Clarity 360 · Legal

Privacy & Data Compliance

Clarity 360 is designed from the ground up to protect student privacy. This page documents our FERPA and COPPA compliance, what data we collect, and your district’s rights.

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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 TypeStoredNotes
Anonymous session IDYesRandomly generated UUID; no connection to any named person, account, or device
Transcribed survey responsesYesSpoken responses are transcribed via OpenAI's zero-retention API tier and stored as text only; no audio is ever recorded or retained
Numeric ratingsYesScale responses (1–4) with no linkage to any individual
School name and IDYesInstitutional identifiers assigned by your district administrator
Survey token (SCL-XXXXXX)YesUsed to identify which role group a response belongs to; not linked to any individual
Student nameNoNever collected or stored
Student email addressNoNever collected or stored
Student ID numberNoNever collected or stored
Device identifierNoNever collected or stored
IP addressNoNever collected or stored
Voice audio or recordingsNoNever recorded, transmitted, or stored
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Third-Party Services

Clarity 360 uses the following third-party services in the delivery of our platform:

ServicePurposeData Shared
OpenAIReal-time voice transcription (zero-retention API tier)Anonymous transcribed text only; no names or identifiers; data not retained or used for training
Google Cloud FirestoreData storageAnonymous session data as described above
ResendTransactional email deliveryDistrict administrator email addresses only
VercelApplication hostingNo participant data

No student data is shared with any third-party service.

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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

knoell@engagingpd.com

engagingpd.com

Version 2.0 · April 2026