Privacy Policy

Washington Online School respects your privacy and has established this privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) to let you know how we collect, use, manage, share and protect information that we may gather when you visit our website, the websites of our affiliated schools or the websites for our Education Management Systems (collectively, the “Websites”), or contact us by phone or other means. This Privacy Policy applies to the Websites where this Privacy Policy is posted and to information we gather from you over the phone, via conventional mail, via email, or in person.

Washington Online School reserves the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time. If we make any material changes to this policy, we will post any revised Privacy Policy on the Websites. The most current version is always available by clicking on the “Privacy Policy” link located at the bottom of the Websites’ home page. Any changes to our Privacy Policy will become effective upon posting of the revised Privacy Policy. By using any of the Websites, you agree to the terms of the Privacy Policy in effect at the time of use. If you do not agree to the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy, please do not use any of the Websites.

Information We Collect

We collect two types of information: (1) non-personally identifiable information that is routinely gathered as users navigate through a Website and (2) personally identifiable information voluntarily supplied by you.

Non-U.S. Users

The Websites are hosted and operated in the United States and are subject to United States law. Any personal information that you provide to us is being provided to us in the United States and will be hosted on United States servers. You consent to the transfer of your personal information to the United States in order to receive services from Washington Online School. If you are accessing a Website from outside the United States, please be advised that United States law may not offer the same privacy protections as the law of your jurisdiction.

Non-Personally Identifiable Information

Each time you visit a Website, information is automatically gathered such as your IP address, domain name, the name of the page from which you entered the Website, which pages you view and for how long you view them. This information is collected in order to improve the Website, remarketing and for trend analysis. As with most websites, we may use “cookies” to track usage, for marketing purposes and to improve your experience. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server. The cookies do not collect any personally identifiable information. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If, however, you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of our Websites or have some of our services on the Websites function properly. Further information about cookies is available using the help function of your Internet browser.

We may use third-party cookies as part of remarketing activities we conduct with Google and/or other third-party vendors, to help provide you with relevant messaging as you use the Internet. As part of these remarketing activities, these third-party cookies may record your visits to our Websites and web sites visited prior. Such cookies can then be used to serve targeted messaging to you on other websites. You may choose to be exempt from the use of Google remarketing cookies at the Google advertising privacy page. Alternatively, you may opt-out of remarketing on the Google network and similar networks at the Network Advertising Initiative opt out page. Opting out will not prevent advertisements from being served to you on the Internet; it will only affect advertisements that utilize remarketing cookies to serve messaging on the specified networks. We are not responsible for the activities of other parties that may not comply with your opt-out requests.

Because non-personally identifiable information does not identify you, we reserve the right to use it for any purpose and to share it with third parties for any purpose. Please note that to the extent any non-personally identifiable information is combined with personally identifiable information, the combined information will be treated as personally identifiable information for as long as it is so combined.

Personally Identifiable Information

We may collect personally identifiable information you provide voluntarily when requesting information, catalogs, enrollment or other materials or to satisfy other requests. This information may include your first and last name, postal address, email address, telephone number and the names, date(s) of birth and grade level(s) of your child(ren). We may also collect credit card information from you.

Washington Online School uses personally identifiable information voluntarily supplied by you to fulfill requests for information, deliver services to you or for your school, or carry out the transactions you or your school have requested. For example, if you register for a Washington Online School school using a Website, information will be collected about you and your child(ren) in order to process your registration. Enrollment information that is collected in this manner may be provided to school districts or other third parties as required by state law, federal law, and/or school operating procedures. Similarly, if you participate in a virtual learning program through your school and the school has contracted with Washington Online School, personally identifiable information about you will be input into Washington Online School’s by you and/or your school to facilitate the provision of virtual learning services to you.

Washington Online School may also use personally identifiable information to communicate special messaging, new services, or upcoming events, to provide educational services to students and to otherwise support students, parents, legal guardians, and staff and/or your school with regard to matters such as academic progress, testing, attendance, customer service or in the event of an emergency. The information will be treated confidentially within Washington Online School, in the same way that we protect other such confidential information.

We may share personally identifiable information within our affiliated companies and certain service providers. They will use this information to process transactions you have requested, provide customer service and inform you of products or services we offer that you may find useful. Our service providers may include consultants, vendors and companies that perform marketing services on our behalf. We require our service providers to protect your personally identifiable information and to use or disclose it only for the work they are performing for us, or as permitted by law.

Washington Online School partner platforms may contain personally identifiable information that is maintained and accessible by third parties (such as service providers, content partners or vendors). These third parties are provided access to the minimum amount of information required to allow them to perform the tasks for which they have been engaged. Such third parties have agreed to maintain the confidentiality of such information and to use or disclose it only for the work they are performing for us, or as permitted by law. Additionally, Washington Online School student information system and learning management system may contain “student educational records” that will be protected by Washington Online School in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”), and we will only retain and disclose educational records or provide access to them in compliance with FERPA.

If you do not want to receive information unrelated to your enrollment in the school via email from Washington Online School, you can email us at hello@washingtononlineschool.org to be excluded from receiving emails from Washington Online School. If you do not want to receive any further information from Washington Online School you can also call us at 877.667.4266 and ask to be removed from all of Washington Online School’s contact lists.

In the event that all or substantially all of Washington Online School’s assets are sold or transferred to another party, your personally identifiable information may be transferred to the acquiring entity. However, Washington Online School will take steps to assure that the personally identifiable information is conveyed lawfully and in a manner consistent with the privacy policy under which it was collected.

Finally, we may disclose your personally identifiable information to third parties if we believe we are required to do so in order to comply with law (including court orders and subpoenas); to comply with lawful requests from law enforcement agencies or other governmental organizations; to enforce our Terms of Use; to protect the rights, privacy, safety, or property of Washington Online School, our affiliated schools, our employees or other users of the Websites; and/or to permit us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain. We otherwise exercise commercially reasonable care to not otherwise share or disclose the names of users or any other personally-identifying information with third-parties, except with your prior approval.

Message Boards/Discussion Threads

We may offer message boards or discussion threads through our service providers. Please be aware that anyone may read your postings on a message board or discussion thread. Furthermore, any information that you submit to be posted to a message board or discussion thread, including your Washington Online School account information, will be disclosed and available to all users of that message board or discussion thread, and is therefore no longer private. We cannot guarantee the security of such information that you disclose or communicate online in public areas such as message boards and discussion threads, and you do so at your own risk.

Children Under 13

Washington Online School is concerned about the safety and privacy of children online. We take reasonable efforts to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA).

The Websites are not intended to solicit information of any kind from children under the age of 13, and we do not and will not knowingly contact or collect personally identifiable information from children under 13. The only personal information we receive about children under the age of 13 is information provided by the parent or legal guardian. The parent or legal guardian has the option to agree to the collection and use of the student’s information without consenting to the disclosure of the information to third parties.

It is possible that by fraud or deception by others we may receive information pertaining to children under the age of 13. If we are notified of the receipt of information under such circumstances, once verified, we will promptly obtain parental or guardian consent, and in the absence of such consent will delete the information. If you want to notify us that we have inadvertently received information for a child under the age of 13, please do so by emailing us at legal@washingtononlineschool.org.

You can request to review, edit or prohibit personally identifiable information of a child under the age of 13 from being used by Washington Online School, its affiliates, schools and vendors acting on behalf of Washington Online School by making a request in writing to legal@washingtononlineschool.org. Please note that if you make a request to prohibit personally identifiable information being used by Washington Online School, its affiliates, schools, and vendors acting on behalf of Washington Online School, your child may no longer continue to be enrolled in Washington Online School and this may terminate his or her participation in the Washington Online School program.

For information on our use of information covered by COPPA please contact us by email at legal@washingtononlineschool.org.

Security

Washington Online School takes reasonable steps to safeguard the personally identifiable information you provide. As effective as our safeguards are, no security system is completely impenetrable, so we cannot guarantee the absolute security of our database and systems, nor can we guarantee that personally identifiable information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to us over the Internet.

Links

The Websites contain links to other websites or other resources that are provided for your convenience. Such links, unless explicitly stated, are not endorsed by Washington Online School. The information practices of those websites are not covered by this Privacy Policy or any other policies or terms applicable to the Websites. We recommend that you review any terms of use and privacy policies of any third-party website linked to the Websites before providing any information to those websites or using their products and services.

Contact Information

If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us by email at legal@washingtononlineschool.org. Please note that email communications will not necessarily be secure. Accordingly, you should not include sensitive information in your email correspondence with us.