Recently someone forwarded some excellent guidelines developed by the Batavia schools on the construction of websites. They have been modified slightly to suit our circumstances. They are offered as guidelines, not policy.

Web Page Publishing Guidelines

Inclusions:  A web-page should include:

1.      Citations of sources for all content (text, images, video clips, etc.) that you did not create yourself. These citations may appear on the same page or on a linked page, as long as they comply with the requirements of all of your sources. Material must adhere to all copyright laws.

2.      Only first name and last initial of students.

3.      Only staff e-mail addresses; no student e-mail addresses.

4.      Good design with logical, working navigation, which includes contact information and clear navigational links, and

5.      Only material and links which are appropriate for the intended audience are of education value, and support the Herricks guidelines, goals and policies.

Exclusions: A web page must NOT include

1.      Broken links or links to sites that violate any Herricks policy.

2.      Names or pictures of students whose parent(s)/guardian(s) (or the student if 18 or over) has requested that the student not appear on the web site

3.      student e-mail addresses or any other identifying information (phone numbers, addresses, etc.)

Other

1.      All work should be carefully proofread. (Remember that a web page is a published work and represents you, your students, your class, your group, your team, your school, your school district.) if inventive spelling is intentionally included when posting student work, consider including an explanatory note and/or copy of “translated” text to assist users of your site.

2.      Consider including a disclaimer. Example: This web site contains links to third-party web sites that are not under the control of the Herricks Public Schools. Links are provided as a convenience and Herricks is not responsible for the content or availability of any linked site or any link contained within a linked site.

3.      Keep your web pages current or consider deactivating your site until you have time to do so.

4.      Consider putting a date on your pages that tells users when your site was last updated.

5.      Consider putting information on your pages that tells users who to contact if theyhave questions or comments.