Remember that it is school system practice not to identify a student by name in photos that appear on the web.

• E-mail addresses of former students, age 18 and older, may be included upon permission of the former students. E-mail addresses of current students may not be included.  
  
  

• Effective pages draw in outside visitors. Be sure to ask the members of your school community: “What content are we offering our school community and people outside our community?” and “Do our pages reflect the uniqueness of our community?”

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Graphics

• Page layouts should be simple, clean and attractive. When using graphics, be sure to consider the amount of time required to load graphics.
  
  

• For speed of loading, try to keep your graphics to a reasonable size. Consider keeping the number of graphics on one page to a minimum and compress graphic files whenever possible.
  
  

• For graphics larger than the above specifications, consider using a separate thumbnail link and be sure to inform the user of the original size of the graphic.
  
  

• Whenever possible, it is always best to use original graphics. Graphics and clip art obtained from the Internet must be properly referenced.  Be aware that web pages are subject to current copyright laws.  Copyright guidelines are available from your school media specialist.  In general, graphics should be related to school activities or student projects.
  
  

• When using photographs of students, be sure to obtain prior written permission from a parent or guardian. Photographs may not identify students by name. (See photo release form.)
  
  

• Provide a text alternative  <ALT="description of image"> tag to images for those users who cannot or choose not to use graphics.
  
  

• Developers of pages are welcome to use plug-ins such as Shockwave or Flash. Be sure to indicate to users that these plug-ins are required to enjoy your home pages. If you use lesser known plug-ins such as Hyperstudio, you should provide a link to the helper application.

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Outside Links

While we recognize the interactive nature of the web, we are also aware of the school system's responsibility to provide a reliable, safe learning environment in which students can work. Outside links from school and central office web pages are allowed, based on the following established criteria for selection of outside sites:

• instructionally based sites, 
  
  

• sites of non-profit partnerships/educational institutions/governmental agencies (i.e. Department of Natural Resources, Johns Hopkins University);
  
  

• PTA/PTO/PTSO sites as long as the sites do not link to businesses or for profit fundraising companies or contain advertising.  It is the obligation of the public schools not to promote commercialism;
  
  

• regularly updated sites that provide daily or weekly updated information such as homework assignments, changes in athletic schedules; sports scores for school teams. These sites should have no other outside links.

It is the local school's or office's responsibility to ensure that outside sites to which you are linking do not require permission. If permission is required, it should be in writing.

When using hyperlinks where you are not sure of the changing content, the following approved language can appear when the user clicks on the link:

You are leaving the AACPS website. The link you have just selected is an independently managed World Wide Website and is not affiliated with Anne Arundel County Public Schools. While every effort has been made to evaluate the sites to which we link, we cannot control the content that may appear on these sites or on related links. Please be advised that you are leaving the official Anne Arundel County Public Schools' website and materials found on these associated links are not approved or sanctioned by the school system.

 - or -

You can use the following code in your hyperlinks (you do not have to include the language above if you use this code).  

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Section 508 Accessibility Standards
 

• School websites should be based on simple HTML and avoid the use of animation (animated gifs in particular), advanced technologies such as Flash, dynamic and popup/under menus, and excessive Javascript.   The goal is, at a minimum, to meet level 1 of Section 508 standards.

 Web Publishing Guidelines

• All school site content (and site webmasters) are subject to approval by the principal (or designee) of each individual school.  Individuals who are working independently on school sites and who are not employed by or students of that school (in the case of those volunteering or donating their website services) must work in conjunction with a student or employee at that school.  Individuals who have access to independently hosted sites must be a school employee, student, or group of students who have responsibility for the site (a tech support at the school, for example). 
  
  The AACPS webmaster should be contacted if a school does not have a designee responsible for the maintenance of a school website.
   
• Some schools have purchased a custom URL (www.yourschoolname.com) for their particular school.  Please note that all AACPS school website content is owned by AACPS and is subject to the same rules governing site content under www.aacps.org.  This decision to have an independent URL is subject to approval by the principal (or designee) of the school. 
  
  If schools desire a customized URL, the use of website forwarding (redirection) is encouraged (and not independent hosting) so that we may offer appropriate technical and content support, ensure consistency as well as the privacy and security of school websites.
  
  Additionally, AACPS has the right to oversee content for all independently hosted school sites, request access to, and/or require changes/deletions to inappropriate, out-of-date, or irrelevant site content. 
   
• Database (SQL) connectivity, executables, Perl, and Cold Fusion are not currently supported at this time for school sites hosted under aacps.org.  If more information is needed about this subject, please contact the webmaster. 
   
• A general school template, designed for AACPS school sites, is available if you need a general site to "plug in" content for your school.  Please contact the webmaster for further information.

Posting process

• New web sites should be submitted in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), with a printed copy and the Web Home Page Review Form. HTML format is preferred.  Sites may be submitted:
  
  

  • Via e-mail to the webmaster.  PLEASE Zip files whenever possible, especially when e-mailing.
    
    

  • Placed in a public directory on a file server (for schools on the WAN) with notification by phone or e-mail, or 
    
    

  • submitted on floppy disk or CD-Rom.
    
    

• Updates to web pages should be sent directly to the webmaster, Public Information Department, for posting to the AACPS web server.  No printed copy is necessary. Updates may be submitted:
  

  • Via e-mail to the webmaster.  PLEASE Zip files whenever possible.
    
    

  • Placed in a public directory on a file server (for schools on the WAN) with notification by phone or e-mail, or 
    
    

  • submitted on floppy disk or CD-Rom.
    
    

  • The Web Page Review Form (pdf) should be sent via basket mail.

The content of new web sites associated with Anne Arundel County Public Schools is reviewed by the Public Information Office before posting.

Depending on the size of a new site, the number of technical corrections that need to be made, and the number of posting requests received, posting may take a few days. Every effort is made to post time-sensitive information very soon after it is received.

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