Technically, student produced works are copyright eligible. The school holds no automatic rights to these materials.  Obviously, most parents and students are not aware of this situation.  What has been done for years now comes into question, especially if material is going to be posted on the Web.

A strategy to provide a degree of protection for a school or district would be to obtain permission from students of legal age, or from their parents, if they are not of legal age. In the future, such releases could be built in to the sign-off packets that are completed by parents at beginning of each school year. This sign-off could also include photographs, videos, digital images and Web posting of student work as well as their own images. Obtaining these releases would also comply with the requirements of the Student Privacy Act, another federal statute.