Information Technology Department

Web Publishing Procedures & Guidelines


The Boise School District's web site affords staff and students the opportunity to publish educational information.

This document is intended to acquaint authors with the procedures governing material published on, or associated with, the Boise School District's web site. It is to be understood that all sections are District rules and will be adhered to by anyone contributing to the District's web site. While we are aware that this document is lengthy, it is the responsibility of the author to comply with these procedures.

Questions regarding the District's web site procedures should be directed to the .

Additional Resources

  • Internet Filtering Policy and form to request a web site be opened or closed
  • Larry Richter, a District elementary teacher, has written a "student friendly" Guide to Copyright and Fair Use. Addressing both Internet and non-Internet copyright concerns, this document will be helpful to teachers as they instruct students in adhering to Fair Use Guidelines.
  • A selection of District logos for use by outside sites who want to create links to the Boise School District.

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Goals & General Statements

  • Goals of the District's web site:
    • Provide patrons a resource for obtaining information about the District.
    • Provide teachers a forum for enhanced teaching and for informing patrons about classroom activities and policies.
    • Provide students a place to demonstrate what they have learned.
  • General statements
    • Student and teacher web pages will meet the above goals.
    • Web publishing is an opportunity to demonstrate technical and graphic arts skills. These skills should be used to support and enhance information, not to overpower that information. All pages must be content oriented.
    • Every web site will start with a plan that evaluates the real needs of students, teachers, schools and patrons. Evaluation is to be followed by a careful design stage, then the construction of the site.
    • District pages will be updated and maintained as needed to evolve and stay current.

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General Procedures

  • Advertising
    • You may not be compensated for advertising another site or a product on your web site.
    • You may not run a business from the District's web site.
    • You may not create a link to an external site (commercial and/or personal) unless that site clearly supports the educational content of the school's site.
      • A link to a school's Partner In Education business web site is permissible. The link must be clearly labeled as a "Partner in Education".
  • Fund Raising
    • Links and promotional logos associated with short term fund raising projects that directly benefit your school may be placed temporarily on your site, but may NOT be displayed prominently on your home page. A text link to the material from your home page is the only acceptable alteration of the home page.
    • References to the fund raising project must be removed from your site immediately at the conclusion of the campaign.
  • The front page of each school's site will be uniform in layout and may not be altered by individual users without permission from the Technology Administrator or Webmaster.
  • Designated webmasters at each school will be faculty or staff members.
  • Students should not be given rights to upload files to District servers.
  • Building principals, building technical coordinators and program administrators are responsible for being knowledgeable about the content of their building/ program web pages.
  • Any deliberate tampering with or misuse of District web pages will be considered vandalism and will be handled in accordance with the District's Network Acceptable Use Procedures.

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Ownership & Control

  • All web pages on the District's server(s) are the property of the Boise School District.
  • Students may create and publish web pages to be hosted on the District's server for educational purposes directly related to a course that the student is currently enrolled in. It is the responsibility of the instructor to ensure that student web sites are in total compliance with District rules and procedures before the material is published. Student web pages will be deleted when the student completes the course.
  • Only active files that are required for the proper operation of a web site will be stored on the District's server. It is the responsibility of the page's author to maintain and/or delete files.
    • Staff web pages will be deleted when the staff member leaves the District.
    • Out of date files will be removed from the server.
  • Staff web pages will be moved when the staff member changes locations due to an assignment change.
  • Staff sites hosted by third-party portal companies or other commercial educational services must be approved by the District's Technology Administrator or Webmaster.
  • Personal pages of students and/or staff hosted on non-District servers will not be linked from the District's site.
    • Staff authored educational sites hosted on non-District servers may be linked from the District's site and will conform to all District rules and procedures. Prior approval of the Webmaster is required. Sites that do not conform to District procedures will have their links from the District removed.
  • The District's Technology Administrator or Webmaster will have the authority to remove any content deemed inappropriate.
  • The District's Technology Administrator will have final authority for issues related to the content of all pages on the District's web site.

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Security & Privacy

  • Remember that sites are accessible to anyone and that the safety of students, colleagues, and their families is of paramount concern.
  • Information relating to emergency responses, including but not limited to facility maps, floor plans or emergency procedures will not be posted in non-secure areas of the website.
  • According to the Federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), "directory information" about students may be released by the district without parental consent, provided annual notification has been given and the school does not have on file written denial to release "directory information".
    • Directory information is defined as information contained in an education record of a student which would not generally be considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if disclosed. A copy of the FERPA policy is available online at http://www.boiseschools.org/board/policy/ by clicking on 3000 Students and going to Policy #3600 Student Records and Release of Student Directory Information. It includes, but is not limited to:
      • The student’s name
      • Photographs of the student used by the district for recognition of student achievement and community relations, including, but not limited to, publication in the district’s or school’s newsletters or publications, in the school setting and on the district’s or school’s website.
      • Participation in officially recognized activities such as sports
    • It is the responsibility of the author of a page to ascertain whether a student's parent or guardian has notified the District that information identified as "directory information" is not to be released. Each building principal has the names of students in their building whose information will not be released or published. The entire District list is on file with the Clerk of the Board and the District's Public Information Administrator.
  • Authors will exercise discretion in making judgments concerning publication of student information and take reasonable precautions to insure security and privacy.
  • A staff member's name, assignment, District e-mail address, District phone number and photo may be published. Staff members have the right to request that their photographs not be published.
  • Inclusion of a student's phone number, address, e-mail address, or information indicating the physical location of a student at a given time, other than attendance at a particular school or participation in a District sponsored activity, is prohibited.
  • If grades or other personal student information are to be published for parental access complete confidentiality must be built into the process.

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Copyright Issues

  • Copyright protection extends to the Internet. Treat all online materials as you would other copyrighted material. No unlawful copies of copyrighted materials may be knowingly produced on or transmitted via the District's equipment, including its web servers.
  • Student work (art, short stories, projects, etc.) may be published only with permission of the student and parent or guardian. A release form is available from the District forms page. Work that is part of a previously published document (i.e.: newsletter or school newspaper) may be included on the web site without specific permission if the entire document is being published.
  • Students and staff will adhere to all copyright laws.
    • While "fair use" permits some distribution of material within a classroom, the courts have stated that online publishing is a public performance. Therefore, "fair use" copyright laws do not allow distribution of material on a web site without permission from the author.
    • In some cases it is permissible to download material from the Internet for use in student projects. However, it is illegal to re-post that material online without permission from the original author.
    • Retain all correspondence pertaining to permission requests.
  • For further clarification of copyright issues refer to the following resources:
  • It is not necessary for a work to have a copyright notice or to be registered to receive copyright protection, however reminding a visitor of your rights as an author by including a copyright notice as a footer on every page is recommended.
    • Example:

      © Independent School District of Boise City
      All rights reserved

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Content & Quality

  • Subject Matter
    • All subject matter will relate to District general information, curriculum and instruction, school sponsored activities or other District authorized concerns.
    • Staff or student work may be published only if it pertains to school-related activities.
  • Web pages may not contain objectionable, offensive, confidential or proprietary material or link to such material.

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Technical Standards

  • Preparation of all Web materials will be created off-line. "Under construction" pages will not be published on the District's site. Pages may not contain links to other pages that are not yet completed.
  • All published materials will be free from spelling and grammatical errors.
  • Every page will be given a title that clearly identify the content.
  • Every page will have navigation links that direct the visitor to appropriate pages on the web site.
  • Every page will have appropriate contact information, i.e.: e-mail, District phone numbers and/or addresses.
  • All pages will be tested immediately after posting to insure functionality of links and correct loading of all files.
  • Links to external sites will be checked regularly (at least once every 3 months) to insure that those links are still active and relevant.
  • Pages that require updating will be maintained in a timely manner.
  • Due to limited storage space and in consideration of the visitor, file size is to be kept as small as possible.
  • In each directory the District's server is configured to find a default home page named either index.html or index.htm. Please use one of these file names for your home page.
  • Additional consistency standards will be developed as the need arises.

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