GradeMaster is committed to protecting the privacy of students, their family members, and educators, while providing students, their family members, and educators with a powerful tool for the recording and accessing of information related to a school’s or district’s standards-based grading practices. This policy addresses the online privacy practices of GradeMaster and is applicable to all GradeMaster services. This policy is effective as of February 1, 2018.

FERPA and HIPAA— GradeMaster is fully compliant with all requirements of FERPA  and HIPAA under the “school official” exception. Your data is in your direct control, owned by you, and used only for legitimate educational interests and functions that school employees normally perform.

Privacy Notice

What information is in GradeMaster:

The company GradeMaster does not collect personal information from any user, including children; schools and school districts that use GradeMaster house in it information that is typically found in a school’s or district’s Student Information System (SIS), such as the student’s name, birthdate, grade level, home address, parent or guardian contact information, etc. A school or district that uses GradeMaster as its gradebook will also collect student grades, anecdotal comments about students, attendance-related information, and student-related comments that are associated with grades. The school or district using GradeMaster can provide more information on what it is housing in the GradeMaster system.

GradeMaster provides district or school administrators with access to GradeMaster and the ability to define access levels for other individuals. Only users with administrative access can create new user accounts. Users given access to GradeMaster as a staff member or administrator can view student names, biographical information, grades, attendance, and anecdotal data. Students and their family members, when given access to the JGradeMaster Parent and Student Portal, can view their grades, work that is missing, work that is upcoming, attendance-related data, and their class schedule. GradeMaster personnel can access all information, but only do so to support school and district level issues with GradeMaster.

Parental Consent

GradeMaster has a Parent and Student Portal, and students and their family members can access their grades and other information housed in GradeMaster through this portal. Access to the portal is initiated by the school or district, not by GradeMaster. GradeMaster does not have a parental consent process for the use of the portal by students since GradeMaster does not collect personal information from any user.

Non-personally identifiable information

The GradeMaster system may collect certain non-personally identifiable information from visitors to our site, such as the date and time of their visit, the type of browser used (e.g., Internet Explorer, Firefox), the type of operating system used, the ISP from which the visitor receives Internet access, and aggregate information regarding what pages users of the site access or visit.

How do we use the information on GradeMaster about children?

GradeMaster does not use the information that is hosted on its platform; it is the partner school or school district that uses the information. GradeMaster may use non-personally identifiable information such as cookies and Web surfing habits associated with IP addresses to improve the design, content, and performance of our site. We also may use this information in the aggregate to analyze site usage.

Will GradeMaster share my child’s personal information with third parties?

The only instance when GradeMaster may disclose personally identifiable and non-personally identifiable information is in response to a legal process, such as in response to a court order or a subpoena. We also may disclose such information when we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of our terms of use, or as otherwise required by law. In addition, we may transfer personally identifiable information if we are acquired by or merged with another company or as part of a bankruptcy proceeding.

Cookies

Cookies are small data files that a Website writes to your computer hard drive for record-keeping purposes. Cookies identify you as a unique customer and store your personal preferences, as well as technical information (including click through and click stream data). Cookies can either be permanent (i.e., they remain on your computer until you delete them) or temporary (i.e., they last only until you close your browser).

We may write “cookies” to your computer, primarily to personalize the site and to make it easier to use during each session, for example by keeping track of your preferences. We may also use cookies to record session information, record user-specific information on what pages users access or visit, record past activity at a site in order to provide better service when visitors return to our site, or to customize site content based on visitors’ browser type or other information that the visitor sends. If you choose to furnish the site with personally identifiable information, this information can be stored in or linked to other data stored in the cookies.

You may adjust your browser to reject cookies from us or from any other Website. Please consult the “Help” section of your browser for more information. However, there are certain features on our site that can be accessed only in conjunction with cookies or similar devices, and you should be aware that disabling cookies or similar devices might prevent you from accessing some of those features.

Security Practices

We strive to protect the confidentiality, security, and integrity of the information that is housed on GradeMaster. We and our school and school district partners put in place physical, electronic, and administrative procedures to safeguard and to help prevent unauthorized access to and maintain the security of personally identifiable information collected through the GradeMaster interface. This information is maintained on secure servers and is accessible to authorized personnel only on a “need-to-know” basis.

Notice of Changes to This Policy

If we make changes to this policy, we will post the changes here with a new effective date at the top. Please check back to this page periodically and look at the effective date at the top of this privacy policy to see if it has changed so that you can always know what information we collect, how we use it, and to whom we disclose it.