District websites are required to include certain information for the public. Compliance is required by state and federal legislation.
The following documents are provided to support districts on their road to compliance. The content in these documents is also available in an outline format on this webpage.
New Requirements that are Effective Beginning with the 2025-26 School Year
59-8-165: Student Transfer Policy
Each district shall review and publicly post available capacity for interdistrict student transfers on its website and update this information at least annually. School districts are not required to provide transportation but must disclose their transportation policy… All school districts must have an interdistrict policy in place within one hundred twenty days of the publication of the model guidelines by the department. Any school district with an existing interdistrict policy must review and ensure compliance with this section within sixty days of its enactment...
59-19-85: School Board Meeting Livestream Mandate...
(A) Each public school governing body, including the governing bodies of charter schools and special schools, must make reasonable efforts to ensure the entirety of all meetings subject to the provisions of the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act are open and accessible to the public and also available by means of live video and audio electronic access, hereafter referred to as livestream access, except during a lawful executive session.
(B) If a governing body cannot provide such livestream access to the public despite making reasonable efforts to restore livestream access during the meeting, it must make a clear audio and video recording of the meeting in its entirety available on its website as soon as practicable and in no more than seven days after the meeting.
(C)(1) … all portions of livestreamed meetings to be visible and audible in real time and subsequently posted on applicable websites no more than two business days of the meeting…
(D)(1) Each public school governing body, including the governing bodies of charter schools and special schools, shall adopt a local policy applicable to its meetings within three months after adoption of the model policy by the State Board of Education. A local policy must include, at a minimum, the State Board of Education model policy.
(D)(5) Within thirty days after adoption of a local policy or revision to the policy, a public school governing body shall submit a copy of the policy or revision to the State Superintendent of Education for State Board of Education approval.
South Carolina Code of Laws
23-3-535: ...School Districts Required to Provide Certain Information
(b) The hyperlink to the sex offender registry web site on the school district's web site for the purpose of gathering this information.
30-4-80: Notice of Meetings of Public Bodies
(A) All public bodies… must give written public notice of their regular meetings at the beginning of each calendar year. The notice must include the dates, times, and places of such meetings. An agenda for regularly scheduled or special meetings must be posted on a bulletin board in a publicly accessible place at the office or meeting place of the public body and on a public website maintained by the body, if any, at least twenty-four hours prior to such meetings.
59-8-165: Student Transfer Policy
Each district shall review and publicly post available capacity for interdistrict student transfers on its website and update this information at least annually. School districts are not required to provide transportation but must disclose their transportation policy… All school districts must have an interdistrict policy in place within one hundred twenty days of the publication of the model guidelines by the department. Any school district with an existing interdistrict policy must review and ensure compliance with this section within sixty days of its enactment...
59-18-900: Annual Report Cards... Trustee Training...
(A) The Education Oversight Committee, working with the State Board of Education, is directed to establish the format of a comprehensive, web-based, annual report card to report on the performance for the State and for individual primary, elementary, middle, high schools, career centers, and school districts of the State. The comprehensive report card must be in a reader-friendly format, using graphics whenever possible, published on the state, district, and school websites, and, upon request, printed by the school districts. The school's rating must be emphasized and an explanation of its meaning and significance for the school also must be reported…
(H) …Establish a comprehensive annual report concerning the performance of military-connected children who attend primary, elementary, middle, and high schools in the state. The comprehensive annual report must be in a reader-friendly format, using graphics whenever possible, published on the state, district, and school websites, and, upon request, printed by the school districts. The annual comprehensive report must address at least attendance, academic performance in reading, math, and science, and graduation rates of military-connected children.
(F) The percentage of new trustees who have completed the orientation requirement provided in
Section 59-19-45 must be reflected on the school district website.
59-18-1625: Designation as an Underperforming School or District...
(A) Upon a school's or district's designation as an underperforming school or district…
(B)(1) Upon receiving notification from the department, the district superintendent, in consultation with school and community stakeholders, must review and revise the school and district's strategic plan with the assistance of the School Improvement Council, as established in Section 59-20-60, to include a turnaround plan component for any underperforming school or district…
(D) Once approved by the department, the revised strategic plan must be prominently posted on the respective websites of the department, district, and school…
59-19-85: School Board Meeting Livestream Mandate...
(A) Each public school governing body, including the governing bodies of charter schools and special schools, must make reasonable efforts to ensure the entirety of all meetings subject to the provisions of the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act are open and accessible to the public and also available by means of live video and audio electronic access, hereafter referred to as livestream access, except during a lawful executive session.
(B) If a governing body cannot provide such livestream access to the public despite making reasonable efforts to restore livestream access during the meeting, it must make a clear audio and video recording of the meeting in its entirety available on its website as soon as practicable and in no more than seven days after the meeting.
(C)(1) … all portions of livestreamed meetings to be visible and audible in real time and subsequently posted on applicable websites no more than two business days of the meeting…
(D)(1) Each public school governing body, including the governing bodies of charter schools and special schools, shall adopt a local policy applicable to its meetings within three months after adoption of the model policy by the State Board of Education. A local policy must include, at a minimum, the State Board of Education model policy.
(D)(5) Within thirty days after adoption of a local policy or revision to the policy, a public school governing body shall submit a copy of the policy or revision to the State Superintendent of Education for State Board of Education approval.
General Appropriations Bill for 2025-26
H603-1.3: State Aid to Classrooms
(F) …Pursuant to Section
59-20-80, each school board of trustees must make available by September first of each fiscal year its annual budget that includes state, local, and federal investments in education. The budget must be available on the district’s website. The department, in collaboration with local school districts, will provide a template that each district must use in reporting its budget.
I) Each district’s annual audit must be available on the district’s website.
H630-1.21: School Districts and Special Schools Flexibility
Quarterly throughout the current fiscal year, the chairman of each school district's board and the superintendent of each school district must certify where non-instructional or nonessential programs have been suspended and the specific flexibility actions taken… the certification must be presented publicly at a regularly called school board meeting, and the certification must be conspicuously posted on the internet website maintained by the school district.
School districts must maintain a transaction register that includes a complete record of all funds expended over one hundred dollars, from whatever source, for whatever purpose. The register must be prominently posted on the district's internet website and made available for public viewing and downloading. The register must include for each expenditure:
- the transaction amount;
- the name of the payee; and
- a statement providing a detailed description of the expenditure.
The register must not include an entry for salary, wages, or other compensation paid to individual employees. The register must not include any information that can be used to identify an individual employee. The register must be accompanied by a complete explanation of any codes or acronyms used to identify a payee or an expenditure. The register must be searchable and updated at least once a month.
Each school district must also maintain on its internet website a copy of each monthly statement for all of the credit cards maintained by the entity, including credit cards issued to its officers or employees for official use. The credit card number on each statement must be redacted prior to posting on the internet website. Each credit card statement must be posted not later than the thirtieth day after the first date that any portion of the balance due as shown on the statement is paid.
School districts that do not maintain an internet website must transmit all information required by this provision to the Comptroller General in a manner and at a time determined by the Comptroller General to be included on the internet website.
H630-1.24: School District Furlough
Each local school district must prominently post on the districts internet website and make available for public viewing and downloading the most recent version of the school districts policy manual and administrative rule manual.
H630-1.36: Administrative Costs Reporting
School districts must report the amount of funds spent on administrative costs, as defined by In$ight in the prior fiscal year and post the report on the districts website. School districts shall provide an electronic copy of this report to the Department of Education in conjunction with the financial audit report required by Section 59-17-100 of the 1976 Code.
H630-1.40: Health Education
Each district shall publish on its website the title and publisher of all health education materials it has approved, adopted, and used in the classroom.
H630-1.87: Surplus Property
(A) A school district must transfer, or offer for sale or lease, any surplus real property or property which has been vacant, unused, or unused for direct student instruction for the previous four school years and is not currently included in any district capital improvement plan for future use on or before July 1, 2025. All school districts must publish on their website by September 15, 2025, a list of properties that qualify under this provision.
H630-1.89: Alternative Education Program Options
The names and addresses of all students age sixteen or older who are not on track for on-time graduation or who are otherwise at risk of dropping out of school, except for students who have opted out of disclosure of directory information under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, 20 U.S.C. Section 1232g will be made available to these institutions. Parents or students age eighteen or older may complete a form to opt the student out of the disclosure of student contact information with these institutions. The department shall develop this opt-out and each district shall make the form available on its website.
H640-9.3: Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities, Schools' Fees
The Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities shall be authorized to charge, collect, expend, and carry forward student fees as approved by their Board of Directors. The purpose and amount of any such fees shall be to maintain program quality in both academics and residential support. No student shall be denied admittance or participation due to financial inability to pay. The Board of Directors shall promulgate administrative policy governing the collection of all student fees. The school shall conspicuously publish a fee schedule on their website…
H650-10.3: Governor's School for Science and Mathematics, Schools' Fees
The Governor's School for Science and Mathematics shall be authorized to charge, collect, expend, and carry forward student fees as approved by their Board of Directors. The purpose and amount of any such fees shall be to maintain program quality in both academics and residential support. No student shall be denied admittance or participation due to financial inability to pay. The Board of Directors shall promulgate administrative policy governing the collection of all student fees. The school shall conspicuously publish a fee schedule on their website.
State Board of Education Regulations
SBE 43.170: Uniform Procedure for Selection or Reconsideration of Instructional Materials
(A). Complainant shall file a petition with the district board, on a form promulgated by the State Department of Education (“SCDE”) and provided by the SCDE to the district board, which the district board shall make readily available on its website, and which is the sole form that a district or district board may use for purposes of compliance with this regulation.
(C) Each district board shall maintain at all times on its website a complete, current list or catalogue of all books and other materials that are available to students through any of a district’s libraries or media centers. This list or catalogue shall be regularly updated and prominently displayed om each districts’ website to ensure that this information is current, and readily accessible to students, their families, and other interested parties
Federal Legislation
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
On April 24, 2024, the Federal Register published the Department of Justice’s (Department) final rule updating its regulations for Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The final rule has specific requirements about how to ensure that web content and mobile applications (apps) are accessible to people with disabilities.
