The small-school website checklist: 33 things every K–8 or preschool site needs

Most small-school websites have the same gaps in the same places. Not because the people who built them did a bad job. Because nobody handed them a checklist. This is the checklist.

Score yourself. One point per item you have working today. 28+ means your site is in good shape. 20–27 means you have foundational work to do. Under 20 and you're leaking prospective families and donors you don't know about.

A. Core pages (1–8)

1. Homepage with a clear answer to "what is this school?" Age range, location, approach — within five seconds. "Welcome to our website" doesn't count.
2. About / our story page. History, founders, mission. The reason families pick small schools is the story. Tell it.
3. Programs / curriculum / classroom page(s). One per program or grade pod. What the day looks like, what kids learn, philosophy in plain English.
4. Admissions / enrollment page. Timeline, deadlines, requirements, what to expect. The most-visited page on most school sites.
5. Tuition page with actual numbers. Real dollar amounts. "Contact us for tuition" is a conversion-killer — families decide to skip you before they even email.
6. Staff / faculty page. Names, photos, short bios. Faces build trust faster than logos.
7. Calendar / events page. Tour dates, open houses, key admissions dates. Must be current. A stale calendar is the #1 signal that a site isn't maintained.
8. Contact page with real methods. Phone, email, address, hours, a contact form. Embedded map if you have a physical location.

B. Conversion mechanisms (9–14)

9. Tour signup form / "schedule a visit" button. Prominent on the admissions page and the homepage. This is your primary funnel. Don't make people hunt.
10. Inquiry form for families who can't tour yet. Short. Name, email, child's age, what they want to know. Don't ask 14 questions at the inquiry stage.
11. Newsletter / mailing list signup. Pulls people into a slower funnel — they're not ready now, they'll be ready in 18 months for the next age cohort.
12. Donation or giving page (if applicable). Most independent schools and preschool co-ops fundraise. A single "support us" link with a Donorbox or Stripe URL is better than nothing.
13. Volunteer signup (especially co-ops and parent-run schools). If parent labor is part of your model, the site should explain it and make it easy to commit.
14. Clear phone number, click-to-call on mobile. Use a tel: link so phone visitors can tap to dial. Sounds obvious. Constantly missing.

C. Trust signals (15–20)

15. Real photos of real kids and classrooms. Stock photos are obvious and they kill trust instantly. Get photo releases, take real photos, use them.
16. At least 2 testimonials or parent quotes. Specifics beat generic. "Our daughter went from shy to running for class president in two years" beats "great community."
17. Accreditation or affiliation logos (if you have them). NAIS, PCPI, state licensing, regional accreditor. A small grid in the footer is enough.
18. Founding year or "established." Longevity matters to parents choosing where their kid spends 4–10 years.
19. Awards, press, or recognition (if any). Local "best of" lists, news mentions, alumni outcomes. Keep this honest — three real items beats ten weak ones.
20. Updated content. A visible "Last updated" date or fresh events/news. Nothing kills trust like a homepage showing the spring 2022 fundraiser.

D. Technical foundations (21–26)

21. Mobile-responsive. Open the site on your phone. Read everything without pinch-zooming. If you can't, the site is broken. Over 60% of school site traffic is mobile.
22. SSL certificate (HTTPS). The padlock. Without it, parents see "Not Secure" and bounce.
23. Page load under 3 seconds. Check at PageSpeed Insights. Slow sites lose 7% of visitors per second of load time after the first.
24. Working contact form (test it monthly). Send yourself a test. Confirm it lands. Do it again next month.
25. No broken links. Run a free check at Dead Link Checker. Broken links signal neglect.
26. 404 page with navigation. When someone lands on a missing page, give them a way back. Default 404s look broken.

E. SEO foundations (27–30)

27. Page title for every page. Format: "Page Topic | School Name." Look at your browser tab. If it says "Home" or your URL, that's a problem.
28. Meta description for every page. 150–160 characters. Shows in Google search results. View page source, search for <meta name="description">.
29. Google Business Profile claimed and verified. Free, 20 minutes, gives you the box on the right side of Google search for your school name. Skipping this leaves local-search money on the table.
30. XML sitemap submitted to Google Search Console. Tells Google what pages you have so they get indexed. Free. Squarespace and most CMSes generate it automatically.

F. Legal and accessibility (31–33)

31. Privacy policy. Required if you collect any visitor data (and you do — contact form, analytics). Generic templates are fine for small orgs; Termly generates one free.
32. Photo release / image use policy. If you publish student photos, you need parental consent on file. Not a website item — a documentation item that should exist before photos go up.
33. WCAG 2.1 AA baseline. Alt text on every image, sufficient color contrast, keyboard-navigable. Run an audit at WAVE. Not just compliance — accessibility helps every visitor.

How to use this list

1. Score your current site. Go through every item, give yourself a point for each that's clearly working. Be honest. "Kind of" doesn't count.
2. Fix the easy losses first. Tuition page with real numbers, working contact form, current calendar, real photos. Hours of work, not weeks. Highest return per hour spent.
3. Plan the harder fixes. Mobile responsiveness, SSL, page speed. These may need platform changes or developer help.
4. Add the missing pages. No admissions timeline? Write one this week. No tuition page? Publish one this week. Hardest part is starting.
5. Re-score quarterly. Sites drift. Re-score every 90 days.

The honest gut-check

If you scored below 20, and you've also scored below 20 the last few times you tried to fix the site, the pattern isn't "we'll do it next quarter." The pattern is "we never have time." Not a moral failing. A structural one. Small-org websites get fixed when someone whose job is to fix them is on payroll for it.

That doesn't have to be expensive. A managed service at $79–$200/month buys you all 33 items maintained for you. A dedicated freelancer at 4 hours/month buys you most of them. The wrong answer is to keep promising yourself next quarter when you've made that promise three quarters in a row.