Student Data Privacy Agreement
This agreement is between (the "School") and Smart Chalk (operated by , the "Provider"), and covers the School's use of Smart Chalk at smartchalk.onrender.com (or its successor address).
1. Purpose
The Provider gives the School's teachers lesson videos, quizzes, homework, grading and a gradebook. The Provider uses student data only to provide these services to the School. The School stays the owner of all student data, and the Provider acts as a "school official" with a legitimate educational interest under FERPA (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR § 99.31(a)(1)), under the School's direct control for the use and upkeep of that data.
2. What student data Smart Chalk keeps
| Data | Why | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| The name the teacher types (we ask for first name and last initial) | So the teacher knows whose work it is | The teacher |
| A 4-digit PIN and class membership | So students can sign in without an email or password | Made by Smart Chalk |
| Answers, scores and feedback | Grading and the teacher's gradebook | The student |
| How much of an assigned video was played | So the teacher can see who watched | The student's browser |
Smart Chalk does not ask for or keep students' email addresses, birthdays, addresses, phone numbers, photos, ID numbers or location, and students don't make their own accounts. Smart Chalk doesn't use tracking cookies or advertising on student pages; it uses one sign-in cookie so a student stays signed in.
3. Who else sees it (service providers)
| Provider | What it does | Student data it gets |
|---|---|---|
| Render (hosting, United States) | Runs the website and stores its data | All of the above, stored on Smart Chalk's server |
| Anthropic (Claude AI) | Grades written (short) answers | The question, the answer key and the student's written answer, without the student's name |
| ElevenLabs, OpenAI moderation, Stripe, Google, RevenueCat | Narration, safety checks on what teachers type, payments, teacher sign-in, app purchases | None. These only see teacher or adult account information, or lesson content. |
Service providers may only use the data to provide their service to Smart Chalk, and under their API terms they don't train their AI models on it. The Provider will tell the School before adding a new service provider that receives student data.
4. What Smart Chalk will never do
- Sell, rent or trade student data.
- Use student data for advertising, or to build a profile of a student for anything other than the School's purposes.
- Show ads to students.
- Share student data with anyone not listed above, except if the law requires it (and then the Provider will tell the School first unless the law forbids that).
5. Keeping it safe
- All connections use HTTPS encryption.
- Student sign-in is locked after 5 wrong PINs, and only the student's own teacher can see their work, PIN and grades.
- Only the Provider's owner can reach the server and its data.
- If student data is ever accessed by someone who shouldn't have it, the Provider will tell the School within 72 hours of finding out, with what happened, what data was involved and what is being done about it.
6. Deleting data
- Teachers can remove a student, or delete a class, at any time; that deletes the student's work and grades right away.
- When the School asks, or within 60 days after the School's plan ends, the Provider will delete the School's student data and confirm it in writing. Backups that contain it are overwritten within 30 days after that.
- Parents and eligible students who want to see or correct a student's records ask the School; the Provider will help the School answer within 30 days.
7. Children under 13
For students under 13, the School gives consent under COPPA on the parents' behalf, for this educational use only, as the FTC allows for school-authorized services. Smart Chalk collects only what's listed in section 2.
8. Laws
The Provider will follow FERPA, COPPA, PPRA and the student privacy laws of the School's state (for example, California's SOPIPA and AB 1584, New York Education Law 2-d, or Illinois SOPPA, where they apply). If this agreement and those laws disagree, the laws win.
9. Term
This agreement lasts as long as the School uses Smart Chalk, and the promises about deleting and protecting data continue until the data is deleted.
Signatures
Questions about student privacy: email the address on your Smart Chalk invoice. See also the privacy policy and terms.