DETROIT COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL
DETROIT COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL
DCDS Technology Program
Student Device Program
Detroit Country Day School provides computing devices for students grades PK3-8. For students in grades 9 through 12, students can continue to use their school issued device or bring their own device. Below is a breakdown of the program:
Lower School
PK3 - 1st Grade:
- 1:1 iPads in Carts
- Each homeroom is equipped with a cart of iPads. Each student will be assigned an iPad that stays at school, but will travel with them from class to class for specials
- The iPads will only go home with students during remote learning
- Student accounts will be charged a $25 tech fee per year
2nd - 3rd Grade:
- 1:1 iPads with Keyboards
- Each homeroom is equipped with a cart of iPads. Each student will be assigned an iPad that stays at school, but will travel with them from class to class for specials
- The iPads will only go home with students during remote learning
- Student accounts will be charged a $25 tech fee per year
Middle School
4th - 5th Grade:
- 1:1 Chromebooks in Carts
- Each class will have a chromebook cart.
- Chromebooks will stay in the classrooms in carts and will only go home during Remote Learning
- Student accounts will be charged a $50 tech fee per year
6th Grade:
- Current DCDS Students
- Use the DCDS provided Chromebook from the previous year.
- Student accounts charged a $50 tech fee
- New Students Enrolling in DCDS in 6th grade
- Provided a New Touchscreen Chromebook. This Chromebook is theirs to take home and to use for Remote Learning
- Student accounts will be charged $100 fee to purchase the Chromebook
7th Grade:
- Current DCDS Students
- Use the DCDS provided Chromebook from the previous year.
- Student accounts charged a $50 tech fee
- New Students Enrolling in DCDS in 7th grade
- Provided a New Touchscreen Chromebook. This Chromebook is theirs to take home and to use for Remote Learning
- Student accounts will be charged $150 fee to purchase the Chromebook
8th Grade:
- Current DCDS Students
- Use the DCDS provided Chromebook from the previous year.
- Student accounts charged a $50 tech fee
- New Students Enrolling in DCDS in 8th grade
- Provided a New Touchscreen Chromebook. This Chromebook is theirs to take home and to use for Remote Learning
- Student accounts will be charged $200 fee to purchase the Chromebook
- At the end of 8th grade the Chromebook belongs to the student to use how they like
- NOTE: The 2020/2021 School Year will be BYOD for existing students going into 8th grade with no tech fee
Upper School
9th-12th Grade:
- Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
- Current students have the option to use their DCDS provided Chromebook from the previous year
- New students entering at this point are required to purchase their own device
Recommended Devices for BYOD
The school requires the device supports 5GHz Wifi, has at least a 7″ screen and includes a keyboard (either touch screen or physical). Examples of acceptable devices are Microsoft Windows based laptops, Apple laptops and Chromebooks.
If you already have a compatible computing device, setup is very simple.
Most of the applications we use are web based. The list of sites that we use are located on our apps portal page at:
Students can login to this site with their DCDS username and password.
Some applications require a Client to be installed on Windows, MacOS, Android and Apple iOS. Here is the link to the download page for the VMware Horizon Client:
Help Desk
As always, Detroit Country Day School’s IT Support is happy to provide assistance. We have a Help Desk Technician at each campus and we are staffed from 7:30am to 4:00pm on School Days
For Technical Support for all systems, including computers, phones, educational technology, network outages, senior systems and My BackPack, please send us an email to the following address:
Frequently Asked Questions
No, as long as the device is functioning properly and is able to meet the minimum hardware requirements of our BYOD program, a student may use a device that he/she already owns. Lower and Middle school students will use the device provided by the school.
Any modern Windows, MacOS, Chromebook or Linux laptop device will work, as long as it supports 5GHz Wifi
If you would like to know if a specific device will or will not work well in our environment you can submit a support ticket by emailing your questions to support@dcds.edu
No. If there is additional software required for a class DCDS will provide access to the necessary software.
Canvas and any virtual applications can be accessed from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection.
Yes. The same policies and guidelines apply to personal computing devices as to school provided public computing stations.
Yes, however they may not be used as the student’s primary computing device for school use.
School staff will not have the ability to remotely access the contents of any personal computing device. We highly recommend all students protect their devices by creating a password, as well as installing anti-virus software whenever possible.
Unfortunately, these problems are not new to schools. The medium is changing from print to electronic, but the behavior is the same. These issues would be addressed through the standard disciplinary protocol of the school.
We recommend you purchase an extended warranty for the device at the time of purchase. Malfunctioning computing devices should be brought to the Help Desk, where an initial diagnosis will be performed. If the problem can be easily fixed, the technician will do so. If not, students will be provided with a loaner, and it is up to the student to have the device repaired as soon as possible. We will attempt to facilitate the repair if possible. Students will need to return loaners within two weeks.
We have high expectations for honorable behavior within our community. Our teachers are among the most engaging and gifted professional educators in the field. The workload for students is significant. Off-task behavior of any kind is often self-correcting. The teacher can also, of course, tell students at any time to “close your device” to be sure the potential distraction is not available.
Download the ‘My Backpack Mobile’ App from either the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.
Use DCDS for the school code and then log in with your credentials.