K-12 Web Publishing Policies

In an effort to develop our own web policy, Pekin School District #108 began investigating other district's web site policies. As we searched, we were unable to find a comprehensive site that provided links, resources, and information related to the ethical and legal issues in K-12 web publishing. So we've decided to start our own listing, and thus the purpose of this web site is to provide a collection of various K-12 web site policies.

Although many district's policies address design and formatting of web pages, our primary interest was in the area related to posting student names, photographs, and student work. Therefore, our summary of each K-12 policy focuses primarily on this topic.

We were also interested in figuring out the 'bigger picture' of how other schools were dealing with these issues. So after collecting the sites, we then organized them into the four basic strategies that most K-12 schools are currently using:

Web Policy

This category includes K-12 School Districts that use a web policy as their major tool for guiding district web publishing. In most cases, these districts also have an Acceptable Use Policy, however, their AUP's do not address publishing of information via the web. In addition, most of the districts in this category do not have a standardized release form that is used for parental permission related to the posting of student names, photos, or work.

Web Policy with Release Form

This category includes K-12 School Districts that are using a web policy with a release form as their major tool for guiding district web publishing. In most cases, the release form allows the parents to select which, if any, personal information is allowed to be published on the web. Most of these districts also have an Acceptable Use Policy, however, their AUP's do not address publishing of information via the web.

Release Form

This category includes K-12 School Districts that do not currently have an official web publishing policy, however, they are using some form of release form to address the concerns of posting student photos and names. In addition, many of these districts have an Acceptable Use Agreement, however it does not address web publishing.

AUP with Release Form

This category includes K-12 School Districts that do not currently have an official web publishing policy, however, they have integrated their web publishing guidelines into their Acceptable Use Policy and have also included some type of release form that address parental permission for using student photos, names, and work.