FERPA Compliance
Clarity 360 is designed from the ground up to be fully compliant with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). We serve as a data processor on behalf of school districts — the district remains the data controller and retains all rights over educational records.
What We Collect
Clarity 360 collects only the minimum data necessary to deliver survey results to your district. Here is a complete list of what is and is not stored:
| Data Type | Stored | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Anonymous session ID | Yes | Randomly generated UUID; no connection to any named person, account, or device |
| Transcribed survey responses | Yes | Spoken responses are transcribed via OpenAI's zero-retention API tier and stored as text only; no audio is ever recorded or retained |
| Numeric ratings | Yes | Scale responses (1–4) with no linkage to any individual |
| School name and ID | Yes | Institutional identifiers assigned by your district administrator |
| Survey token (SCL-XXXXXX) | Yes | Used to identify which role group a response belongs to; not linked to any individual |
| Student name | No | Never collected or stored |
| Student email address | No | Never collected or stored |
| Student ID number | No | Never collected or stored |
| Device identifier | No | Never collected or stored |
| IP address | No | Never collected or stored |
| Voice audio or recordings | No | Never recorded, transmitted, or stored |
While Clarity 360 is designed to prevent collection of PII, participants may occasionally include identifying information voluntarily in open-text responses. Districts should inform participants not to include personally identifying information.
How Anonymity Works
Every participant — student, teacher, staff member, or parent — is assigned a randomly generated session ID (a UUID) at the start of their interview. This ID has no connection to any named person, email address, student ID, or device. There is no mechanism in our system to re-identify a respondent from their session ID.
Survey tokens (SCL-XXXXXX) identify which role group a response belongs to — for example, “students at Lincoln Elementary” — but are never attached to individual respondent data. A token cannot be used to identify who responded or what any individual said.
Small group anonymity limitation: In deployments where a role group has very few respondents (typically fewer than 5), individual responses may be identifiable by context even without direct identifiers. Districts should consider this when deploying surveys to small teams or departments and may choose to suppress reporting for groups below a minimum threshold.
Voice and Audio
Clarity 360 uses voice interaction to guide participants through surveys. Spoken responses are transcribed in real-time by OpenAI’s Realtime API and only the text transcription is transmitted to our servers. No audio is ever recorded, stored, or transmitted by Clarity 360.
COPPA Compliance
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) applies to online services that collect personal information from children under 13. Because Clarity 360 does not collect any personal information from any participant — including students — COPPA’s data collection requirements do not apply. No names, email addresses, device identifiers, or any other personal information are collected from students at any age.
School Climate surveys are currently deployed only to high school students (grades 9–12). All survey deployments are administered by district personnel through their school’s authorized Clarity 360 account.
Data Storage and Security
All data is stored in Google Cloud Firestore, hosted in the United States. Data is encrypted at rest and in transit using industry-standard TLS encryption. Access to raw response data is restricted to authorized Engaging Education Solutions personnel and is never sold, shared, or used for any purpose other than delivering survey results to your district.
Data Retention
Survey response data is retained for the duration of your district’s active subscription and for 90 days following subscription termination, after which it is permanently deleted. Districts may request early deletion of their data at any time by contacting knoell@engagingpd.com.
AI and Data Training Policy
Clarity 360 uses OpenAI’s Realtime API exclusively for real-time voice transcription during survey sessions. Our use of OpenAI is governed by the following commitments:
- →OpenAI processes participant audio solely for real-time transcription — no other processing occurs.
- →Clarity 360 uses OpenAI's zero-retention, no-training API tier. This means OpenAI does not store audio or transcription data after the session ends.
- →No participant data — including transcribed responses — is used to train any AI model, by Clarity 360 or any third party.
- →Data is never sold, licensed, or shared with any party for any purpose other than delivering your district's survey results.
For OpenAI’s enterprise data handling commitments, see openai.com/enterprise-privacy.
Your District's Rights
As the data controller, your district retains the following rights:
- →The right to request a complete export of all response data associated with your district at any time
- →The right to request permanent deletion of all data associated with your district at any time
- →The right to restrict data processing at any time by deactivating your district's account
- →The right to receive notification in the event of a data breach affecting your district's data within 72 hours of discovery
To exercise any of these rights, contact Dr. Christopher M. Knoell at knoell@engagingpd.com.
Third-Party Services
Clarity 360 uses the following third-party services in the delivery of our platform:
| Service | Purpose | Data Shared |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | Real-time voice transcription (zero-retention API tier) | Anonymous transcribed text only; no names or identifiers; data not retained or used for training |
| Google Cloud Firestore | Data storage | Anonymous session data as described above |
| Resend | Transactional email delivery | District administrator email addresses only |
| Vercel | Application hosting | No participant data |
No student data is shared with any third-party service.
Contact and Questions
For questions about this privacy policy, FERPA compliance, or data practices, contact:
Dr. Christopher M. Knoell
Founder & CEO, Engaging Education Solutions, LLC
Version 2.0 · April 2026