PTO Today

I have been reading a lot of posts on starting new web sites and checked out several of yours listed on here. I have a pretty good handle on what I am doing but had one concern. One of the teachers at the scool mentioned that you can not list any pictures of the kids on the site without a waiver giving permission to do so. Is this true? Any suggestions on what it should say or how to go about it? I would really like to post some of the events we do and since the kids are who we do it for, I would like to have some of their pictures on it and I don't want to limit that to just my sons friends who have parents that I know.
Any info is appreciated...
Thanks

Check with your school district public relations department. They'll know the rules for your state/district.

Our school secretary can actually tell us this info. I generally will take in pictures that I want to "advertise" into the principal and then it goes to her, at our school of 467 kids there are less than 15 kids on it.

__________________
"When you stop learning you stop growing."

At our school we as parents have to fill out a form for allowing our kids pictures to be on the internet at the beginning of the school year. Our front office can tell me which ones could and couldn't be...We had less than 15 too that couldn't be posted.

Most of the teachers also know which students can and can't be photographed. If you are in a class room, just ask the teacher.

Have fun w/ your website!

Here's the official
LAUSD Information and Media Release form

and a generic one

Electronic Media Release Form
Anytown School

_____Yes, I hereby GIVE my permission to Anytown School to use my child’s picture, classroom work, art or computer generated products in the publication of the Anytown School web page. Student names will be excluded.

_____No, I hereby DENY my permission to Anytown School to use my child’s picture, classroom work, art or computer generated products in the publication of the Anytown School web page. Student names will be excluded.

Student name: _________________________________________Grade____ ________

________________________________________ ______________________
Parent Signature Date

[ 06-03-2006, 02:06 AM: Message edited by: Shawn ]

srw - doenst matter if you know the parents of the kids you are posting pictures of...you need a release in writing ANYWAY.

Talk to your districts lawyer or go through your superintendent for the requirements.

Typically, the school has parents fill out a photo release form at registration, and that could be applied most likely, to any pictures you choose to post.

This is a bit of a tricky thing, when the PTO is legally seperate entity from the school, ie if yuo are an independent non-profit, then the school photo waiver may not apply to your issue.

If however you operate under the jurisdiction of the school, a service arm of the school and use their TIN for tax purposes, then most likely the schools paperwork (parental consents for use of pictures) would cover your issue.

You need input from your schools legal counsel on this question.

Our school sends home a form at the beginning of the year in case they want to publish photos of our children in the local newspaper or on the school's website. If we put kids pics on the PTO website we check with the office or the homeroom teachers first, they have this info.