new standards for excellence and innovation. "We are honored to receive this recognition from the CODiE Awards," said Rich Preece, CEO of GoGuardian. "This award reflects our team's commitment to helping districts make sense of some of the hardest issues they face today: measuring student screen time and knowing if that time is productive, knowing which apps are compliant, and where their technology dollars are actually working. Discover brings all of that into a single, trusted view. We're proud not just to build the tools that give leaders that clarity, but to help lead the larger conversation - which is exactly why we're convening district leaders next week for a candid roundtable on building a managed-access approach to screen time." New Screen Time Insights give district leaders the context behind the numbers: Built for district administrators and technology leaders, the insights deliver: * Total screen time trends over time, including average daily screen time per student * In-school vs. out-of-school segmentation, revealing how usage shifts during and outside the school day * Where screen time is highest across individual schools and grades * Top apps and categories driving overall usage * App approval status breakdown, showing how time is distributed across approved, not approved, and under-review apps The result is a practical tool that helps district leaders quickly identify trends and lead more informed conversations about app governance, ROI, and screen value. GoGuardian Discover gives district technology leaders a unified, trusted view of their entire EdTech ecosystem, turning verified usage data into clear guidance on what to optimize, renew, or review. It continuously monitors apps against iKeepSafe and 1EdTech certifications to surface compliance and privacy risks, uses AI to identify unused and underused licenses before contracts auto-renew, and connects app usage to real campus engagement rather than just logins. "The 2026 CODiE Award winners represent some of the most innovative and impactful solutions in the industry," said Jennifer Baranowski, President of the CODiE Awards. "These organizations are solving meaningful challenges, delivering measurable outcomes, and helping shape the future of technology." About GoGuardian With over a decade of experience, including pioneering the use of AI in K-12 education, GoGuardian delivers best-in-class solutions built with educators, not just for them. Its suite of products, powered by purpose-driven, customizable AI and actionable insights, enables what matters most: safer schools, empowered teachers, and thriving students. Trusted by over 2 million educators and more than 10,000 schools, GoGuardian supports 25 million students nationwide - representing 50% of all public and private K-12 learners in the U.S. GoGuardian's curriculum and instruction suite, Pear Deck Learning, is the only platform that offers teachers support for every instructional step in any topic - all in one place. From lesson planning to state testing, Pear Deck Learning helps teachers deliver engaging instruction, personalized learning tailored to each student's needs, and meaningful assessment all with ease. Its team loves working with journalists to share compelling and unique stories. If you're a member of the media and would like to talk, please send an email to:

GoGuardian has launched Discover, a product that gives US school district leaders a unified view of their educational technology ecosystem. The company is offering free use of Discover for up to 60 days through 31 July for new and existing customers. The platform addresses three key needs: automated compliance and risk management through continuous monitoring against student data privacy certifications, AI-powered identification of cost savings by spotting unused licences, and actionable insights via natural language queries. Districts currently manage nearly 3,000 digital tools annually, with 70% of software licences going unused. GoGuardian supports over 25 million students and 10,000 schools nationwide. The free offer aims to help districts identify savings and compliance risks before budgets close.

Real-Time data shows exactly how students use AI on school technology. Roughly one in five student interactions with generative artificial intelligence on school technology involved cheating, self-harm, bullying, and other problematic behaviors, according to data collected and analyzed by Securly, a company offering internet filtering and other safety services. What's more, Securly identified roughly 1 in 50 student-AI interactions as red flags that students might be involved in violence, cyberbullying, or self-harm. Securly's analysis looked at nearly 1.2 million interactions in more than 1,300 districts from Dec. 1, 2025, to Feb. 20, 2026. For you. Educators should take heart that most of the time, students use AI appropriately, said Tammy Wincup, the CEO of Securly, whose competitors include GoGuardian and Lightspeed Systems. "When a district actually sets some guardrails and policies around their AI usage in schools, 80% of the conversations happening are within the district's policies," Wincup said. "That's the good news on the learning side of the house." Why the usage data is so 'fascinating' The analysis offers an early window into how students actually use generative AI tools. Most other research on student usage of AI comes from surveys, which rely on student self-reporting. Securly's data shows "what are students really doing when they're writing text into generative AI," said Jeremy Roschelle, the co-executive director of learning science research for Digital Promise, a nonprofit organization that works on equity and technology issues in schools. "That's why it's fascinating," he said. In November, Securly allowed district officials to set parameters around students' AI use, similar to the way they ask the company to filter out particular types of websites. If districts opt to use this feature, large language models will "deflect" a student's query to AI that's out-of-bounds with district policy. For instance, if a student tries to use AI to complete an assignment, large language models may instead point to information on the general topic but won't supply an exact answer. Or if a student asks about dosing for a particular medication, the tool will tell them to ask a trusted adult for help. Nearly all the deflected student queries - 95% - were from students trying to get AI tools to complete their schoolwork for them. That percentage didn't surprise Wincup. She expects that when districts allow students to use large language models on school networks and devices, kids will "experiment with understanding the guardrails" placed around the tools and try to get around those guardrails. Another 2% of the interactions identified as inappropriate related to games. A little less than 1% dealt with sexual content and a similar percentage concerned firearms or hunting. Gambling, drugs, and hate (such as racism and antisemitism) each comprised roughly 0.5% of flagged interactions. Though only 2 percent of interactions were identified as potentially unsafe, that represents more than 24,000 queries overall. And some of the questions students asked AI were troubling. For instance, one student directed a large language model to help draft an email to their mother explaining they had suicidal thoughts. Another student conducted a quick series of internet searches on questions, including "What's the main nerve in the forearm?" and "What nerve near the wrist carries blood?" Then the student switched to an AI tool, asking it how to commit suicide. (In both of these cases, the identity of the student was 'unmasked' by Securly and district officials were made aware of the safety issues.) Students used chatgpt more often than large language models created for K-12 schools. Overall, Securly detected a higher percentage of potentially unsafe AI interactions - 2% - than potentially unsafe student internet searches, 0.4%. It's too early to pinpoint an exact explanation for that discrepancy, Wincup said. She noted that Securly has had many years to hone its system for recognizing when a student's internet searches may be a sign of danger, while its work with AI interactions is brand new. Roschelle, meanwhile, is curious about what, exactly, students asked AI in the 80 percent of interactions that were deemed appropriate for school. How did their prompts and AI's responses help - or hinder - their understanding of an assignment, an issue, or the world around them, he wondered. "What we want to do is make sure [AI] is not just appropriate, but is actually valuable for student learning," Roschelle said. The analysis also revealed which large language models students use most often. ChatGPT is by far the most popular, accounting for 42% of interactions. Securly's AI Chat made up 28%. Google's Gemini comprised 21%. And other ed-tech tools that embed AI features - including MagicSchool, SchoolAI, and BriskTeaching - comprised 9%. (That data isn't nationally representative because only districts that use Securly have access to Securly AI. But Wincup believes "big tech" large language models are probably most popular in all districts.) AI puts education technology leaders in a new position, Wincup said. "They're no longer just buying things and setting things up like this," she said. This is a moment "where they have to have visibility in order to help their district make not just great tech decisions but make great teaching and learning decisions." Alyson Klein is an assistant editor for Education Week. Related Tags: