EDUCATION

Yes, if the district publishes them. Public school districts are covered by ADA Title II, and the Department of Justice's web accessibility rule requires published video to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA, which includes captions on live and recorded video. Districts serving 50,000 people or more must comply by April 26, 2027, and smaller districts by April 26, 2028.

School districts are sized by the population they serve, not by student enrollment. If the Census Bureau doesn't calculate your district's population in the decennial Census, the rule points to its Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE), which publish yearly population figures for every school district. A total of 50,000 or more means April 26, 2027. Under 50,000 means April 26, 2028.

Most public colleges and universities are part of state government, so they take the state's population, which is over 50,000 in every state. That puts their compliance date at April 26, 2027. Community college districts set up as independent districts are the exception to check, since some may follow a different date.

It can. A board meeting recording may capture students by name, image or voice during recognitions, public comment or ceremonies, and a recording that identifies a student may count as an education record depending on its content. Districts should decide with counsel what to publish before a recording goes online. BoxCast's public and private broadcasts, embed restrictions and user permissions help you act on that policy.

It depends on whether the videos qualify for the ADA Title II rule's archived content exception, which has four conditions and is easy to miss. Video that doesn't qualify needs captions or should be removed from public view. Review each collection separately rather than making one call for your whole archive.

Yes. Any school or university that receives federal funding has accessibility obligations under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and those apply now, not on the ADA Title II dates. Many accessibility complaints start with an unanswered request for captions, so it's worth having a process in place today.

Yes. With BoxCast you can make any broadcast public or private and restrict which websites can embed it, so a staff meeting or student event stays with the right audience.