Terms of Service

Note: These terms are provided for informational purposes and do not constitute legal advice. Schools and organizations should consult their own legal counsel regarding their specific compliance obligations.

1. Introduction and Acceptance of Terms

Welcome to NavEd. These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the NavEd platform, available at nav.education and all subdomains (*.nav.education), including any associated services, features, content, and applications (collectively, the "Service").

The Service is operated by Navigate Technology, doing business as NavEd ("we," "us," or "our"). By creating an account, accessing, or using the Service, you ("you" or "User") agree to be bound by these Terms. If you are using the Service on behalf of a school or organization, you represent that you have the authority to bind that organization to these Terms.

If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not access or use the Service.

2. Description of Service

NavEd is a cloud-based, multi-tenant K-12 school management platform designed to help educational institutions manage their operations. The Service includes, but is not limited to, the following features:

• Student records management -- enrollment, profiles, and academic history
• Gradebook -- grade entry, weighted calculations, and report generation
• Attendance tracking -- daily attendance recording and reporting
• Parent communication -- parent portal for viewing student progress
• Staff management -- teacher and staff profiles and assignments
• Subject management -- course catalogs, subject assignments, and electives
• Analytics and reporting -- academic performance insights and custom reports

Each school operates within a dedicated subdomain (e.g., yourschool.nav.education) with isolated data storage, ensuring that one school's data is never accessible to another school. The platform supports four user roles: administrators (HOD), teachers (Staff), students, and parents, each with role-appropriate access levels.

3. Account Registration and Responsibilities

To use the Service, a school must register for an account through our signup process. Upon registration, the school will receive a dedicated subdomain and an initial administrator (HOD) account.

• Administrator responsibility: The school administrator (HOD) is responsible for creating and managing all user accounts within their school, including staff, student, and parent accounts.
• Accurate information: All users must provide accurate, current, and complete information during registration and keep their account information up to date.
• Password security: Users are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of their login credentials. You must notify us immediately if you suspect unauthorized access to your account.
• Age requirement: Users must be at least 13 years of age to create an account. Schools are responsible for ensuring compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and obtaining appropriate parental consent before creating student accounts for children under 13.
• One account per user: Each user should maintain only one account. Sharing accounts between multiple individuals is prohibited.

4. Acceptable Use Policy

You agree to use the Service only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms. You agree not to:

• Use the Service for any illegal or unauthorized purpose
• Share login credentials with unauthorized individuals
• Attempt to access, view, or modify data belonging to other schools or users outside your authorized scope
• Reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise attempt to derive the source code of the Service
• Use automated scripts, bots, or scraping tools to access the Service or extract data
• Upload, transmit, or distribute any malicious code, viruses, or harmful content
• Interfere with or disrupt the integrity or performance of the Service
• Use the Service to store or transmit content that is defamatory, obscene, or otherwise objectionable
• Impersonate any person or entity, or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity

Schools are responsible for the conduct of their users and for all data entered into the Service by users within their school. Violations of this policy may result in immediate suspension or termination of your account.

5. Subscription and Billing Terms

NavEd offers a tiered subscription model based on the number of active students in your school:

• Free tier: The first 5 students are free, with no time limit. This allows schools to evaluate the platform before committing to a paid plan.
• Standard plan: $2.50 per student per month -- includes essential school management features.
• Premium plan: $5.00 per student per month -- includes Standard features plus advanced gradebook, analytics, and application management.
• Enterprise plan: $8.00 per student per month -- includes all features plus API access, SSO, and third-party integrations.

Billing: All paid subscriptions are billed monthly through Stripe, our third-party payment processor. By subscribing to a paid plan, you agree to Stripe's Terms of Service. Your billing cycle begins on the date of your first paid subscription.

Plan changes: Schools can upgrade or downgrade their subscription tier at any time through the billing settings. Upgrades take effect immediately. Downgrades take effect at the start of the next billing cycle.

Non-payment: If payment fails, we will attempt to collect payment according to our retry schedule. If payment remains unsuccessful after reasonable attempts, we may suspend access to the Service until the outstanding balance is resolved. We will provide notice before any suspension.

Refunds: Subscription fees are generally non-refundable for partial months. If you downgrade your plan, you will receive pro-rated credit toward your next billing cycle. The free tier (up to 5 students) remains available indefinitely at no cost.

6. Data Ownership and Privacy

Your data belongs to you. NavEd processes data on behalf of schools to provide the Service, but schools retain full ownership of all data they and their users enter into the platform, including student records, grades, attendance data, and communications.

• No selling of student data: NavEd will never sell, rent, or trade student data to third parties for any purpose.
• Data isolation: Each school's data is stored in a separate, isolated database schema. One school's data is never commingled with or accessible to another school.
• Data export: Upon termination of your account, you may request a full export of your school's data within 30 days of termination. We will provide the export in a standard, machine-readable format.
• Privacy practices: For detailed information about how we collect, use, and protect personal information, please review our Privacy Policy.

7. Student Data and FERPA Compliance

NavEd takes the protection of student educational records seriously. We are committed to supporting schools in meeting their obligations under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

• School official designation: When processing student education records on behalf of a school, NavEd acts as a "school official" with a "legitimate educational interest" as defined under FERPA (34 CFR 99.31(a)(1)).
• School responsibility: Schools remain the primary party responsible for FERPA compliance, including determining what constitutes an education record and managing parental access requests.
• No advertising use: Student data is never used for advertising or marketing purposes. As described in our Privacy Policy, only administrator and staff contact information may be shared with advertising platforms -- never student or parent data.
• Security measures: NavEd maintains reasonable administrative, technical, and physical security measures to protect student education records, including encrypted data transmission (TLS), isolated database schemas per school, and role-based access controls.
• Breach notification: In the event of a data breach affecting student education records, we will notify affected schools promptly so they can fulfill their notification obligations.

8. Intellectual Property

The NavEd platform, including its source code, design, user interface, branding, logos, documentation, and all related intellectual property, is and remains the exclusive property of Navigate Technology. All rights not expressly granted in these Terms are reserved.

• Your content: Schools and users retain all ownership rights to the content and data they create or upload to the Service.
• License to us: By using the Service, you grant NavEd a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, display, and transmit your content solely as necessary to provide and improve the Service.
• Restrictions: You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, or lease any part of the NavEd platform. You may not use NavEd's name, logos, or branding without our prior written consent.

9. Service Availability and Modifications

We strive to maintain high availability of the Service but do not guarantee 100% uptime. The Service may be temporarily unavailable due to:

• Scheduled maintenance (we will communicate planned maintenance windows in advance when possible)
• Unscheduled outages due to technical issues, infrastructure failures, or circumstances beyond our control
• Updates and feature deployments

Modifications: NavEd may add, modify, or remove features of the Service at any time. We will provide reasonable notice for changes that materially affect your use of the Service. If we plan to discontinue a significant feature, we will provide at least 30 days advance notice to affected users.

10. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW:

• NavEd shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including but not limited to loss of data, loss of revenue, or loss of business opportunities, arising out of or related to your use of the Service.
• NavEd's total cumulative liability to you for any and all claims arising out of or related to these Terms or the Service shall not exceed the total amount you paid to NavEd in the twelve (12) months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim.
• NavEd is not responsible for data loss resulting from user error, including accidental deletion or modification of records.

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

11. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Navigate Technology, its officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any and all claims, liabilities, damages, losses, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or in any way connected with:

• Your access to or use of the Service
• Your violation of these Terms
• Your violation of any third-party rights, including privacy rights, intellectual property rights, or any applicable laws or regulations
• Any content or data you or your users submit, post, or transmit through the Service

12. Termination

Either party may terminate this agreement as follows:

• By the school: You may terminate your account at any time by providing 30 days written notice to [email protected].
• By NavEd: We may terminate or suspend your access immediately, without prior notice, if you violate these Terms, engage in fraudulent activity, or if required by law. For other reasons, we will provide 30 days written notice.

Upon termination:

• Access to the Service and your school's subdomain will be revoked.
• Your data will be retained for 30 days following termination to allow you to request a data export.
• After the 30-day retention period, all data associated with your school will be permanently deleted.
• You may request immediate data deletion at any time by contacting us.

Termination does not relieve you of any obligation to pay outstanding fees incurred prior to the termination date.

13. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the United States and the State of Delaware, without regard to its conflict of law provisions.

Dispute resolution process:

• Step 1 -- Negotiation: The parties agree to first attempt to resolve any dispute through good-faith negotiation. Either party may initiate this process by sending written notice describing the dispute to the other party.
• Step 2 -- Arbitration: If the dispute is not resolved within 30 days of the initial notice, either party may submit the dispute to binding arbitration administered in accordance with the rules of the American Arbitration Association (AAA).

Class action waiver: You agree that any dispute resolution proceedings will be conducted on an individual basis only, and not as part of a class, consolidated, or representative action.

14. Changes to Terms

NavEd reserves the right to modify these Terms at any time. When we make changes:

• We will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page.
• For material changes, we will provide at least 30 days notice via email to school administrators before the changes take effect.
• Material changes will be clearly highlighted and summarized in the notification.
• Your continued use of the Service after the notice period constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

If you do not agree to the modified Terms, you must stop using the Service before the changes take effect and may request account termination and data export.

15. Contact Information

If you have any questions, concerns, or feedback about these Terms of Service, please contact us:

• Email: [email protected]
• Alternate email: [email protected]
• Website: nav.education

16. Payment Processing

NavEd provides technology that enables schools to collect payments from parents and other payers through their NavEd Forms. Payment processing is powered by Stripe Connect Express. This section describes how payment processing works on the NavEd platform and the responsibilities of each party.

16.1 Platform Role

NavEd is not a payment processor. NavEd provides the technology platform that enables schools to collect payments through Stripe Connect Express. Each school maintains its own Stripe account and direct relationship with Stripe. NavEd facilitates the connection between your school's Stripe account and your NavEd Forms but does not hold, control, or have custody of any funds at any point in the transaction.

16.2 Fee Structure

When a payment is processed through NavEd, the following fees apply:

• NavEd platform fee: 1% of the transaction amount
• Stripe processing fee: Approximately 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction (set by Stripe and subject to change)

Schools choose whether processing fees are absorbed by the school or passed to the payer. Fee configuration is set per payment form. The total fees charged are displayed to payers before they complete a payment when fees are passed through.

16.3 Refunds

Refunds are managed by each school through the NavEd platform. NavEd provides the refund tool but takes no position on when or whether refunds should be issued. Refund decisions are solely between the school and the parent or payer. When a refund is processed through NavEd, the NavEd platform fee for that transaction is also refunded.

16.4 Disputes and Chargebacks

Payment disputes and chargebacks are handled through Stripe's dispute resolution process. Schools are responsible for responding to disputes filed by payers. NavEd may provide transaction records to assist schools in resolving disputes but is not a party to the dispute. Schools should refer to Stripe's documentation for details on the dispute process, timelines, and evidence submission requirements.

16.5 Stripe Terms

By using NavEd's payment features, schools agree to Stripe's Connected Account Agreement and all applicable Stripe terms of service. Schools are responsible for reviewing and complying with Stripe's terms independently. NavEd is not responsible for changes to Stripe's terms, fees, or policies.