Question about high school senior photos - parental consent?

[form]

A friend and assistant of mine helped me get involved in a high school portrait shoot for some odd number of the students.

Today she informed me that the photography session may not be being directed or handled by the school, and her contact is an 18-year-old young woman, which has brought some doubts as to the credibility of the shoot.

Going along with this, parental consent has become an issue for consideration, and since I have never done any portrait photo sessions of anyone under 18 years of age and am having difficulty finding information about this, I need to ask: Do we need to have written consent from the parents or legal guardians of the high school students under 18 before we can take the photos of them for any purpose whatsoever? The photos are meant to be 'for the school' but as I said, from what I understand I don't know if our contact is directly representing the school and her age is my current reason for suspicion. I wish the person who asked me to help with this job had gotten more information about who was representing this whole thing, but...well.

Based on what I've gathered so far it seems entirely necessary to get written/signed consent from the parents/legal guardians. Does everyone agree?

Any ideas? Thanks!

[jgrussell]

To take pictures, no. To use them, maybe. You clearly need to sit down with your contact and clear this up.

[tstowe]

I teach high school (yeah, I know, lucky me) and I'm the yearbook advisor. I get to deal with senior pictures every year. (joy)

You don't need anything from the parents. We bring in a photographer who does it every year. There is a place for them (the student) to sign that say's we can take and use their picture. Sorry, I can't be more specific but I haven't read it myself in a year or two. But I am 100% positive mom and dad don't sign anything.