The Board of Education authorizes staff members and students to create web pages/sites that will be hosted on the Board's servers and published on the Internet. The web pages/sites must reflect the professional image of the District, its employees, and students. The content of all pages must be consistent with the Board's Mission Statement and staff-created web pages/sites are subject to prior review and approval of the Superintendent or designee. Student-created web pages/sites are subject to Policy 5722 ("School-Sponsored Student Publications and Productions"). The creation of web pages/sites by students must be done under the supervision of a professional staff member.

The purpose of web pages/sites hosted on the Board's servers is to educate, inform, and communicate. The following criteria shall be used to guide the development of such web pages/sites:

The information contained on the Board's web site should reflect and support the Board's Mission Statement, Educational Philosophy, and the School Improvement Process.

When the content includes a photograph or information relating to a student, the Board will abide by the provisions of Policy 8330 - Student Records.

All links included on web pages must also meet the above criteria and comply with State and Federal law (e.g. copyright laws, Children's Internet Protection Act, ADA Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)). Nothing in this paragraph shall prevent the District from linking the Board’s web site to 1) recognized news/media outlets (e.g., local newspapers' web sites, local television stations' web sites) or 2) to web sites that are developed and hosted by outside commercial vendors pursuant to a contract with the Board. The Board recognizes that such third party web sites may not contain age-appropriate advertisements that are consistent with the requirements of Policy 9700.01, AG 9700B, and State and Federal law.

Under no circumstances is a web site to be used for commercial purposes, advertising, political lobbying or to provide financial gains for any individual. Included in this prohibition is the fact no web pages contained on the District’s web site may: (1) include statements or other items that support or oppose a candidate for public office, the investigation, prosecution or recall of a public official, or passage of a tax levy or bond issue; (2) link to a web site of another organization if the other web site includes such a message; or (3) communicate information that supports or opposes any labor organization or any action by, on behalf of, or against any labor organization.

Under no circumstances is a staff member-created web page/site, including personal web pages/sites, to be used to post student progress reports, grades, class assignments, or any other similar class-related material. The Board maintains its own web site that employees are required to use for the purpose of conveying information to students and/or parents.

Staff members are prohibited from requiring students to go to the staff member's personal web pages/sites (including, but not limited to, their Facebook or MySpace pages) to check grades, obtain class assignments and/or class-related materials, and/or to turn in assignments.

If a staff member creates a web page/site related to his/her class, it must be hosted on the Board's server.

Unless the web page/site contains student personally identifiable information, Board web sites that are created by students and/or staff members that are posted on the Internet should not be password protected or otherwise contain restricted access features, whereby only employees, student(s), or other limited groups of people can access the site. Community members, parents, employees, staff, students, and other web site users will generally be given full access to the sites created pursuant to this policy.

Pages should reflect an understanding that both internal and external audiences will be viewing the information.

School web sites must be located on Board-affiliated servers.

The Superintendent shall prepare administrative guidelines defining the rules and standards applicable to the use of the Board's web site and the creation of web pages/sites by staff and students.

The Board retains all proprietary rights related to the design of web sites and/or pages that are hosted on the Board's servers, absent written agreement to the contrary.

Students who want their class work to be displayed on the Board's web site must have written parent permission and expressly license its display without cost to the Board.

Prior written parental permission is necessary for a student to be identified by name on the Board's web site.

R.C. 9.03
O.A.G. Opinion No. 2002-01

Adopted 3/26/02
Revised 11/03
Revised 11/24/09
Revised 2/24/15