FAQ for parents/guardians: Hāpara overview Follow

This article helps parents and guardians better understand why their child's school is using Hāpara in classrooms. Find frequently asked questions about Hāpara below.

In this article:

• What is Hāpara?
• Why is my child’s school using Hāpara?
• What will my child see on their device?
• What tools do teachers use in Hāpara?
• Privacy and safety
• How to get help

What is Hāpara?

Hāpara is a suite of teaching and learning tools that works with Google Workspace for Education and Microsoft Edge. It helps students stay focused and away from digital distractions, practice safe online browsing for class activities, access learning resources, stay organized, collaborate online and build digital citizenship skills. 

It helps teachers manage their digital classroom, ensure students are safe online and focused on class activities. It also allows them to personalize learning support and more easily provide feedback to students as they navigate digital class activities.

Why is my child’s school using Hāpara?

Schools use Hāpara to:

• Help students stay focused and safe online during learning
• Help students navigate to digital learning resources 
• Personalize online browsing, digital resources, learning support and instructional feedback
• Develop student's executive functioning and digital citizenship skills
• Support compliance with internet safety requirements in K–12 settings (e.g., alignment with the Children's Internet Protection Act)

What will my child see on their device?

For schools who use Hāpara Highlights during class time, students will see a Hāpara Highlights extension icon at the top of their Chrome or Edge browser. 

Students may also see messages from their teacher or notifications alerting them that their teacher is pausing their browsing or has closed their off-task tab.

For schools who use Hāpara Student Dashboard, students will see:

• Their classes

• Notifications from teachers

• Assigned Workspaces (if their school uses Hāpara Workspace)

• A “To do” list with due dates and overdue items

• My files (Google Drive)

What tools do teachers use in Hāpara?

• Teacher Dashboard: Gives teachers easy access to student Google Drive assignments to provide timely feedback and share Google files for class activities.
• Highlights: Provides classroom visibility of student browsing, helping teachers manage their digital classrooms and ensure students are safe and focused online.
• Workspace: Allows teachers to build engaging units, projects and assignments tailored to learning needs.

Privacy and safety

Hāpara is used during school learning time to support instruction and help keep students safe online.

For details about data, privacy and parent options, see FAQ for parents/guardians: Settings and privacy.

How to get help

• Start with your child’s teacher or school.
• If you still have questions, contact our support team via the “Submit a request” link in this Help Center.