This article covers how to use Bark for Schools as a Reviewer. Bark for Schools was built with school officials in mind — it's a straightforward but powerful tool for helping keep students safe on school-issued accounts and devices.
Navigation
All sections are accessible from the dropdown menu in the top right of the dashboard page.
Dashboard
The dashboard is the first page you'll see when you log in. It provides high-level statistics for the students and groups assigned to you.
Activities Analyzed
This represents all activity we've seen since Bark for Schools was turned on. The data here will reflect all turned on groups for monitoring - not just the groups that you've been assigned to.
Alerts to Review
This represents any issues outstanding for the groups assigned to you. If there is a number here, there is an alert that has been created but hasn't been looked at by any other Reviewers.
Number of Students Actively Monitored
"Bark is monitoring X students across Y organizational units."
These numbers are based on the groups your Bark Super Admin has enabled for monitoring. If the number seems low, you may need to reach out to your Bark Super Admin to verify the configuration is set up properly.
Reports
The Reports section gives you a statistical overview of activity across the groups assigned to you.
Line graph: Shows alert counts by day and by platform (like Gmail vs. Drive). Filter by platform using the dropdown at the top, or filter by date in the top right.
Table: Shows alert counts broken down by type (like violence or bullying) and by group or organizational unit (like Class of 2029). Search by group or click into a group name to see a sub-group view broken down by student name. Groups are displayed in descending order by alert count.
Review Alerts (Sorting Options)
This is where you'll review content Bark has flagged as inappropriate or potentially harmful. Several filtering options help you find alerts quickly:
A) Sort by Category -- such as violence, bullying, sexual content, etc.
B) Sort by Groups. If you have more than one group (or class, grade) assigned to you, you can filter out by group.
C) Sort by Student. The student's email, first name, or last name works in this field.
D) Sort by Platform. If on Google Workspace, that will be Gmail, Drive, Chats, and/or Chrome. If on Microsoft 365, that will be Outlook, OneDrive, Teams, and/or Edge Chromium.
E) Sort by Date.
F) Sort by View Status. If an issue has been reviewed by any administrator, the issue can be reviewed by checking the "Reviewed" box. Any viewed issue will have a timestamp and name of the user that reviewed it, as seen in the example below:
G) Sort by Other, which are further detailed below:
The Saved filter refers to the "Save for later" function within an alert (displayed below). This filter allows you to return to an alert quickly.
The Severe filter allows you to target any identified severe alert. A severe alert is an issue that has hit a threshold in a category and is more actionable. Severe issues are further identified by a red exclamation mark ❗️, as seen in the example below:
The Emergencies filter allows you to target any identified emergency alert. An emergency alert is an issue that indicates imminent severe harm to the child. These alerts are also accompanied by a red exclamation mark ❗️.
Please Note: Bark for Schools+ subscribers receive a phone call and text message in addition to an email for these types of issues.
Reading an Alert
After clicking into an alert, you'll see the content that triggered it. For example alerts, check out this guide.
A) The name and account email for the student that we detected this activity under, whether they were the sender or the receiver of the worrisome content.
B) The organizational unit structure that the student's account is under. This comes directly from whatever your Google Workspace / Office365 structure is for managing student accounts. The super admin on the account can turn off particular OUs/groups from being monitored by following these steps. They can also assign particular OUs/groups to only certain Reviewers.
C) The platform the activity took place under as well as the participants in the conversation. In the example above, it is a Google Chat between two people.
D) The abuse types we detected from the activity. We alert on many different types worrisome content, including bullying, suicidal ideation, drug/alcohol content, violence, weapons, self-harm and more.
E) The first person who reviewed this alert is included here. To see the timeline of the alert review history, or to put in a note about what action was taken, click on (more...) there. You'll then see something like this:
F) This part of the alert displays the exact worrisome content that we detected.
G) This button allows you to share this particular alert with another Reviewer that also has been assigned this OU/group.
H) This function allows the Reviewer to share this alert with the parent or guardian if they've enabled Parent Portal and the alert hasn't already been sent with them. For more information on Parent Portal, check out our FAQs here.
Profile
Update your first and last name and emergency contact number here. Click Save after making any changes.
Native App
This section provides a unique code to log into the Bark for Schools app on your smartphone so you can review alerts on the go. Learn more.
If you don't see the mobile app option in your dropdown menu, schedule a meeting with our success team to get it enabled for your account.
Support
Contact our team with questions, concerns, or suggestions. Support is available Monday through Friday, 8am–5pm ET. You can also browse help articles related to Bark for Schools from this section.
Refer a school
Want to help us protect more students? Here's where you can refer a school or district. This page includes an email template you can send to schools that could benefit from Bark for Schools.