SDES Privacy Policy

Your privacy is important to Specially Designed Education Services dba Functional Academics (“SDES”  “we” or “”us”) and we need to collect certain information to provide our services to you. Please read this Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) to understand how we collect, use, and share your Personal Information (as defined below) when you visit, browse, or make a purchase from any website, mobile application, and/or internet access channel owned or operated by SDES (collectively, the “Sites”). Please note this Privacy Policy does not govern any third-party websites and services that may be linked to or from our Sites.

By visiting our Sites, you are accepting the practices described in our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not use the Sites.

We may revise our Privacy Policy from time to time. You can see when the last update was made by looking at the “Last Updated” date at the top of this page. We won’t reduce your rights under this Privacy Policy without your explicit consent. If we make any significant changes, we will provide prominent notice on the Sites and by notifying you by email (using the email address you provided) within 30 days before the changes take effect, so you are aware of the changes and have time to review them.

We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy from time to time to stay informed about our collection, use, and disclosure of personal information through the Sites. If you don’t agree with any changes to the Privacy Policy, you may terminate your account. By continuing to visit and use the Sites after the revised Privacy Policy has become effective, you acknowledge that you accept and agree to the current version of the Privacy Policy.

Personally Identifiable Information Provided by Educational Providers. We are under the direct control of any Educational Providers for any personally identifiable information they provide to us.

What Information About You Is Collected and Stored?

We collect two basic types of information from you in conjunction with your use of the Sites, personal information and non-personal information. “Personal Information” is information that you may supply to us, as described more fully below, i.e., when you create an account, subscribe to our newsletters, place an order, or upload content to the Sites. Personal Information is any information that can individually identify you and includes, among other things, your name, e-mail address, phone number, address, and contact information. Non-personal information includes information that does not personally identify you, but it may include information such as tracking and usage information about your location, demographics, and use of the Sites.

Personal Information

As a general matter, you can browse the Sites without submitting your Personal Information to us. However, there are several circumstances in which you or your Educational Provider may supply us with your Personal Information. Our data usage chart includes the most common ways in which we may collect your Personal Information and the purpose for which it is collected. You may see our data usage chart here:Data Collection by SDES include the following:

Non-Personal Information

 When you interact with the Sites, we may collect certain information that does not identify you individually (“Non-Personal Information”). Generally, we collect and store the following categories of Non-Personal Information for the purpose of making improvements to the Sites:

• device information about your computer, mobile device, or other device that you use to access the Sites;
• information about how you use the Sites;
• additional “traffic data” such as time of access, date of access, software crash reports, session identification number, access times, and referring website addresses; and
• your search terms and search results.

Collection of Your Source IP Address/Location Information

We collect and store your device’s source IP address, which may disclose the location of your device at the time you access the Sites. Advertisements and certain content may be directed to you as a result of this data.

In some cases the Sites can deliver content based on your current location if you choose to enable that feature. If you enable that feature, your current location will be stored locally on your device which will be used by the Sites to serve you certain content tied to your location. If you elect to have your location-based searches saved to your history, we will store such information on our servers.

Collection of Personal and Non-Personal Information from Other Sources

We also may collect and store information about you that we receive from other sources to, among other things, enable us to update and correct the information contained in our database and to better customize your experience on the Sites.

Use of Cookies, Flash Cookies and Web Beacons

Like many websites, we use “cookies”, which are small text files that are stored on your computer or equipment when you visit certain online pages that record your preferences and actions. We use cookies to track use of our Sites and online services. We may also use cookies to monitor traffic, improve the Sites and make it easier and/or relevant for your use. You may occasionally get cookies from companies advertising on our behalf. We do not control these cookies, and these cookies are not subject to this cookie policy.

You can accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but, if you prefer, you can modify your browser setting to decline cookies. If you delete your cookies or if you set your web browser to decline cookies, some features of the Sites may not work or may not work as designed. For more information on cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information provided by the Interactive Advertising Bureau at www.allaboutcookies.org.

Is Personal Information Collected from Children?

Unless otherwise disclosed during collection and with parent or guardian consent (for instance, in some of the educational areas on our Sites), SDES does not knowingly collect personal identifiable information from children under 13 years of age. If you are under 13 years of age you should not provide personally identifiable information to SDES without providing us with consent from your parent or guardian. If SDES discovers that a child under the age of 13 has provided SDES with personally identifiable information and we do not have the required consent, SDES will immediately delete that child’s information from the Sites.

Combination of Your Personal Information

We use the information from one portion of the Sites on other portions of Sites in our network of Sites, all of which are owned and operated by SDES, and we may combine information gathered from multiple portions of the Sites into a single customer record. We also use and/or combine information that we collect off-line, or we collect or receive from third party sources to enhance, expand, and check the accuracy of your customer records.

Use of Your Location Information

We may use your location information to:

• Provide you with the products and services you request;
• Personalize content and experiences on our Sites, such as providing you recommendations and feedback based on your preferences;
• Personalize your newsletters, offers, and promotions for our products and services, third party products and services, or special events;
• Personalize the advertising you receive based on your activity on our Sites or activity on third-party sites and applications;
• Optimize or improve our products, services, and operations;
• Detect, investigate, and prevent activities that may violate our policies or be illegal; and
• Perform statistical, demographic, and marketing analyses of users of the Sites and their purchasing patterns.

Who Do We Provide Your Information To?

Except as disclosed in this Privacy Policy, we do not disclose information about your Personal Information collected online to any companies not part of SDES or its subsidiaries or related entities. We do not sell or rent your Personal Information as part of a customer list or similar transaction.

Third-Party Subprocessors

We have third party agents, partners, vendors, and other trusted organizations that perform functions on our behalf, such as webhosting, billing, content management tools, marketing, analytics, customer service, fraud protection, etc. (“Third Party Subprocessors”). Third Party Subprocessors have access to the Personal Information they need to perform their functions and process such information in accordance with our instructions, Privacy Policy, and any other confidentiality, security, and/or other requirements we deem appropriate. You can find more information about Third Party Subprocessors here, including what information is shared with Third Party Subprocessors, the service they provide to us, along with a link to their respective privacy policies.

Functional Academics utilizes the following third-party vendors:

Amazon Web Services, for cloud storage services:

All software coding and User Data are stored within the AWS environment. 

UpTech Studios, as software development:

No User data is shared directly with UpTech Studios, however, the development team has access to AWS and the third party services used in ensuring the software is functioning efficiently.

Amplitude, for software performance analytics:

User inputted: Student ID, First name and Last name.

Sentry, for software error reporting:

Software error logs.

MailerSend, for automated Emails through newsletters:

User name and User email address.

ZoHo, SDES’s Contact Management System (CMS):

Storage of User contact information provided by User, plus an automatic archive of e-mail conversations between SDES and User.

Clever, for Single Sign On (SSO) services:

*For future use, by User (primarily used by public School Districts), who will request SDES to custom build an Application Programming Interface (API) for User convenience when accessing software that is held within the AWS ecosystem. The amount of information shared is solely dependent on User preference.

Business Partners and Third Parties

We may share your Personal Information with our business partners or co-marketers from time to time. We may also share your Personal Information with third parties that provide products and services that we think you may be interested in. Although our treatment of your Personal Information is governed by this Privacy Policy, the business partner or third party’s treatment of your Personal Information will be governed by the business partner or third party’s privacy policy. You may withdraw your consent to our sharing of your Personal Information with business partners and third parties at any time by following the opt-out process described below.

Legal

We may disclose information you provide to respond to subpoenas, court orders, requests from authorities, and other legal processes, and to establish/exercise our legal rights. We may also disclose your information to defend against legal claims when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud, or respond to a government request. We may share your information in order to investigate, prevent or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, and situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of our Terms of Use, or otherwise required by law.

Use of Non-Personal Information

We may disclose or share Non-Personal Information (or other information, other than Personal Information) in any other manner that we deem appropriate or necessary. Among other things, we will disclose Non-Personal Information to third parties to help us determine how people use parts of the Sites and who our users are so we can improve our Sites. We will also disclose Non-Personal Information to our partners and other third parties about how our users collectively use the Sites.

What Steps Are Taken to Keep Personal Information Secure?

Personal Information collected by our Sites is stored in secure operating environments that are not available to the public. Our security procedures mean that we may occasionally request proof of identity before we disclose your Personal Information to you. While we try to safeguard your Personal Information once we receive it, no transmission of data over the internet or any other public network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Therefore, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. While no security system is completely secure, we and our third-party partners and vendors take appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorized access or disclosure of the information we collect. For SDES, this includes, but is not limited to, ensuring that all information is disclosed only on a “need to know” basis and ensuring that all information collected by SDES is done so via secured connections and protected and encrypted industrial grade security software to guard against unauthorized access.

The security of your data, including personally identifiable information, is important to us. User accounts are protected by a password. Users are required to protect the confidentiality of their passwords.

We endeavor to be in accordance with applicable rules, regulations and laws to maintain appropriate electronic and managerial policies and procedures to ensure that your data, including personally identifiable information, is kept secure in accordance with commercially reasonable information technology standards.

If we become aware of a systems security breach by an unauthorized party or that any user data was used for an unauthorized purpose, we will comply with relevant state and other data breach laws. We will notify users of any breach resulting in unauthorized release of data electronically, at minimum, and without unreasonable delay so that you can take appropriate steps. The notification will include: date of the breach, the types of information that were subject to the breach, general description of what occurred, and steps SDES is taking to address the breach.

What Happens When I Link to or From Another Website?

These Sites may contain links to other websites operated by affiliates of SDES or third parties. Please be advised that the practices described in this Privacy Policy do not apply to information gathered through these other websites. We are not responsible for the actions and privacy policies of third parties and other websites. You are subject to the terms of use and privacy policies of those third parties and we encourage you to review them.

What About Contests, Sweepstakes or Games?

When we run a contest, sweepstakes, or game relating to our Sites, it will be accompanied by a set of rules. The rules for each contest, sweepstakes, or game will specify how the information gathered from you for entry will be used and disclosed if it is different than as described in this Privacy Policy. In conjunction with your entry in such contest or sweepstakes, Personal Information will be collected only if you voluntarily submit it.

How Long Do We Keep Your Information?

Following termination or suspension of your account, SDES, its affiliates, or its service providers may retain information (including your profile information) and user content for a commercially reasonable time for backup, archival, and/or audit purposes. If you have any questions about termination or deactivation of your account, please contact us directly at admin@sdesworks.com. 

We keep Personal Information until it is deleted, or until we no longer need it to provide you with the Service. We will not retain student Personal Information for any longer than is necessary for educational purposes and legal obligations, or to provide the Service for which we receive or collect the student Personal Information. In addition, we only keep student Personal Information for as long as the student’s account is active, unless we are required by law or the student’s school to retain it, or need it to protect the safety of our users. Note that some content may be kept after an account is deleted for school legal compliance reasons (e.g. maintenance of “education records” under FERPA or “student records” under various state student privacy laws).

Governing Law

These Sites are published in the United States. We attempt to protect the Personal Information of all users of our Sites, and we attempt to comply with local data protection and consumer rights laws to the extent they may apply to the SDES services, but our family of Sites are located and targeted to United States citizens and our policies are directed at compliance with those laws. If you are uncertain whether this Privacy Policy conflicts with the applicable local privacy laws where you are located, you should not submit your Personal Information to SDES.

Notice to Non-US Users

If you are located outside the United States of America, you should be aware that your personally identifiable information will be transferred to the United States of America, the laws of which may be deemed by your country to have inadequate data protection.  By providing any information to us, you consent to the transfer, processing, access, and storage of such information outside of your country of residence, where data protection standards may be different.

Assignment

We may change our ownership or corporate organization while providing the Sites and Services. We may also sell certain assets associated with the Sites. As a result, please be aware that in such event we may transfer some or all of your information to a company acquiring all or part of our assets or to another company with which we have merged. Under such circumstances we would, to the extent possible, require the acquiring party to follow the practices described in this Privacy Policy, as it may be amended from time to time. Nevertheless, we cannot promise that an acquiring company or the merged company will have the same privacy practices or treat your information the same as described in this Privacy Policy.

Change of Control: Over time, SDES may grow and reorganize. We may share your information, including Personal Information with affiliates such as a parent company, subsidiaries, joint venture partners or other companies that we control or that are under common control with us, in which case we will require those companies to agree to use your Personal Information in a way that is consistent with this Privacy Policy. 

In the event of a change to our organizations such that all or a portion of SDES or its assets are acquired by or merged with a third-party, or in any other situation where Personal Information that we have collected from users would be one of the assets transferred to or acquired by that third-party, this Privacy Policy will continue to apply to your information, and any acquirer would only be able to handle your Personal Information as per this policy (unless you give consent to a new policy). We will provide you with notice of an acquisition within thirty (30) days following the completion of such a transaction, by posting on our homepage and by email to your email address that you provided to us. If you do not consent to the use of your Personal Information by such a successor company, subject to applicable law, you may request its deletion from the company.

In the unlikely event that SDES goes out of business, or files for bankruptcy, we will protect your Personal Information, and will not sell it to any third-party.

How Do I Opt-Out or Correct Information About Me?

You may always opt-out of receiving future e-mail messages and newsletters from SDES. We provide you with the opportunity to opt-out of receiving communications from us by going into your profile or account settings and choosing the appropriate options. To opt-out, you can also send us a message at admin@sdesworks.com. If you wish to unsubscribe from a mailing list, you can click on the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of the email and you will stop receiving marketing communications. Please allow up to twenty-four hours before you stop receiving marking communications. Please also note that you may continue to receive emails unrelated to marketing. Your Educational Provider may use SDES services to assist with the administration of educaitonal-related activities and to provide a streamlined way to collect, organize, access, and report your information for educational purposes. These uses are specific to each Educational Provider and are governed by a contract as described in the Terms of Use.

The Educational Provider determines the information collected, maintained, and processed using SDES’s services. If you have any questions regarding the collection, storage, and use of the information that is shared with SDES, please contact the Educational Provider directly.

Accessing, Managing, and Updating Your Information Choices and Product Support:

If the parent or legal guardian of a student wants to review the information that we have collected about the student or learn more about the Service(s) the student is participating in, they should contact the student’s Educational Provider.

If you wish to access, modify or delete other Personal Information that you have provided to SDES, such as your name, email address, please contact us at admin@sdesworks.com for assistance. 

We will retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services. Please contact us if you wish to cancel your account or request that we no longer use your information to provide you services. We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. 

Your California Privacy Rights

California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits customers of SDES who are California residents to request certain information regarding its disclosure of their Personal Information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an e-mail to admin@sdesworks.com.

FERPA and California AB 1584.

Regarding FERPA and California AB 1584 (Buchanan) Privacy of Pupil Records: 3rd-Party Digital Storage & Education Software (Education Code section 49073.1), SDES will abide to the following:

1. Student records obtained by SDES from an educational institution continue to be the property of and under the control of the educational institution. The educational institution retains full ownership rights to the Personal Information and education records it provides to SDES.
2. SDES users may retain possession and control of their own generated content by contacting their educational institution.
3. SDES will not use any information in a student record for any purpose other than those required or specifically permitted by these Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
4. Parents, legal guardians, or eligible students may review personally identifiable information in the student’s records and correct erroneous information by contacting their educational institution. Additionally, SDES users may access, correct, update, or delete Personal Information in their profile by signing into their account, , and making the appropriate changes.
5. SDES is committed to maintaining the security and confidentiality of student records. Towards this end, we take the following actions: (a) we limit employee access to student data to only those employees with a need to such access to fulfill their job responsibilities; (b) we conduct background checks on our employees that may have access to student data; (c) we conduct regular employee privacy and data security training and education; and (e) we protect Personal Information with technical, contractual, administrative, and physical security safeguards in order to protect against unauthorized access, release, or use.
6. In the event of an unauthorized disclosure of a student’s records, SDES will (1) promptly notify Users unless specifically directed not to provide such notification by law enforcement officials. Notification shall identify: (i) the date and nature of the unauthorized use or disclosure; (ii) the Private Data used or disclosed; (iii) general description of what occurred including who made the unauthorized use or received the unauthorized disclosure; (iv) what SDES has done or shall do to mitigate any effect of the unauthorized use or disclosure; (v) what corrective action SDES has taken or shall take to prevent future similar unauthorized use or disclosure; and (vi) who at SDES the User can contact. SDES will keep the User fully informed until the incident is resolved.
7. SDES will delete or de-identify Personal Information when it is no longer needed, upon expiration or termination of our agreement with an educational institution with any deletion or de-identification to be completed according to the terms of our agreement with the educational institution, or at the direction or request of the educational institution.
8. SDES agrees to work with educational institution to ensure compliance with FERPA and the Parties will ensure compliance by providing parents, legal guardians or eligible students with the ability to inspect and review student records and to correct any inaccuracies therein as described in statement (4) above.
9. SDES prohibits using personally identifiable information in student records to engage in targeted advertising.

COPPA

SDES participates in the iKeepSafe Safe Harbor program. If you have any questions or need to file a complaint related to our privacy policy and practices, please do not hesitate to contact the iKeepSafe Safe Harbor program at COPPAprivacy@ikeepsafe.org

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at admin@sdesworks.com.

Specially Designed Educational Services

18223 102nd Avenue, NE, STE B,

Bothell, WA, 98011-3454

1-888-735-7941