SCHOLASTIC EDUCATION

TECHNOLOGY PRODUCTS

PRIVACY POLICY

Effective Date: June 17th, 2014

Last updated: January 31, 2022

 

Scholastic is committed to respecting and protecting information collected from Education Customers in connection with our Products. This Privacy Policy describes how we do that. For definitions of certain capitalized terms used in this Privacy Policy, click here.

  • We only collect Personal Information and Student Data reasonably necessary to provide the Products to our Education Customers.
  • We only use Student Data for the educational purpose for which it was collected.
  • We only share Personal Information and Student Data with third party service providers who help us operate and support the Products. 
  • Our Products do not contain third party advertising or targeted advertising.

Table of Contents

What We Collect

We collect the following information from or about our Education Customers, through registration, rostering and Product usage:

 

Information Collected from Administrators / Educators

  • Educator registration data: First and last name, email address, grade level taught, school association, role at school, and user name/password.
  • Student roster data: First and last names, student ID numbers, grade level, user name/password, reading level or other performance data. 
  • Content submitted by a school administrator, teacher, or other educator, such as notes. 

Information Collected from Students

  • Coursework and content created by a student, such as notes and responses to questions, activities, bookmarks, highlights, time spent in the Product, game play, assessments, and other assignments, whether through open text fields or multiple choice questions. 

Any content-sharing features in our Products do not use open text fields and only require the recipient’s email address. We use that information to send the message, and we do not keep it.

 

Some Products have a feature where students can post anonymous responses to topical questions. Student responses are moderated to remove any Personal Information before posting.

 

The Student Data collected varies by Product, and some Products collect none. If you have questions about Student Data collected by any particular Product, please contact us at edtechprivacy@scholastic.com.

 

Information Collected Automatically

  • Product usage data related to the user: How, where (in a general sense based on IP address, not precise), when and for how long a user uses our Products.
  • Product usage data related to the Product: What content the user views, what actions the user takes (for example, clicks, touches, hovers using a mouse), and how the user navigates through our Products. 
  • Device or systems information: Operating system, mobile device type, browser type and version, and referring URL. 

Information collected automatically may be linked to individual educators; it is not linked to individual students.

 

Automatic collection technologies include cookies, pixel tags, and other tools.

How We Use Information

We use information collected through the Products primarily to enable Education Customers and students to access and use the Products, and to support them. More specifically: 

  • To support instruction and adaptive, personalized learning, so Education Customers and students get the educational benefit of the Products 
    • By enabling administrators and educators to tailor and optimize use of the Products to the needs of a particular school, classroom or student
    • By permitting educators to review student work and monitor student performance and progress, to facilitate lesson planning
    • By providing reporting capabilities at the district, school or class level (depending on the Product), including in some cases cross-Product performance data
    • By enabling students to access information shared by their teachers (assignments, content), track their progress, maintain files of their work, create book collections and play educational games
    • By suggesting other content or activities to students (but not for purchase or in the form of advertising)
  • To authenticate users, maintain user sessions and facilitate return access 
  • For analytics purposes, to understand how our Products are accessed and used, and how they perform on an aggregate basis, so that we may improve them 
  • To communicate with our Education Customers
  • To ensure Products run properly and support optimal user experience 
  • To diagnose problems, troubleshoot issues, and provide maintenance and support
  • To detect and investigate unlawful activity and protect the security of our Products, systems and customers
  • To calculate royalties 

How We Disclose Information

We do not disclose any Student Data or Personal Information about the users of our Products to any third party, except:

  • As directed by the Education Customer 
  • To our third party service providers, who provide services such as data storage, so they can provide those services to us
  • To comply with legal process or respond to governmental requests 
  • To protect the rights, safety, or property of Scholastic, our affiliates, our customers, our users or others
  • In connection with certain corporate events such as reorganization, merger, sale or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, assets or stock (including in connection with any bankruptcy or other proceeding), in which case the transferred information will remain subject to the terms of this Privacy Policy 

Our Products do not contain communication tools for students to directly message each other, nor do they enable students to publicly post Student Data.

 

We may use or disclose de-identified, non-personal and aggregate information for any reason, subject to any restrictions imposed by law or our agreement with the Education Customer.

Third Party Services

Scholastic uses third party service providers to help operate, maintain and monitor the performance of the Products. Our service providers can only use Personal Information and Student Data to provide the contracted services, not for their own commercial purposes, and are subject to written security, confidentiality and non-disclosure obligations.

 

Scholastic uses Adobe Analytics or  Google Analytics in some of its Products, to better understand how our Products are used, and how we can improve them.

  • Scholastic’s analytics studies contain only aggregate information that does not permit identification of any user, school or school district.
  • Scholastic does not track or build personal profiles of students for advertising purposes. 
  • Scholastic does not sell or rent Personal Information or Student Data.   

Security and Data Retention Summary

We maintain a comprehensive information security program and seek to use commercially reasonable organizational, technical, and administrative measures to protect personal information within our organization from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, loss, or modification. These measures align with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and include user authentication and industry standard encryption of sensitive Student Data in transit and at rest. 

 

We keep Student Data for the period reasonably necessary to perform and support the services requested by the Education Customer or as required by contract.  

 

If there is an unauthorized disclosure of Personal Information or Student Data in the possession or control of Scholastic, we will take steps in accordance with our written incident response plan to investigate and mitigate the impact of the breach and notify affected Education Customers. We will cooperate with Education Customers in notifying affected students or their parents or legal guardians and in taking any other legally-required actions.

FERPA and COPPA

Scholastic designs its Products to comply with all applicable laws, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

 

As between Scholastic and its Education Customers, all Student Data subject to FERPA and COPPA is the property of the Education Customer. For purposes of FERPA, in furnishing the Products, Scholastic functions as a “school official” performing a service or function for which the Education Customer would otherwise use school employees. Scholastic relies on its Education Customers to obtain any parent, guardian or other consents required under applicable law or district policy for us to collect, process or maintain Personal Information or Student Data.

New York Parents’ Bill of Rights

Scholastic is committed to complying with the New York State Parents’ Bill of Rights for Data Privacy and Security to the extent it applies to education technology contractors, and to supporting its Education Customers in meeting their obligations thereunder.

For more information about New York State Education Law §2-d and the New York State Parents’ Bill of Rights, please visit: 

 

• New York State Department of Education: www.nysed.gov/data-privacy-security

• New York Regional Information Centers: https://riconedpss.org/resources

 

For a copy of Scholastic’s New York State Data Security and Privacy Plan, please email us at: edtechprivacy@scholastic.com

 

Scholastic has entered into statewide student data privacy agreements in certain states. To see if your state is one of them, and for information on how to sign on to a statewide agreement, please email us at: edtechprivacy@scholastic.com

User Access and Consumer Rights

Eligible students or their parents or guardians may have the legal right (including under FERPA, COPPA and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)) to access, correct, export or delete certain of their own information or content, or to make certain choices. To make a request, please contact your school or school district. We will help them provide the requested access or make appropriate corrections. If we receive such requests directly, we will refer those inquiries to the Education Customer to the extent required or permitted by applicable law or contract.  

 

The CCPA gives California consumers certain rights in respect of their “personal information” as defined under that law. The Personal Information and Student Data described above falls under the following CCPA categories of “personal information”: 

  • Identifiers (educator registration data and Student roster data); 
  • Internet or electronic activity (Product usage data and device or systems data); 
  • Education information (educator content, coursework and student content); and 
  • Inferences (based on coursework and performance data). 

For purposes of the CCPA, in furnishing the Products to Education Customers, Scholastic functions as a “service provider” and only processes “personal information” on behalf of its Education Customers for their business purposes. Scholastic does not sell any “personal information” that is collected from Education Customers, students, or other users through or in connection with the Products. Accordingly, to exercise CCPA rights to know, delete or opt-out of sales of “personal information”, consumers are directed to contact their school, school district or other local educational agency who control the collection and use of “personal information” as the “business” under the CCPA, as noted above.     

Updates

We may change this Privacy Policy for various reasons, such as to update our Product listing, or to comply with changes to applicable law or industry practice. Changes become effective when posted. If we make a material change, we will provide prominent notice to and, if required by law or contract, obtain consent from our Education Customers to such change. To see the previous version of this Privacy Policy, click here.

Contact Us & Product Listing

We can be reached at Scholastic Inc., 557 Broadway, New York, New York 10012, telephone (800) 724-2222, or using the contact information provided below. Questions about data collection or privacy practices for our Products may be emailed to: edtechprivacy@scholastic.com

 

Select a product for relevant operator contact information:

Definitions

Education Customer: Educational institutions including education departments, boards of education, school districts, schools, community organizations, libraries, and other entities and their personnel who use our Products pursuant to a written agreement.

 

Personal Information: Information that identifies or enables contact with an individual, whether directly or in combination with other information, that is collected in connection with or created through use of the Products, including  any information defined as “personal information”, “personally identifiable information” or similar terms under applicable law.

 

Products: Scholastic’s educational software products listed here.

 

Scholastic: Scholastic Inc. and its corporate affiliates. 

 

Student Data: Education records as defined under FERPA that are collected in connection with or created through use of the Products, including any Personal Information contained therein.