LOS ANGELES, Sept. 04, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — GoGuardian, a leading K-12 digital learning solutions provider, today announced the successful completion of a 12-month statewide transition with the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE). Following a competitive RFP process, GoGuardian Admin was selected as the new Kentucky Education Technology System (KETS) standard, supporting statewide compliance with 1998 Senate Bill 230 and 701 KAR 5:120. This partnership provides a no-cost, centralized content management and filtering solution for 155 KY K-12 school districts and all KDE organizations, reinforcing Kentucky’s commitment to secure, high-quality digital learning environments for students and staff.
“Kentucky’s approach to education technology has always been built on the belief that the right tools, deployed the right way, make a real difference for KY K-12 students and adults,” said Associate Commissioner David Couch, Kentucky’s K-12 EdTech Leader and Chief Information Officer. “When we went through the RFP process, we needed a product that checked the compliance boxes, but also needed a partner that understood what Kentucky needed, could move quickly, and would be with us for the long term. What we found in GoGuardian — particularly once implementation began — was a level of responsiveness and flexibility that is genuinely rare in large-scale projects like this. Their ability to pivot on a dime and to be sincerely committed to address our unique needs has been much appreciated.”
A Statewide Rollout Built on Shared Infrastructure and District-Level Dedication
Kentucky’s model for statewide technology adoption is distinctive. KDE operates with centralized coordination infrastructure, dedicated internal rollout teams, and established processes that enable large-scale implementations to move with unusual speed and consistency, a structure that proved essential to the success of this deployment.
GoGuardian fully onboarded 155 KY K-12 school districts and all KDE organizations within six months of the RFP award through a structured, high-touch rollout that included:
- 35+ deployment webinars conducted within a single month
- 700+ one-on-one meetings between districts and GoGuardian Solutions Engineers
- 50+ trainings spanning in-person sessions, virtual workshops, and webinars covering a wide range of implementation topics
- Dedicated teams on both sides, maintaining a sustained meeting cadence throughout the implementation period, many of which are ongoing at the same frequency today
The success of this rollout was not GoGuardian’s or KDE’s alone. District-level education technology leaders across the Commonwealth drove their own parallel testing, configuration, and deployment, an effort that made what might have taken years in another state achievable in a matter of months.
“Onboarding 155 districts and all KDE organizations in six months is only possible when everyone is moving toward the same goal,” said Matt Jury, KDE’s Chief Technology Officer. “Our ed tech leaders at the district level did extraordinary work. They took ownership of this transition and executed at a level that reflects how seriously Kentucky takes its commitment to KY K-12 students and adults.”
For example, Eminence Independent said they have been “so, so impressed with GoGuardian. The product has been flawless for us, reporting is near instantaneous and accurate, the product has just really exceeded all of our expectations. Very pleased.”
A Product Partnership That Responds in Real Time
Beyond implementation, the work between KDE and GoGuardian translated directly into product development. KDE’s feedback shaped more than 14 feature and version releases within the first year alone, all developed in active partnership with KDE’s technical team and tested alongside them before release.
Additional releases across the first year included auto-update enhancements, expanded support for captive portals, and more than 10 further product updates delivered in direct response to district needs.
“GoGuardian is constantly responsive to changes in the internet landscape — that’s what we need from a partner,” said Brian Spellman, KDE’s Assistant CTO. “At the one-year mark, I think we’re exactly where we hoped to be. And the reason is that they communicate quickly, they act quickly, and they show up.”
“Kentucky came to this partnership with a clear mission and the organizational infrastructure to match it,” said Jody Rose, a KETS Engineer and product manager for the initiative at KDE. “Our experience with statewide shared services and the strong partnership we have with technology leaders in each local school district gave us an advantage. We provided helpful input to GoGuardian that allowed them to deliver product releases fueled by real-time customer feedback, which helps strengthen our partners and the solutions they offer.”
Protection at Scale for Kentucky Students and Adults
The GoGuardian and KDE partnership now extends to 155 districts and all KDE organizations across the Commonwealth, with filtering protections in place that meet Kentucky’s statutory requirements under Senate Bill 230 and 701 KAR 5:120.
Since June 2025, GoGuardian has blocked a daily average of 47,640 non-educational sites/pages/URLs across the devices of Kentucky K-12 students.For reference, examples of blocked content include an average of 28,400 daily proxy alerts, 8,902 explicit text alerts, 2,172 explicit image alerts, and 8,166 alerts from games.
“What I would say to any other state agency considering a transition like this: make sure you have a dedicated project team, strong alignment among agency leadership, technical staff, and implementation partners,” said Jennifer Devine, a KETS Engineer and product manager for the initiative at KDE. “That alignment — on both sides — is what makes the difference.”
To learn more about GoGuardian Admin and how GoGuardian partners with states and districts to meet compliance requirements and support K-12 student and adult safety, visit www.goguardian.com/admin.
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. Our 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.
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