School Board Policy: Approved 04.16.98 Code 6245

The availability of Internet access in Lauderdale County Schools provides an opportunity for students and staff to contribute to the School District's presence on the World Wide Web. The District's Web sites provide information to the world about school curriculum, instruction, school-authorized activities, and other general information relating to our schools and our District's mission. Internet access for the creation of Web pages is provided by District media specialists and the District network specialist. Creators of Web pages need to familiarize themselves with and adhere to the following policies and responsibilities. Failure to follow these policies or responsibilities may result in the loss of authoring privileges or other more stringent disciplinary measures.

Building and district administrators, with input from the Technology Coordinator, are responsible for Web page approval.

All subject matter on Web pages should relate to curriculum instruction, school-authorized activities, general information that is appropriate and of interest to others, or it should relate to the School District, or the schools within the District. Therefore, neither staff nor students may publish personal home pages as part of the District Web Sites or home pages for other individuals or organizations not directly affiliated with the District. Staff or student work may be published only as it relates to a class project, course, or other school-related activity.

All Web page work must be free of spelling and grammatical errors. Documents may not contain objectionable material or point (link) directly to objectionable material. Regarding the question of quality or propriety of Web page material, appearance, or content, the judgment of the Technology Coordinator, the building or district administrators will prevail.

All Web pages on the District's server(s) are property of the school district. Web pages will be deleted when a student graduates or moves unless prior arrangements have been made the the Technology Coordinator.

1. Web page documents may include only the first initial and the student's last name unless written permission from parents is on file which permits use of student's entire name.
2. Documents may not include a student's phone number, address, names of other family members, or names of friends.
3. Published e-mail addresses are restricted to staff members or to a general group e-mail address where arriving e-mail is forwarded to a staff member.
4. Decisions on publishing student pictures (video or still) and audio clips are based on the supervising teacher's judgment. The teacher must first check with the school office or the District office to determine if the student's parents/guardians have objected to such publication. No information regarding medical information, special programs, grades, educational standing or other information protected by the federal right to privacy act may be disclosed.
5. Web page documents may not include any information which indicates the physical location of a student at a given time, other than attendance at a particular school, or participation in activities.

All documents on Lauderdale County School Server(s) must conform to School Board Policies and regulations as well as established school guidelines. Copies of Board Policies are available in all school offices. Persons developing or maintaining Web documents are responsible for complying with these other policies. some of the relevant issues and related Board Policies include the following:

1. Electronic transmission of materials is a form of copying. As specified in District Policy, no unlawful copies of copyrighted materials may be knowingly produced or transmitted via the District's equipment, including its Web server(s).
2. Documents created for the Web and linked to District Web pages will meet the criteria for use as an instructional resource.
3. Any links to District Web pages that are not specifically curriculum-related will meet the criteria established in the District Internet Authorized Use Policy (AUP). Any other non-curricular materials should be limited to information about other youth activities, agencies, or organizations which are known to be nonsectarian, exclusively devoted to community interests or child welfare, are non-profit, and non-discriminatory. Web page links may not include entities whose primary purpose is commercial or political advertising.
4. All communications via the District Web pages will comply with the District Internet Authorized Use Polity (AUP) and the District Code of Conduct Policy. Offensive behavior that is expressly prohibited by this policy includes religious, racial, and sexual harassment and/or violence.
5. Any student information communicated via the District Web pages will comply with Lauderdale County School Policies on Data Privacy and Public Use of School Records.
6. Any deliberate tampering with or misuse of District network services or equipment will be considered vandalism and will be handled in accordance with the District Internet Authorized Use Policy (AUP), the District Code of Conduct, and other related policies.

Each Web page added to the District Web site(s) must contain certain elements which will provide general consistency for District Web pages.

1. At the bottom of the Web page, there must be an indication of the date of the last update to that page and the name or initials of the person(s) responsible for the page or update. It shall be that person's responsibility to keep the Web page current.
2. At the bottom of the Web page, there must be a link that returns the user to the appropriate point(s) in the District Web pages. A template will be provided for all users.
3. Additional consistency standards will be developed by the District as the need arises.
4. All Web pages must be submitted to the district Technology Coordinator for review prior to their placement on the District server(s)
5. No computers other than the assigned building Web servers shall be configured as Web/FTP servers.
6. Users must exhibit care when creating Web pages with extensive tiled backgrounds or large graphics. Such files require extensive download time, are frustrating for modem users, and close down the file servers. As a general rule, a Web page should not take longer than one minute to download over a 14.4 modem connection. Graphics files shall be under 60K in size unless a special situation exists that requires a larger graphic.
7. The authorized teacher who is publishing the final Web page(s) for herself or himself, or for a student, will edit and test the page(s) for accuracy of links, and check for conformance with standards outlined in this policy.
8. Web pages may not contain links to other Web pages not yet completed. If additional pages are anticipated, but not yet developed, the text that will provide such a link should be included. However, the actual link to said page(s) may not be made until the final page is actually in place on the District server(s).
9. All Web pages must be given names which clearly identify them
10. Any graphics, sounds, or video used on Web pages must conform to the format currently used or approved by the District.
11. Web pages may not contain any student e-mail address links, any survery-response links, or any other type of direct-response links.
12. Final decisions regarding access to active Web pages for editing content or organization will rest with the building principal, with input from the Technology Coordinator.
13. All Web pages shall be linked to other District pages in relation to their current location on the server(s)

1. Material on Web pages reflect an individual's thoughts, interests, and activities. Such Web pages do not, in any way, represent individual schools, Lauderdale County School System, nor are they endorsed or sanctioned by the individual school or the District. Concern about the content of any page(s) created by students or staff should be directed to the building principal of that school or to the technology coordinator.
2. Given the rapid change in technology, some of the technical standards outlined in this policy may require change throughout the year. Such changes will be made by the Technology Coordinator with approval of the Superintendent and the Lauderdale County Board of Education. This Web Page Policy will be updated on a regular basis as the need arises.
3. Web page documents published to servers other than the Lauderdale County School Server should not be named or represented as an official school site.

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