Guide · Schools
School website checklist: what parents look for
Parents use a school website for two jobs: deciding whether to apply, and keeping up once their child is enrolled. A good school site puts admissions steps, fees, the academic calendar, notices, transport, safety information and contact details within one or two taps on a phone, and keeps them current. Schools affiliated to a board such as CBSE must also publish a mandatory disclosure section in a prescribed format.
Ask parents how they chose a school and most will mention a visit, a recommendation and the website. The website rarely wins the decision on its own, but a confusing or outdated one can lose it. Once a child is enrolled, the same parents come back every week for notices, holidays and fee dates.
Here is a checklist organised around those two audiences, plus the disclosures that boards and governments require.
For prospective parents: help them decide and apply
Admissions, front and centre
- A clear "Admissions" link in the main menu and a button on the home page.
- Which classes or grades have openings this year, and the age criteria for each.
- The steps in order: enquiry, registration, interaction or assessment if any, offer, fee payment, documents.
- Key dates for the coming session, and what happens if a parent misses them.
- A list of documents needed, such as a birth certificate, transfer certificate, address proof and photos.
- An enquiry form that sends an acknowledgement and reaches someone who replies within a working day or two.
Fees, stated plainly
Parents compare fees across schools, and hiding them sends many of them elsewhere. Publish the fee structure for each class, what it includes (tuition, transport, meals, activities), when it is due, and how to pay. If your board requires fee disclosure, it must be there anyway.
Academics and the school day
- Board and affiliation, curriculum, and the classes you offer.
- A typical day: timings, breaks, after-school activities.
- Teachers and their qualifications, as far as you're comfortable sharing, and the student-teacher ratio.
- Recent board results presented honestly, with the number of students who appeared.
Facilities, shown not told
A short gallery of real photos does more than a paragraph of adjectives. Show classrooms, labs, the library, playgrounds and transport. Caption each photo, and add alt text so that parents using screen readers can follow along too (see our accessibility guide).
Safety and wellbeing
Parents increasingly ask about this before they ask about results. Explain how you handle visitor access, transport safety, health care on campus, counselling, anti-bullying and child protection, and name the role parents should contact about a concern.
For current parents: the pages they use every week
- Notices and circulars, newest first, each with a date and a title that says what it is about ("Winter uniform from 1 December", not "Circular 47").
- Academic calendar with holidays, exams and parent-teacher meetings, downloadable and kept current.
- Fee payment: due dates, the online payment link, and who to contact about a problem.
- Transport: routes, timings and the transport desk's number.
- Homework or learning portal link, if you use one, so parents can find it without asking.
- Contact directory: office, admissions, accounts and transport, each with a phone number that taps to call on a mobile.
Put the notice board, calendar and contact links on the home page. Parents should never have to search for them.
Required disclosures
Many school boards and education authorities set out what schools must publish online. Two examples:
- CBSE (India). The Appendix IX Mandatory Public Disclosure format covers general information about the school, its affiliation and registration documents, safety certificates (building, fire, water and sanitation), the fee structure, academic calendar, School Management Committee and PTA lists, three years of board results, teaching staff details and infrastructure. CBSE's Affiliation Bye-Laws make a functional school website with this information a condition of affiliation, and in January 2026 the Board again reminded schools to keep teacher details and disclosures up to date.
- England. The Department for Education publishes what maintained schools must publish online, with separate guidance for academies, covering items such as admission arrangements, curriculum, behaviour and charging policies, and performance information.
Other boards, such as state boards, ICSE, IB and Cambridge schools, and other countries, have their own rules. Check yours and give the disclosure a page of its own that you link from the footer of every page.
Make it work on a phone first
Most parents will open your site on a phone, often from a link shared in a class WhatsApp group. On a small screen:
- The menu should open in one tap and show Admissions, Notices, Calendar, Fees and Contact.
- Phone numbers should be tap-to-call and the address should open in maps.
- Circulars should be readable on the page, not only as a scanned PDF that needs zooming.
- Photos should be compressed so that the home page loads quickly on mobile data.
Google measures real-world loading speed and responsiveness through its Core Web Vitals. Its published thresholds for a good experience are a Largest Contentful Paint within 2.5 seconds, an Interaction to Next Paint of 200 milliseconds or less, and a Cumulative Layout Shift of 0.1 or less. You can test any page for free with PageSpeed Insights.
Children's privacy
School websites handle more sensitive data than most. A few rules of thumb:
- Get written consent before publishing photos of students, and avoid pairing full names with photos.
- Never publish students' contact details, dates of birth or ID numbers.
- Collect only what you need on enquiry and admission forms, and explain why you need it.
- In India, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 requires verifiable consent from a parent or guardian before processing a child's personal data. Elsewhere, laws such as the UK and EU GDPR set similar expectations.
The checklist
| Page or feature | Must have | Good to have |
|---|---|---|
| Admissions | Steps, dates, documents, enquiry form | Online registration, FAQ |
| Fees | Fee structure per class, payment method | Online payment link |
| Notices | Dated, newest first, readable on mobile | Email or WhatsApp alerts |
| Calendar | Holidays, exams, PTMs for the year | Add-to-calendar file |
| About and academics | Board, classes, leadership, teachers | Results, a typical day |
| Facilities | Captioned photos | Short video tour |
| Safety | Policies and a contact for concerns | Transport and health details |
| Disclosures | Whatever your board or authority requires | Linked from the footer |
| Contact | Phone (tap-to-call), email, map, office hours | Department-wise directory |
Where to start
Open your current site on your phone and try three things a parent would do: find the fees for Class 1, find the next holiday, and call the admissions office. If any of those takes more than a few taps, start there.
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Frequently asked questions
What should be on a school website?
At minimum: admissions process and dates, fee structure, academic calendar, notices and circulars, contact details with a map, information about teachers and facilities, safety and safeguarding information, and any disclosures your board or government requires. Everything should work well on a phone.
Is a website mandatory for CBSE schools?
Yes. CBSE's Affiliation Bye-Laws require affiliated schools to maintain their own functional website with comprehensive information, including a Mandatory Public Disclosure section in the Appendix IX format. CBSE has repeatedly reminded schools to keep it complete and current, and non-compliance can lead to action under the bye-laws.
How often should a school website be updated?
Notices and events as they happen, the calendar at least once a term, and fees, results and staff details at least once a year. An out-of-date notice board is the quickest way to make parents stop checking the site.
Can we post photos of students on our website?
Only with consent and care. Get written permission from parents, avoid full names next to photos of children, and never publish children's personal details. In India, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 requires verifiable parental consent to process the personal data of anyone under 18.
Should a school website have online admissions?
An online enquiry or pre-registration form is worth having for most schools, because many parents first visit outside office hours. Whether you take full applications and payments online depends on your process, but parents should at least be able to register interest and get a reply.
Sources
- CBSE, Appendix IX: Mandatory Public Disclosure, and Affiliation Bye-Laws 2018 (clauses 2.3.8 and 2.4.9).
- CBSE Circular No. 1/2026 (12 January 2026) on uploading teacher details and mandatory disclosures; reported by The Indian Express.
- UK Department for Education, What maintained schools must publish online.
- Google, Web Vitals thresholds.
- Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, Section 9 (processing children's personal data).