PRIVACY & PUBLISHING

District 50 Schools 6:235-AP2

Administrative Procedure - Web Publishing Guidelines

General Requirements

All material published on the District Web site must have educational value and/or support the District guidelines, goals, and policies. Material appropriate for Web publishing includes information about the District and its Board Members, agendas, policies, appropriate administrative procedures, Department activities or services, schools, teachers or classes, student projects, and student extracurricular organizations. Personal information, not related to education, will not be allowed on the District Web site.

The District Webmaster shall implement a centralized process for review and uploading of material onto the District’s Web site to ensure that, before the material is published, it complies with District policy and procedures. The District Webmaster shall supervise the efforts of all staff members responsible for Web publishing at each level of District Web publishing and, when appropriate, hold in-serve opportunities for those staff members. The staff members responsible for Web publishing are identified in these procedures in the section “Different Levels of Web Publication.” The District Webmaster shall provide regular feedback and suggestions to the Superintendent regarding these Guidelines.

All content published on the District Web site must:

1. Comply with all State and federal law concerning copyright, intellectual property rights, and legal uses of network computers.

2. Comply with Board policies, administrative procedures, these Guidelines, and other District guidelines provided for specific levels of publishing. This specifically includes the Board’s Access to Electronic Networks policy and the District’s procedures on Acceptable Use of Electronic Networks.

3. Due to limited storage space and varying network speeds, file sizes must be kept under 50 kilobytes unless the District Webmaster approves otherwise.

4. Comply with the publishing expectations listed below.

Material that fails to meet these Guidelines or is in violation of Board policy and/or procedures shall not be published on the District Web site. The District reserves the right to remove any material in violation of its policy or procedures. Failure to follow these Guidelines or Board policy and/or procedures may result in loss of privileges, disciplinary action, and/or appropriate legal action.

Publishing Expectations

The following are minimum expectations for all District Web pages:

1. The style and presentation of Web-published material should be of high quality and designed for clarity and readability. Material shall not be published in violation of the District’s procedures on Acceptable Use of Electronic Networks, including material that is defamatory, abusive, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, racially offensive, or harassing or material that invades the privacy of any individual. Anonymous messages are prohibited.

2. Correct grammar and spelling are expected.

3. All information must be verifiable.

4. Publications must include a statement of copyright when appropriate and indicate that permission has been secured when including copyrighted materials.

5. Publications must identify affiliation with the District, school and/or department.

6. Widespread use of external links to non-District Web sites is discouraged, but if used, the external sites must contain appropriate educational materials and information as exclusively determined by the District. Every effort should be made to ensure that all links are operational. Every link to an external Web site must open a new browser window.

7. Relevant dates are required on all publications, including the date on which the publication was placed on the District Web site. Each site should contain the date the page was last updated.

8. All publications must include the District e-mail address of the staff member responsible for the page. This provides a contact person for questions or comments. If a student is a publisher, the sponsoring staff member’s e-mail must be included as the responsible person. Only District staff members may act as student sponsors.

9. Use of the District’s Web site for personal or financial gain is prohibited. No commercial or private accounts should be listed on any District Web pages.

10. All documents should be previewed on different Web browsers, especially Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer, before being posted on the District Web site.

For more information about these expectations or other issues related to Web publishing, please contact the System Administrator.

Protecting Student and Staff Privacy

Personal information concerning students or staff members, including home addresses and telephone numbers, shall not be published on District Web pages.

A student’s last name, last name initial, and grade level shall not be published on District Web pages. In addition, student records shall not be disclosed. In special circumstances (e.g., where accolades are warranted), the sponsoring staff member should contact the Building Principal who may seek permission from the student’s parents/guardians. Web pages shall not display student pictures with a student identified by his or her name unless written parental permission was first granted (e.g., by executing the form Using a Photograph or Videotape of a Student). Student e-mail addresses, whether a personal or District account, shall not be listed on any District Web page.

Submitting Material to Be Published

Everyone submitting material for publication on the District’s Web site shall have signed an Authorization for Electronic Network Access. Before the material is published on the District Web site, the author must authorize the District in writing to publish the material, unless the District owns the copyright. All material submitted by a teacher or other staff member for publication on the District’s Web site is deemed “work for hire,” and the copyright in those works vests in the District. All material submitted for the District Web site is subject to treatment as a District-sponsored publication.

Different Levels of Web Publication

The following guidelines provide specific information regarding Web publishing at different levels within the District. At each level, a staff member is identified as being responsible for Web publishing at that level. This individual’s Web publishing efforts are supervised by the District Webmaster.

District Level

The District Webmaster conducts the District-level Web publishing efforts and supervises other levels of Web publishing. District-level publishing includes the District’s homepage as well as any publishing activities representing the District as a whole (e.g., information about Board meetings, Board policy, and schedules). The District homepage shall have a link to an Online Privacy Statement.

Department Level

District departments (e.g., Transportation, Personnel, or Curriculum) may publish their own Web pages as part of the District’s Web site. The department supervisor or director is ultimately responsible for his or her respective department’s Web pages but may appoint a staff member as the department’s Webmaster to fulfill the maintenance, reviewing, and uploading tasks. The department supervisor or director shall keep the District Webmaster informed of who is the Department Webmaster.

The Web-published material should coincide with that department’s printed material. The District Webmaster should be consulted before publishing potentially sensitive material, e.g., school comparisons or student data.

The department front pages should maintain the look and feel of the District homepage – the connection to the District should be obvious. Links to the main Web site’s "home" must be included at the bottom of main pages, and the District’s logo must be included at the top of main front pages of each department.

School Level

The Building Principal is ultimately responsible for his or her respective school’s Web pages but may appoint a staff member as the School Webmaster to fulfill the maintenance, reviewing, and uploading tasks. The Building Principal shall keep the District Webmaster informed of who is the School Webmaster. All official material originating from the school will be consistent with the District style and content guidelines. The Building Principal or School Webmaster may develop guidelines for the various sections of and contributors to the school’s Web pages.

Staff Level

Any teacher or other staff member wanting to create Web pages for use in class activities or to provide a resource for other teachers or staff members shall notify the School Webmaster of his or her desired publishing activities.

Student Level

A student wanting to create Web pages on the District Web site as part of a class or school-sponsored activity should request a teacher or staff member to sponsor the student’s publishing efforts. The sponsoring teacher or staff member shall notify the School Webmaster of the desired publishing activities. The student’s Web page must include an introduction written by the sponsor that describes the intent of the student’s Web page and contains the sponsor’s District e-mail address. Student Web pages will be removed at the end of the school year unless special arrangements are made.

Personal Web pages are not allowed on the School District’s Web server. Likewise, student Web pages may not contain commercial or advertising links, including links to games and advertisements for games.

CROSS REF.: 5:170-AP (Administrative Procedure - Copyright for Publication or Sale of Instructional Materials Developed by Employees), 6:235 (Access to Electronic Networks), 6:235-AP (Administrative Procedure - Acceptable Use of Electronic Networks), 6:235-E2 (Exhibit - Authorization for Electronic Network Access), 6:235-E3 (Exhibit - Online Privacy Statement)

District 50 Schools 6:235-E3

Online Privacy Statement

The School District respects the privacy of all Web site visitors to the extent permitted by law. This Online Privacy Statement is intended to inform you of the ways in which this Web site collects information, the uses to which that information will be put, and the ways in which we will protect any information you choose to provide us.

There are four types of information that this site may collect during your visit: network traffic logs, Web-visit logs, cookies, and information voluntarily provided by you.

Network Traffic Logs

In the course of ensuring network security and consistent service for all users, the District employs software programs to do such things as monitor network traffic, identify unauthorized access or access to nonpublic information, detect computer viruses and other software that might damage District computers or the network, and monitor and tune the performance of the District network. In the course of such monitoring, these programs may detect such information as e-mail headers, addresses from network packets, and other information. Information from these activities is used only for the purpose of maintaining the security and performance of the District's networks and computer systems. Personally identifiable information from these activities is not released to external parties without your consent unless required by law.

Web-Visit Logs

District Web sites routinely collect and store information from online visitors to help manage those sites and improve service. This information includes the pages visited on the site, the date and time of the visit, the Internet address (URL or IP address) of the referring site, the domain name and IP address from which the access occurred, the version of browser used, the capabilities of the browser, and search terms used on our search engines. This site makes no attempt to identify individual visitors from this information; any personally identifiable information is not released to external parties without your consent unless required by law.

Cookies

Cookies are pieces of information stored by your Web browser on behalf of a Web site and returned to the Web site on request. This site may use cookies for two purposes: to carry data about your current session at the site from one Web page to the next and to identify you to the site between visits. If you prefer not to receive cookies, you may turn them off in your browser or may set your browser to ask you before accepting a new cookie. Some pages may not function properly if the cookies are turned off. Unless otherwise notified on this site, we will not store data, other than for these two purposes, in cookies. Cookies remain on your computer, and accordingly, we neither store cookies on our computers nor forward them to any external parties. We do not use cookies to track your movement among different Web sites and do not exchange cookies with other entities.

Information Voluntarily Provided by You

In the course of using this Web site, you may choose to provide us with information to help us serve your needs. For example, you may send us electronic mail (through a mailer or a Web form) to request information, you may sign up for a mailing list, or you may send us your address so we may send you an application or other material. Any personally identifiable information you send us will be used only for the purpose indicated. Requests for information will be directed to the appropriate staff to respond to the request and may be recorded to help us update our site to better respond to similar requests. We will not sell, exchange, or otherwise distribute your personally identifiable information without your consent, except to the extent required by law. We do not retain the information longer than necessary for normal operations. Each Web page requesting information discloses the purpose of that information. If you do not wish to have the information used in that manner, you are not required to provide it. Please contact the person listed on the specific page, or listed below, with questions or concerns on the use of personally identifiable information.

Web Links to Non-District Sites

District Web sites provide links to other World Wide Web sites or resources. We do not control these sites and resources, do not endorse them, and are not responsible for their availability, content, or delivery of services. In particular, external sites are not bound by this Online Privacy Statement; they may have their own policies or none at all. Often you can tell you are leaving a District Web site by noting the URL of the destination site. These links to external Web sites open a new browser window as well.