6141.322

Instruction

District and School Web Pages

New Hartford Public School s web pages are an important avenue for sharing information about the school district with parents, students, the community, and other schools. The web pages should highlight school curriculum and instruction, school authorized activities, and any important information relating to how and what the children in New Hartford s classrooms are learning. Instructional resources for staff and students may also be provided on the web pages.

The New Hartford Public Schools may create and maintain websites, in accordance with the guidelines listed below. District and individual school websites shall adhere to the ethical and professional standards applicable to information and technology as determined by the Superintendent and the Board of Education of the New Hartford Public Schools. The Superintendent and the Building Principals retain the right to control all content of any website.

Publishing privileges are provided to students, teachers, and staff, and any organizations, such as the PTO who support the mission of the New Hartford Public Schools.

Legal Reference: Connecticut General Statutes

1-19(b)(11) Access to public records. Exempt records.

10-15b Access of parent or guardians to student's records.

10-209 Records not to be public.

11-8a Retention, destruction and transfer of documents

11-8b Transfer or disposal of public records. State Library Board to adopt regulations.

46b-56 (e) Access to Records of Minors.

Connecticut Public Records Administration Schedule V - Disposition of Education Records (Revised 1983).

Federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (section 438 of the General Education Provisions Act, as amended, added by section 513 of P.L. 93-568, codified at 20 U.S.C.1232g.).

Dept. of Educ. 34 C.F.R. Part 99 (May 9, 1980 45 FR 30802) regs. implementing FERPA enacted as part of 438 of General Educ. provisions act (20 U.S.C. 1232g)-parent and student privacy and other rights with respect to educational records, as amended 11/21/96.

Public Law 94-553, The Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. 101 et.seq.

Policy adopted: June 3, 2008

Instruction

District and School Web Pages

The Board of Education of the New Hartford Public Schools expects that all individuals and groups who use the district s web site to present information on web pages must adhere to the following administrative regulations:

Content Standards for Web Pages

Subject Matter - All subject matter on School District Web Pages and their links must relate to curriculum and instruction, school-authorized activities, or information about the District or its mission. Staff or student work may be published only as it relates to a class project, course, or other school-related activity. Students, staff, or other individuals may not use the district s web pages to provide access to their personal pages or other servers.

Quality - All work will be free of any spelling or grammatical errors. Documents may not contain objectionable material or link directly to objectionable material. Potentially controversial material is determined on a case-by-case basis by the building principals and the District Technology Committee. The judgment of the classroom teachers, instructional technology teacher, and ultimately, the District Technology Committee will prevail. Web page content must be reviewed and updated annually by the author.

Student Safeguards - Documents shall not contain any personally identifiable information regarding students. Documents shall include only the first names of students. Documents shall not include a student s home phone number or address or the names of other family members or friends.

1. Published E-mail addresses shall be restricted to those of teachers and staff members.

2. Student work shall not be published without prior written permission of the student and parent or guardian.

3. Student work will not contain copyrighted material without appropriate permission.

Technical Standards

The Board, in the interest of maintaining a consistent identity, professional appearance, and ease of use and maintenance, established the following technical standards for all District web pages:

1. An organization concerned with the promotion of the District s schools and student activity, such as the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) or the New Hartford Education Foundation can use the District s website for their web page with permission of the Superintendent.

2. Each web page added to the district web site must contain certain common elements:

a. Standard formatting is used; Browser friendly HTML editors or word processor programs that save files as HTML may be used.

b. Backgrounds, graphics and color combinations must coordinate with the District format.

c. All web pages must follow copyright laws including copies of or links to information on other teachers web pages.

3. Pages may contain links to other pages that are not yet completed. If further pages are anticipated but not yet developed, the text that will provide the link should be included but may not be made hot until the anticipated page is actually in place.

4. Pages may contain links to web pages maintained by other individuals or organizations.

Revision of Guidelines

These guidelines will be evaluated and updated when necessary in response to the changing nature of technology and its applications in the New Hartford School District. Questions regarding this information may be directed to the District Technology Committee or the Superintendent.

(cf. 1110.1 - Communications with the Public)

(cf. 5125 - Student Records)