Privacy Policy for Swan City Scholars
Last Updated: June 16, 2025
Swan City Scholars (“we,” “our,” or “us”) is committed to protecting the privacy of our students and their families. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your personal information when you use our virtual tutoring services, homeschool support, and other related offerings.
By accessing or using our services, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy.
1. Information We Collect
We collect various types of information to provide and improve our services to you. This may include:
a. Personal Identifiable Information (PII)
- Student Information: Name, age, grade level, academic performance, learning styles, educational goals, and specific academic needs.
- Parent/Guardian Information: Name, contact information (email address, phone number, mailing address), relationship to the student, and payment details (e.g., credit card information, bank details for digital payments) if not processed directly by third-party payment processors.
- Communication Records: Copies of correspondence between you and Swan City Scholars (e.g., emails, chat logs, notes from consultations).
b. Technical and Usage Information
- Device Information: Type of device used for virtual sessions (laptop, tablet, etc.), operating system, browser type, and IP address.
- Usage Data: Information about how you use our virtual platforms, such as session durations, features accessed, and participation patterns.
- Virtual Session Data: While we do not routinely record sessions, certain technical metadata related to virtual connections (e.g., connection quality, participants) may be generated by the virtual conferencing software.
2. How We Collect Information
We collect information through various methods:
- Directly from You: When you register for services, complete questionnaires (e.g., curriculum questionnaire), communicate with us, or provide payment details.
- During Virtual Sessions: Through student and teacher interactions, academic discussions, and observation of student engagement.
- Automatically: Technical and usage data may be collected automatically when you access our virtual learning platforms.
3. How We Use Your Information
We use the collected information for the following purposes:
- To Provide and Manage Services: To deliver virtual tutoring, homeschool homeroom sessions, start-up sessions, curriculum consultations, test proctoring, and portfolio evaluations; to schedule sessions; and to manage attendance.
- Personalization: To tailor instructional plans, curriculum recommendations, and support strategies to each student’s individual needs and learning style.
- Communication: To send invoices, payment reminders, session confirmations, updates, announcements, and respond to your inquiries.
- Billing and Payments: To process payments for services rendered, track scholarship usage, and manage late fees.
- Service Improvement: To analyze usage patterns, gather feedback, and continuously improve the quality and effectiveness of our programs and offerings.
- Security and Compliance: To maintain the security of our systems, prevent fraud, and comply with legal obligations (e.g., FLDOE requirements for homeschool evaluations).
4. How We Share Your Information
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We may share information in the following circumstances:
- With Service Providers: We may share information with third-party service providers who perform functions on our behalf, such as virtual conferencing platforms, payment processors (e.g., PayPal, Venmo), and email invoicing services. These providers are obligated to protect your information and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them.
- For Legal Compliance: We may disclose information if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g., a court order or government agency request), or to protect our rights, property, or safety, or the rights, property, or safety of others.
- With Your Consent: We may share your information with third parties when we have your explicit consent to do so, such as when assisting with scholarship processes (e.g., Step Up for Students) or if you request us to share academic progress with another educational institution.
- Aggregate or Anonymized Data: We may share aggregated or anonymized data that cannot be used to identify you personally for analytical, research, or marketing purposes.
5. Data Security
We implement reasonable technical and organizational measures designed to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. However, no internet transmission or electronic storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.
6. Data Retention
We retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. When we no longer need your information, we will securely dispose of it.
7. Your Choices and Rights
You have certain rights regarding your personal information:
- Access and Correction: You may request access to the personal information we hold about you and request corrections to any inaccurate or incomplete data.
- Withdraw Consent: Where we rely on your consent to process your personal information, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.
- Deletion: You may request the deletion of your personal information, subject to our legal and contractual obligations.
To exercise these rights, please contact us using the information provided below.
8. Third-Party Links
Our communications or services may contain links to third-party websites or resources (e.g., recommended educational websites, scholarship program portals). This Privacy Policy does not apply to such third-party sites. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party sites you visit.
9. Children’s Privacy
Our services are primarily directed to parents and guardians for the benefit of their children. We are committed to complying with applicable children’s privacy laws, including the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). We collect personal information from children only as necessary to provide educational services, and only with the verifiable consent of a parent or guardian.
10. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on our website and updating the “Last Updated” date. Your continued use of our services after such modifications will constitute your acknowledgment of the modified Privacy Policy.
11. Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:
Swan City Scholars
londann@swancityscholars.org
863-968-6750