Photo release form for daycare

Legal or not, I would not send my kid to a daycare we such a confrontational, unaccomodating, and unreasonable communication style. (You need to sign a release precisely because it’s not a given that you’d like your kids’ pictures plastered all over their promotional materials for two decades, or floating freely on the internet). If this is how it starts, it’s not going good places.

This post caught my eye. It is creepy that a day care would make this mandatory. A red flag. How many photos does this business take? Good child care shouldn’t need photos to show how well they’re doing. A child cannot consent and coercing the parent to do so to get a service is outrageous. I can’t imagine why a day care would insist in this. Perhaps you could have a conversation with the owner or head to find out and explain why you don’t want to sign. In any event I would contact the state licensing agency and report. (Below) Such a requirement doesn’t make sense—and it raises an alarm re child pornographers.  The primary business of daycare should be protecting children not marketing or recording. https://www.cdss.ca.gov/inforesources/child-care-licensing/resources-fo…

I don't have an answer on the legality of it, but worked at a child care organization with photo release forms -- we didn't require it of all children, and it was a huge hassle - anytime we wanted to take a photo for anything, including a little book the teacher liked to do to show parents what the kids had done that year, we had to separate out all the kids without release into a different room or outside.  I can totally see the rationale for just requiring them of all children. You could still mention to the teacher that you would prefer your child's photo not be used for any social media etc if that's your concern.

Of course it’s legal. They don’t have a monopoly and you’re forced to use their daycare. Since both sides are entering into a voluntary contract why shouldn’t a business apply requirements which make their operation run smoothly (instead of keeping track of where the 3 kids who’s parents don’t want them photographed happen to be before every photo)? If you don’t like this daycare’s  conditions, shop elsewhere.

It’s a private enterprise and they would most likely use the images to promote their business for marketing purposes. Personally, I had no issues with the photo releases since it helped to support my child’s daycare and preschool in obtaining more business. 

I signed a similar form for our daycare. I would agree with SFParent in that it's mainly for promoting their daycare. But also when I get picture or videos, sometimes it's a group photo or there are other kids in the background. The release means that they don't have to bother blurring the other kids' faces and vice versa. It's nice to see picture of your kid with their best friend. I did amend the form to include a line saying I do not agree to have my kid's name posted alongside any photo. I'm hoping that will prevent her image from coming up on any future internet searches.

Our preschool had a photo release form, as the school did a weekly newsletter for the parents. It included the projects they were working on, and what was coming up for the next week. I'm guessing each newsletter had about 50 photos, about 10 from each classroom. I loved it, as I had two kids in the school (in different classrooms) and could keep track of what they were learning. One girl's parents did not sign the photo release, so the teachers basically moved her out of the shot for every picture. Fire truck visits the school (pull her aside so they could take the kid's photos with the truck), they worked on a little puppet show (she participated but they had to move her away when they took the photos), and when it was her birthday, no photos were taken for the newsletter at all. I only knew this because sometimes if the parents came in to volunteer, we were told to make sure she was out of every photo. I imagine as a 4 year old, this was confusing for her. I am guessing the school is trying to avoid a situation like this, but I don't know how they could keep you out if you've already been accepted.

I wouldn't know about legality but as an actor this upsets me. This is most likely the future though since everyone is becoming a content creator for social media. As for business practice, the tuition is their fee. If they need content for marketing, they need to hire child models and photographers or get stock photographs for their needs. Not use the children in their care for their business needs.