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All Thank you very much for your very helpful information. Here in Texas, USA, I am trying to figure out who the decision maker is, School District, Principal/Admin team, or PTA (parent-teacher association) of each school, or combination of them. I had a meeting with a principal and she added a bit to my confusion. She said possibly working with PTA is the better choice to start with, but she also said we may want to talk to the curriculum committee of the school district. Why did she bring up curriculum committee? Because our business is not exactly what you guys do, but it is tailored to a health-care related business as well. I am not going to compete with photographers, although photography will be a major part of our business. Basically we are not taking group or individual portraits. Also we want to offer short educational sessions for students, or pamphlets about healthcare to make it informative for students/parents, and also make it a bit more appealing for schools to allow us in. Apparently, I emphasized a lot on the educational aspects of our work that the principal was confused that we want to offer something like a course, so she thought changing the curriculum could be an option. We do not intend to do that at all, as the educational parts are going to be brief, and we do not want to spend a lot of time on the bureaucratic aspect of changing curriculum. So I think our best shot would be to deal with with school districts directly to allow us to get into each individual school, as we do not like to negotiate a lot with each school. But also the risk is that if the district says no to us, we may loss the opportunity to get into each school. Please let me know what you think. Thank you Maz

Hi William and Rick Thank you very much for your responses. I found them very useful. I should have also mentioned that I am from Texas, USA. Another question: in terms of time arrangements when at school on the day of photo shoot, when are you allowed to do it? During recess time, or can you, for example schedule to take the students out from their math class? Thank you. Maz

Hi All I am interested in starting a school photography business, and I was wondering how to approach schools. Do I need to start with school district or directly school? Also what legal things do I need to take into consideration, and address them to schools so give them a peace of mind? How to encourage the schools to trust and work with me, from the business aspects of the service? How many times a year do I need to do it in every school year? Thank you. Maz