CCSD.blog

The State of education in southern nevada

Legal

Ethics, Standards & Policies

Our Mission

ccsd.blog is an independent journalism project dedicated to covering the state of public education in Clark County, Nevada and across the state.

We provide detailed analyses and information to help the citizens of this great state make informed choices about the institutions that educate their children and the officials who govern them.Until recently, this nation trended toward making good on many of the Founders’ belief that a republic — in our case, a democratic republic — can only survive when her citizens are educated. We agree.

Although transparency laws may look adequate on paper, charter schools and their for-profit operators are frequently able to skirt the spirit of those laws while spending public money.This arrangement runs counter to the ideal that every child should be able to access an education grounded in the civic values and secular moral commitments that have undergirded public education in the United States for generations.

Our Principles

Since it is impossible to provide analysis without bias, we state ours plainly:

  1. Government should be transparent to its citizens.
  2. Our government is a collection of public officials charged with carrying out the law and administering the state’s authority on behalf of the people.
  3. Citizens have a right to be informed about their public officials — at a depth appropriate to the impact of the official’s office — in order to hold them accountable.
  4. Public officials should be accountable for the exercise of the authority entrusted to them.
  5. Public funds must be spent in the public interest, and the public has a right to know how they are spent.
  6. Public education is a public good, and the governance of public schools should be subject to the same standards of transparency and accountability as any other function of government.
  7. When private entities receive public funds to perform public functions, they should be held to public standards of transparency — not shielded by the legal structures of private enterprise.
  8. The press serves the public by making the workings of government legible to the governed.

Editorial Independence

ccsd.blog retains full authority over its editorial content. No source of revenue — whether donations, sponsorships, or advertising — influences what we cover, how we cover it, or when we publish. Currently, we do not receive any funding.

  • We do not accept financial support from any entity we are actively covering in an investigative capacity.
  • We do not give any outside party the right to review, approve, or edit our reporting prior to publication.
  • If a subject of our reporting is also a donor or advertiser, we will disclose that relationship within the story.

Conflicts of Interest

We disclose any financial, professional, or personal relationships that could reasonably be perceived as influencing our coverage. When the author of a piece has a relevant connection to the subject — as a current or former employee, a parent of a student in the district, or in any other capacity — that connection will be disclosed in the text of the story.

Currently, the primary author of this project is a current, but soon-to-be former teacher in the Clark County School District who is leaving education, who, will remain anonymous until they are fully separated from the district to avoid retaliation.

Accuracy & Corrections

We are committed to getting it right. When we get it wrong, we say so — clearly, promptly, and in the same place readers encountered the original error.

Our corrections policy:

Factual errors will be corrected as soon as they are identified, with a correction note appended to the story that describes what was wrong and what the correct information is. The original erroneous text will not be silently removed; corrections will be transparent so that readers can see what changed and why. Typographic and inconsequential errors (misspellings, broken links) may be corrected without a note.

If you believe we have published an error, please contact us at tips@ccsd.blog. We take every report seriously.

Sources & Attribution

We identify our sources whenever possible. We will grant anonymity only when a source provides information that is vital to the public interest, when there is no other way to obtain that information, and when identifying the source could reasonably put them at risk of retaliation. In those cases, we will describe the source’s position and basis of knowledge as specifically as we can without compromising their identity.

We will not use anonymous sourcing to allow officials to float ideas, deflect accountability, or attack others without putting their names to it.

When we report on public records, we will identify the records and, where feasible, link to or reproduce them so readers can evaluate the evidence for themselves.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

This publication may use AI tools in the research, drafting, and production process. AI-generated content is always reviewed, verified, and edited by a human before publication. AI is never used to fabricate quotes, sources, or data. Any analysis presented as our own reflects human editorial judgment, not the unreviewed output of a language model.

Commitment to Data Quality

When we present data, we are committed to showing our work. Data is sourced from official public records and government databases whenever possible, and we identify those sources. When we perform analysis — whether statistical, financial, or otherwise — we use standard, appropriate, and statistically sound methods, and we describe our methodology so that readers (and other journalists) can evaluate and replicate our work.

  • We distinguish clearly between what the data shows and what we interpret it to mean.
  • We do not cherry-pick figures to support a predetermined conclusion.
  • When data is incomplete, ambiguous, or subject to reasonable alternative interpretation, we say so.

Original content published on ccsd.blog is available for republication under the following terms:

Noncommercial use: You are free to republish our stories and analyses for noncommercial purposes, provided that you credit ccsd.blog in the byline and link to the original story. You may not edit the material except to reflect changes in time and location (e.g., “yesterday” to the specific date). You must include a link to the original story on ccsd.blog.

Commercial use: For commercial republication, please contact us at tips@ccsd.blog to discuss terms.

Third-party content: Some images, documents, and other materials appearing on ccsd.blog are the property of their respective owners and are used under fair use for purposes of news reporting, commentary, and criticism. These materials are not covered by our republication license. If you believe any material on this site infringes your copyright, please contact us at tips@ccsd.blog with a description of the material and the basis for your claim, and we will respond promptly.

Full Copyright & DMCA Policy →

Privacy Policy & Terms of Use

ccsd.blog collects minimal data from visitors. We do not sell personal information. We may use standard analytics tools to understand how readers find and use our site.

When sources or readers contact us, we treat their communications as confidential unless they have given us explicit permission to identify them or the communication is itself a public record.

Full Privacy Policy → · Terms of Use →

Comment & Engagement Policy

We welcome tips, corrections, and substantive feedback from readers at tips@ccsd.blog. Anonymous tips are accepted. We use Signal and can accommodate other secure communication methods upon request.

ATTENTION: ccsd.blog IS NOT A PUBLICATION OF THE CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT, NOR DO WE MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS THAT WE ARE AFFILIATED WITH OR ENDORSED BY THE DISTRICT. THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT IS https://CCSD.NET.

ATTENTION: THIS IS NOT A PUBLICATION OF THE CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT, NOR DO WE MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS THAT WE ARE. THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE CLARK COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT IS https://ccsd.net.