Privacy Policy

Aequitas, in its role as a vendor to educational agencies and institutions (LEAs), receives disclosures from the LEAs of personally identifiable information (PII) contained in student records. Only information that is needed for Aequitas to perform services outsourced to it by the LEA is disclosed to Aequitas These disclosures are authorized under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a federal statute that regulates the privacy of student records by LEAs that receive financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Education. Aequitas, as a contractor to the LEA, receives the disclosures on the same basis as school officials employed by the LEA, consistent with FERPA regulations, 34 CFR §99.31(a)(1)(i)(B). Consistent with those regulations, Aequitas has a legitimate educational interest in the information to which it is given access because the information is needed to perform the outsourced service, and Aequitas is under the direct control of the LEA in using and maintaining the disclosed education records, consistent with the terms of its contract.

Aequitas is subject to the same conditions on use and redisclosure of education records that govern all school officials, as provided in 34 CFR §99.33. In particular, Aequitas must ensure that only individuals that it employs or that are employed by its contractors, with legitimate educational interests – consistent with the purposes for which Aequitas obtained the information — obtain access to PII from education records it maintains on behalf of the district or institution. Further, in accordance with 34 CFR §99.33(a) and (b), Aequitas may not redisclose PII without consent of a parent or an eligible student (meaning a student who is 18 years old or above or is enrolled in postsecondary education) unless the agency or institution has authorized the redisclosure under a FERPA exception and the agency or institution records the subsequent disclosure. An example of such a disclosure is when Aequitas is requested by a school district to assist the district in the transfer of the student records from our system to another system.

Aequitas will not sell or otherwise use or redisclose education records for targeted advertising or marketing purposes. Aequitas does not allow advertising within its products, and therefore there is no behavioral or targeted advertising. Aequitas uses data within its products only to deliver the services contracted by the educational institution. Aequitas may use anonymized, non-PII data internally to improve the products and services it delivers to LEAs.

Aequitas employs extensive technological and operational measures to ensure data security and privacy, including advanced security systems technology, physical access controls, and annual privacy training for employees and partners, and criminal background checks of all employees. All data is housed within the United States. Details about the audits and company policies which support the Aequitas security programs are available to LEAs under a non-disclosure agreement.

All employees of Aequitas are required to sign an Employee Handbook that commits the employees to comply with Aequitas’s data privacy and security policies and receive required annual security and privacy training, including commitments and training regarding the prohibition on disclosure of student data.

Aequitas does not own any of the student data or district-created data within its products. These data within the products are property of, and under the control of the local educational agency. The collection, input, use, retention, disposal, and disclosure of any information in our software applications are controlled solely by the LEAs which license our products. Aequitas cannot delete, change, or disclose any information from our software applications controlled by the LEA. Students who wish to retain possession and control of their own pupil-generated content should contact the LEA. If the LEA is unable to fulfill the request of the student, Aequitas can assist at the direction and expense of the LEA.

In the event any third party (including the eligible student or parent/guardian of the eligible student) seeks to access education records, Aequitas will refer the request to the appropriate LEA. Aequitas shall not provide access to such data or information or respond to such requests unless compelled to do so by court order or lawfully issued subpoena from any court of competent jurisdiction or directed to do so by the LEA. Should Aequitas receive a court order or lawfully issued subpoena seeking the release of such data or information, Aequitas shall provide immediate notification, along with a copy thereof, to the LEA prior to releasing the requested data or information, unless such notification is prohibited by law or judicial and/or administrative order or subpoena.

If the LEA is unable to fulfill a request of an eligible student or parent/guardian to review the student’s records, Aequitas can assist at the direction and expense of the LEA. In such an event where a parent, legal guardian, or eligible student seeks to make changes to the data within our products parents, legal guardians, or eligible students shall follow the procedures established by the LEA in accordance with FERPA. Generally, these procedures establish the right to request an amendment of the student’s education records that the parent or eligible student believes is inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise in violation of the student’s privacy rights under FERPA. Parents or eligible students who wish to ask the LEA to amend their child’s or their education record should write an LEA official (often a Principal or Superintendent), clearly identify the part of the record they want changed, and specify why it should be changed. If the LEA decides not to amend the record as requested by the parent or eligible student, the LEA will notify the parent or eligible student of the decision and of their right to a hearing regarding the request for amendment. Additional information regarding the hearing procedures would be provided to the parent or eligible student when notified of the right to a hearing.

In the event Aequitas becomes aware of a data breach or inadvertent disclosure of PII, Aequitas shall take immediate steps to limit and mitigate such security breach to the extent possible. A senior executive of Aequitas will notify a senior member of the affected LEAs leadership team, ideally the Superintendent or similar chief executive. This typically will occur within 24 hours of confirmation of the event and would include the known relevant details. The LEA and Aequitas will work cooperatively in determining an action plan, including any required notification of affected persons. In the event that Aequitas is at fault for the breach or disclosure, Aequitas carries a cyber-liability insurance policy that provides for a number of potential remedies, such as credit monitoring for affected parties, fraud coverage, crisis management communications coverage, business interruption coverage, and data restoration coverage, among others.

In the event of termination of a license to use our products, Aequitas works with the LEA, in accordance of the terms of the LEAs contract, to destroy all student records contained in our systems and then will permanently delete all archival or backup copies of the agency’s or institution’s data. Aequitas shall not knowingly retain copies of any data or information received from LEA once LEA has directed Aequitas as to how such information shall be returned and/or destroyed. Furthermore, Aequitas shall ensure that it disposes of any and all data or information received from LEA in a commercially reasonable manner that maintains the confidentiality of the contents of such records (e.g. shredding paper records, erasing and reformatting hard drives, erasing and/or physically destroying any portable electronic devices). At the request of the LEA, Aequitas will provide written certification of destruction.

To the extent parents, guardians or students have questions regarding the content of, or privacy associated with, any applications used by the educational institution, please contact that agency or institution.

Aequitas may, from time to time, update this policy to follow evolving state and federal laws and regulations. We will not materially change our policies and practices to make them less protective of your privacy without the written consent of the LEA and the LEA may rely upon any and enforce any current or prior version of this policy unless otherwise agreed to in writing.

Data collected by our LEAs through the use of Q is not the property of Aequitas, nor does Aequitas use this data. Some examples of the data that can be collected by your child’s school or district include:

1. Class Attendance, Class Behavior, Student Enrollment, Testing scores, Transcripts, Student Schedule and assignments, GPA, etc.

2. Health information such as immunization and medical history.

3. Birth information, gender, language information, address information, and phone number.

4. Features available through the use of the mobile app include interaction with teachers and staff.