Digital photographs are an important tool used to document children’s progress in our program. Teachers at First Circle regularly take photographs of the children for use in classroom projects, to help document children’s learning, and to share pictures of daily events and activities with parents. However, for privacy and liability reasons, any photo taken at First Circle is considered First Circle property. Unless a copy is requested by you, photos remain at First Circle, and are for in-house use only. The only exception to this policy is for photographs/videos that we give to First Circle families. This includes classroom projects, transition “yearbooks,” memory books for children departing the program, and gifts for parents.
Staff may use their own cameras to take photos of the children, but the photographs, whether printed or on file, must remain at First Circle. They are prohibited from posting pictures taken at First Circle to ANY social networking site or use them for personal use (as wallpaper on their phone or home computer), regardless of whether the family has given them permission.
We like to use photographs/videos of children to promote First Circle in promotional displays, posters or materials, newspaper or magazine publications or on First Circle’s website and social media platforms. For those uses, we never publish a child’s name, or any other identifying information. Parents/guardians have the opportunity to indicate their preferences for whether their child is included in any of these photographic opportunities on the Authorization & Consent form. Authorization for the use of the use of photographs/videos is completely voluntary, can be changed at any time, and we do not provide financial compensation for their use.