The newsroom
The student newspaper and its public online edition: issues, sections, bylines tied to the roster, and a web edition a reader opens without a login. A story files once and runs in print and on the web.
highschool.software · For high schools · The whole publication and records program
Run the whole high school publication and records program in one place.
A high school is a small newsroom, a design studio, a records office, and a fundraising shop at once. This platform carries all four in one browser editor and on one student list: the yearbook and the student newspaper, the literary magazine and the public online editions, the student records, directory, and ID cards, and a teach-as-you-build curriculum an adviser can hand a class on day one. Money is honest-off — the platform does not process payments yet — and a demo is the honest next step.
One editor and one roster for every publication, the records office, and the fundraising shop. The picture-day store and offline capture are in early access; money is honest-off.
The frame
Four rooms of a high school, under one roof
A high school publication and records program is really four rooms: a newsroom, a design studio, a records office, and a fundraising shop. Most schools pay for a separate tool per room and re-key the same roster into each. This platform is the one roof — four rooms, one student list, one login.
The design studio
The yearbook and the literary magazine in one page-layout editor — spreads, a page ladder, portrait pages, an index, and curated student art and writing. The same tool lays out a news page and a yearbook spread.
The records office
The student directory, the cumulative student record, and ID cards for the whole building — a records-office daily-driver that complements the district system of record rather than replacing it.
The fundraising shop
Ad sales to local sponsors and a picture-day store priced above a cost floor — the engines that fund the program. Both are built; money is honest-off until payment turns on.
Four publications, one editorthe yearbook, newspaper, literary magazine, and public online edition share one page-layout tool
One roster, keyed oncethe same student list runs records, ID cards, bylines, and portrait pages — no re-keying it four times
A class earns creditan adviser hands a course-credit curriculum to a staff of students on day one
Money honest-offthe editor, publications, records, and curriculum cost the school nothing; the platform does not process payments yet
The publications
Every publication in one tool, on one roster
The paper, the book, the magazine, and the public web edition share one editor and one student list, so a story, a spread, and a web post are the same afternoon’s work rather than four tools and four exports.
Yearbook
The keepsake book: a page ladder, spreads, portrait pages fed from picture day, an index tied to the roster, and a print check that catches a broken job before it costs a reprint. A staff of students produces work that looks professional.
Student newspaper
Issues and sections, bylines tied to the roster, and a public online edition a reader opens without a login. The paper and the yearbook are the same tool, so a reporter and a designer are not learning two apps.
Literary magazine
Curated student writing and art: a submission flow, an editors’ selection, and a laid-out magazine — the arts room’s publication, built in the same editor as the book and the paper.
Public online editions
The web home of the paper, the magazine, and the book: a reader-facing edition anyone can open, published from the same content the print pages use, so the print and the web do not drift into two copies.
A real production tool, free to the school
The editor is a real page-layout tool that runs in the browser: layers, masking, version history, your own uploaded fonts and colour palettes, and a print check that refuses a broken job before it goes to press. A staff of students learns it in a class, and it costs the school nothing to run.
It is the SAME editor for every publication — the book, the paper, the magazine, and the web edition — so a skill a student learns on a yearbook spread carries straight to a news page. One tool to learn, four publications to make. There is no per-club licence and no separate app per publication.
Honest about the money: the editor and all four publication types are built and cost the school nothing; the platform does not process payments yet, so nothing on this page checks out a card. Where a piece is early access rather than open, the copy below says so plainly.
The records office
Records, directory, and ID cards — the daily-driver, not a certified SIS
The building directory and the student record
One student list runs the whole building: the directory, the cumulative student record, and the ID cards printed from the same roster and portraits. Because it is one list, a name is keyed once and a face is bound to it once — a byline, a portrait page, and an ID card all read the same record.
Complements the district system of record
The records office side is a daily-driver, not a state-certified system of record. It COMPLEMENTS the district’s system of record rather than replacing it. When a senior graduates or a student transfers, the records hand-off is logged as a disclosure, records-office only. We say ‘complements’ on purpose: we do not hold a state SIS certification and do not imply one.
The grading-and-reporting sibling is reportcard.software; ID cards have their own front at studentid.software.
A curriculum students earn course credit through
An adviser can hand a class a teach-as-you-build curriculum on day one, and a school can grant course credit for the work. Students learn the craft by producing the real book, the real paper, and the real magazine — the coursework and the publication are the same afternoon’s work, not a worksheet about journalism and, separately, a deadline.
The curriculum is built and free to the school. It is written for the publications program specifically: layout and typography, reporting and editing, photo ethics and consent, and the production calendar that carries a book from a ladder to a reprint-proof press file. An adviser new to the room can teach from it; a veteran adviser can hand parts of it to student editors.
Fund the program — and be honest about the money
Two engines are built to fund the program, and both are honest about money. The ad-sales books build a rate card, track each local sponsor from sold to paid, and drop a bought ad straight onto the book’s ad pages — so the sponsor’s placement and the layout are the same record, not two that drift apart. The picture-day store prices a package above a cost floor the school sets, so a sale can never be booked below what the print costs.
What neither engine does yet is take the payment: highschool.software does not process payments yet. The ad-sales books and the picture-day store assemble the sale and settle no money on this site today — no card is charged here, money is honest-off, and when payment turns on it will be labelled on. There are no invented revenue figures on this page, and no claim that a school has raised a dollar through us.
Picture day at high-school scale
Picture day at 9–12 volume is a consent-gated store, not a face scan. A student or a family finds their own portrait by a permission-checked roster lookup — their name against the roster the school already keeps — never by a face match turned on without a say-so. Portraits flow straight onto the yearbook’s portrait pages and the building directory, so a face is bound to a name once and re-used everywhere it belongs.
Honest about the build: the store, offline (no-signal) capture in the gym, and outside-lab order routing are in early access. The roster, the directory, and the portrait flow into the book are built. And to be plain: a photo does leave the building when a family orders a print from an outside lab — so we do not say a photo ‘never leaves the school.’ What we do say is that a photo is never sold and a sale is permission-gated.
Honest about student work, rosters, and photos
Student work, rosters, and portraits stay inside our own private system, and none of it is sold. Find-my-photo is a permission-checked roster lookup, not a face match; facial recognition is off by default, and any face template a parent opts into stays inside that same private system rather than a shared pool.
We are careful about two claims other vendors make and we do not: we do NOT say a photo ‘never leaves the school’ (a find-my-photo store and an outside-lab order do leave the building), and we do NOT claim ‘no face data,’ because a find-my-photo feature touches roster and photo data. The honest claims are the ones we can keep: photos are never sold, a sale is permission-gated, face matching is off by default, and minor-student data is never made public.
Student and family data is owned by the school. It is never sold to or shared with outside companies, advertisers, or third parties; data involving minor students is consent-gated and consent can be withdrawn at any time.
What is built, what is early access, and what is honest-off — plainly
The editor, the publications, records, ID cards, ad sales, and the curriculum are built. Payment and the picture-day store are held.
Built and production-ready: the browser page-layout editor (layers, masking, version history, your own fonts and palettes, and the print check); all four publication types (the yearbook, the student newspaper, the literary magazine, and the public online editions); the student records, the building directory, and ID cards; the ad-sales books; and the course-credit curriculum.
Early access (named early access only because it is true): the picture-day store, offline (no-signal) capture in the gym, and outside-lab order routing.
Honest-off: money. highschool.software does not process payments yet — the ad-sales books and the picture-day store assemble a sale and settle no money on this site today. There are no invented adoption numbers, testimonials, or named schools on this page. Student work and rosters are never sold, find-my-photo is a permission-checked roster lookup rather than a face match, and minor-student data is never made public. highschool.software is a for-profit software vendor for high schools — not a school, a district, or a nonprofit. The honest next step is a conversation.
FAQ
Common questions
Is highschool.software a school, a district, or a nonprofit?
No. It is a for-profit software company whose product is this platform for high schools. It is not a school, not a district, and not a nonprofit. High schools are (mostly) public schools; the software that serves them is a for-profit product. We are precise about the difference: this site sells software, not donations, and nothing here is tax-deductible.
How do the yearbook and the newspaper share one tool?
They run on the same page-layout editor and the same student roster. A story, a spread, and a web post are the same afternoon’s work — one editor to learn, one list of students, four publications to make. A reporter and a designer are not learning two different apps, and a byline, a portrait page, and an ID card all read the same record.
Is the editor really a production tool, or a template filler?
It is a production tool: layers, masking, version history, your own uploaded fonts and colour palettes, and a print check that refuses a broken job before it goes to press. It runs in the browser, a staff of students learns it in a class, and it costs the school nothing. It is the same editor for the book, the paper, the magazine, and the web edition.
Is the records side a certified student-information system?
No, and we do not imply it is. The records office side is a daily-driver that carries the directory, the cumulative student record, and ID cards — and it COMPLEMENTS the district’s system of record rather than replacing it. We do not hold a state SIS certification. A records hand-off, when a senior graduates or a student transfers, is logged as a disclosure, records-office only.
Can the program pay for itself, and do you take the payment?
The engines to fund it are built — ad sales to local sponsors and a picture-day store priced above a cost floor. What we do NOT do yet is take the payment: highschool.software does not process payments yet. The books and the store assemble a sale and settle no money on this site today; no card is charged here. Money is honest-off, and when payment turns on it will be labelled on.
How does picture day work, and how do I find my photo?
Picture day is a consent-gated store. You find your own portrait by a permission-checked roster lookup — your name against the roster the school already keeps — not by a face match. Facial recognition is off by default. The store, offline capture in the gym, and outside-lab order routing are in early access; the roster and the portrait flow into the book are built.
Do you sell student work or photos, or claim they never leave the school?
We never sell student work, rosters, or photos, and a sale is permission-gated. We are also careful NOT to claim a photo ‘never leaves the school’ — a find-my-photo store and an outside-lab order do leave the building — and NOT to claim ‘no face data,’ because a find-my-photo feature touches roster and photo data. The claims we keep: never sold, permission-gated, face-matching off by default, minor data never public.
How do students earn course credit?
An adviser hands a class the teach-as-you-build curriculum on day one, and the school grants course credit for producing the real book, the paper, and the magazine. The coursework and the publication are the same work — students learn layout, reporting, editing, and photo consent by making the thing, not by a worksheet about it. The curriculum is built and free to the school.
How do we get started?
By a conversation, not a checkout. A demo shows the current state honestly: how the editor and the four publications work on one roster, how records, the directory, and ID cards run, how the ad-sales books and the picture-day store assemble a sale with money honest-off, and exactly what is built versus early access. There is no pricing commitment and no card charged. Book a demo at /contact.
The platform underneath
Related surfaces
highschool.software is the high-school front door on a broader school platform. These adjacent destinations cover the platform and the neighbouring surfaces the publications and records program touches.
homeroom.software
The flagship platform this high-school program runs on — one shared system for permission, the student list, and privacy across every stage of school.
yearbook.software
The dedicated front door for the yearbook itself: the ladder, deadlines, proofing, and the reprint-proof press file, on the same editor.
studentid.software
ID cards for the whole building, printed from the same roster and portraits the records office and the book already use.
reportcard.software
The grading-and-reporting sibling in the K-12 records family — a separate product that reads from the same canonical records.
middleschool.software
The middle-grades feeder front door — where the records that hand up to the high school come from.
Early access · Advisers, publications staff, and records offices · See the current state honestly
Give your advisers one platform for the whole program
A demo shows the current state honestly: the editor and the four publications on one roster, the records office and ID cards, the ad-sales books and the picture-day store with money honest-off, and exactly what is built versus early access. There is no pricing commitment, no signup, and no card charged — highschool.software does not process payments yet.
To book: book a demo.