Standards and Guidelines for Web Page Publishing

December 9, 2009

Key Ideas

• We want to protect the safety of our students and reduce our staff/district liability.

• The swcs.wnyric.org website belongs to the Southwestern Central School District and represents the district.

Purpose of a Web page

• curriculum

• instructional matters

• school authorized activities

• general information of interest to the public pertaining to SWCS.

What is not permitted

• Publishing/linking to your or a student’s personal website

• Having a teacher page that isn’t housed on our school server.

• Commercial advertising or marketing (or the use of school-affiliate Web Pages for the pursuit of personal or financial gain)

District Responsibilities

• Provide training- web page procedures, copyright, intellectual property, and privacy of student records.

• Address concerns with non-compliance to the board policy to prevent legal issues.

Web Master Responsibilities

• Manage Access to the District Website- Sets up new users with a page, username, and password.

• Has the right to remove information posted on a school web page that is not in accordance with Board Policy

Teacher Responsibilities

• Make sure the page conforms to the District Standards and Guidelines

• Webpage content

• Design

• Maintenance– Keeping his/her page current– Test pages/changes

• Check links to make sure they work– when you insert them– periodically after that time

• When linking to information on a Web Page outside of swcs.wnyric.org you must include the following disclaimer

Teacher Responsibilities

• Warning Note: This page contains links to outside sources. By clicking on a link, you will be leaving the Southwestern Central School District’s website. The SWCS District is not responsible for any content housed/published on those sites

Teacher Responsibilities

Copyright

• All employees and students are prohibited from copying materials not specifically allowed by the copyright law, “Fair Use” guidelines, licenses or contractual agreements, or the permission of the copyright proprietor.

Copyright

• Web Page publications must include a statement of copyright when appropriate and indicate that permission has been secured when including copyrighted materials or notice that such publication is in accordance with the “Fair Use” provisions under the Copyright Law.

Copyright

• Pursuant to Section 107 of the Copyright Law the use of copyrighted material for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research may be permitted under certain circumstances.

Copyright

• However, any appropriation of someone else’s work on the Internet is a potential copyright infringement.

• “Fair Use” provisions may not apply when a project created by a teacher or student is accessed by others over the Internet.

Copyright

• Proper attribution must always be given

• Unless otherwise noted, always assume that work published on the Web is copyrighted. It is NOT necessary that the copyright symbol © be displayed .

Copyright

• Obtaining permission from copyright holder(s) (whether text, graphics, or music) should occur during the development process or project, rather than waiting to seek permission upon completion of the project.

• Unauthorized electronic transmission of copyrighted materials is illegal.

Copyright

• Students are the copyright holders of their own original work. The District must receive written permission from both the parent and the student prior to publishing students’ original work on the District/school/classroom Websites.

Intellectual Property

• All works completed by employees as part of their employment shall be considered “works made for hire.”

• Work covered under this policy is the property of the School District, not the creator of such work. The District shall own any and all rights to such work, or derivatives thereof, unless there is a written agreement to the contrary.

Student Free Speech Issues

• In general, School Districts can exercise editorial control over the style and content of student expression in school-sponsored publications that the public might reasonably perceive to bear the imprimatur of the school.

Student Free Speech Issues

• However, the school’s actions in such a case must be reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns and may not amount to viewpoint discrimination.

Privacy of Student & Staff Records

• The District requires specific affirmative written parent/eligible student consent prior to posting student photographs on District/school/classroom Web Pages.

Privacy of Student & Staff Records

• Whenever possible, group photographs of students and/or the use of photographs where the student is not easily identifiable is preferable to the use of individual student photographs for safety reasons.

Posting Student Work

• Posting of student work will be limited to first name only

Privacy of Student & Staff Records

• Web Pages shall not include a student’s

Full Name

Telephone NumberAddress

E-mail Address

Privacy of Student & Staff Records

• Web Pages may include a staff member’s full name; however, other personal information may be published only with the employee’s written permission

Names of Family

Members

Home Telephone

Number

AddressHome E-mail

Address

• Online posting of school bus schedule and/or other specific activity schedules detailing dates/times/locations (e.g. field trips) is prohibited on school-affiliated Websites.

Privacy of Student & Staff Records