Privacy Policy

Thank you for your interest in Aequitas Solutions (“Aequitas”, “we”, “our”, or “us”).

This website (the “Aequitas Site”) is owned and operated by Aequitas Solutions, Inc. (“Aequitas”). Aequitas is a trusted student information system software developer throughout the United States. At Aequitas, we are sensitive to the privacy concerns of visitors to our websites. At the Aequitas Corporate Site, we only collect personally identifiable information about you to the extent you specifically provide it to us. This includes, for example, the information you provide when you contact us through this website or contact customer service. We use this information you share with us to provide the products or services or benefits you request, to develop and improve our products and services, to improve the content of our site and its usefulness to you, and for our own marketing and promotional purposes.

  • Aequitas does not share any user or student information with advertisers or marketers
  • Aequitas does not own anything tracked within a school district’s system
  • Student data is private and owned by each respected LEA
  • Aequitas uses industry best practices and the highest standards to protect data
  • Aequitas is compliant with FERPA, COPPA, HIPAA, California Privacy Rights, California Education Code 49073.1 (formerly AB-1584), and more

Privacy Policy Details

What personal information is collected at myaequitas.com? How is it used?

At the Aequitas Site, we only collect personally identifiable information about you to the extent you specifically provide it to us. This includes, for example, the information you provide when you contact us through this website or contact customer service. We use this information you share with us to provide the products or services or benefits you request, to develop and improve our products and services, to improve the content of our site and its usefulness to you, and for our own marketing and promotional purposes.

Aequitas does not sell, trade or share the information you provide us through this website. We may also be required to share information you provide us through this website in other, limited circumstances in which we may share or transfer the information you provide us through this website, for example, to respond to judicial process, to comply with state, federal or local laws, to protect the security or integrity of our databases or website, to take precautions against liability, in the event of a corporate reorganization or, to the extent required by law, to provide information to law enforcement agencies.

Safeguarding information

Within the Aequitas Companies, we protect against unauthorized disclosures by limiting access to employees and contractors of the Aequitas Companies who need the information to do their jobs. We also give them guidelines for adhering to our confidentiality policies.

In the limited circumstances that we provide information to outside companies, we restrict it to only the information we believe is appropriate to enable them to carry out their responsibilities under our contracts. We require that the information provided be used only for the specifically authorized purpose and that its confidentiality be maintained.

Other information about you

In addition to the personal information you provide us through this website, the Aequitas Site uses technology that lets us know what type of browser you are using, the website from which you enter the Aequitas Site, and the pages you view as you tour our site. This technology does not identify you personally — it simply helps us compile statistics about our visitors and their use of our site. We use these statistics and may share them with third parties to improve our website design and content and in connection with marketing programs.

A “cookie” is a small data file stored by your web browser on your computer’s hard drive. Cookies are necessary to use the site. A cookie allows our web server to balance customer traffic on our website to enhance performance of the service. After you end your session the cookie from the web server will remain on your computer until you manually delete it. No personal information is stored on this cookie. Accepting cookies through your web browser is your personal choice. However, if you choose not to accept cookies, you may not be able to take full advantage of some of this website’s features.

If you do not wish to receive promotional information as a result of using the myaequitas.com website, what should you do?

Our goal is to inform you about our products and services. We may contact you by mail or e-mail or telephone to inform you of offers. However, if you are contacted and do not wish to receive further information or contacts, just let us know. We will act promptly to honor your request and remove your name from our marketing list. However, even if we remove your name from our records, you may still receive communications from the sender if necessary, for example, in connection with a pending order or customer service issue, or from other sources who obtained your contact information before we received your request or from a party other than Aequitas.

Your California Privacy Rights

Under California law, a California resident with whom a Aequitas Company has an established relationship has the right to request certain information with respect to the types of personal information the company has shared with third parties for their direct marketing purposes, if any, and the identities of those third parties, within the immediately preceding calendar year, subject to certain exceptions. All requests for such information must be in writing and sent by mail or through our website to our Privacy Office at the address indicated below (“For Further Information”).

Children

The Aequitas Site does not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13. If a child has provided personally identifiable information through the Aequitas Site, we ask that a parent or guardian contact Aequitas in writing at 7365 Carnelian Street, Suite 208, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730, Attention: Privacy Office or at [email protected] and we will respond accordingly.

No control of third-party sites

Please be aware that websites that link to the Aequitas Site may collect personally identifiable information about you. You should consult the other sites’ privacy policies as we have no control over information that is submitted to, or collected by, these third parties.

Your consent

By using the Aequitas Site, you consent to our use of your information as described in this Online Privacy Policy. As we implement new technology and introduce new services, we will update our Online Privacy Policy on the Aequitas Site and indicate the revision date, so we encourage you to review it often. In the event that the modifications materially alter your rights or obligations hereunder, we will make reasonable efforts to notify you of the change using the contact information we have on file as well as highlighting the change(s) on the Aequitas Site. Your continued use of the Aequitas Site after an updated Online Privacy Policy has become effective indicates that you have read, understood and agreed to the current version of the Online Privacy Policy. You may of course opt-out at any time by notifying us through the described methods in this policy.

Third-Party Service Providers

In part of keeping information safe and secure, Aequitas does work with 3rd party services to provide, maintain, protect, and improve Aequitas products. Aequitas shares information with other partners, vendors and trusted organizations to process it on our behalf in accordance with our instructions, Privacy Policy, and any other appropriate confidentiality, security or other requirements we deem appropriate. These companies will only have access to the information they need to provide the Aequitas service.

For further information and a listing of Aequitas partners and service providers, please see names and links to their privacy policy listed below. Note that this list may change over time, and Aequitas will keep the list updated.

Banyan Software – for use of Aequitas Financials and parent company.

ParentSquare – part of Q Communications.

Tyler Technologies – Provider of the app, District Pulse, a data analyzer tool embedded in Q software

Alludo – Used a learning management platform for client users.

Wayne County RESA – Hosting provider and support for select clients

Info shared: Contact information, including but not limited to Names, emails, and telephone numbers, determined by your Educational Agency.

At the direction of your Educational agency, Aequitas will also provide access to your data to other third-party service providers. Your Educational agency is solely responsible for obtaining information from those third parties regarding the certification and compliance with all applicable State and Federal Student Data Privacy laws. Aequitas will never disclose your information to a third party without expressed consent from you or your Educational agency.

FERPA Compliance and Student Data Privacy Policy

Aequitas, in its role as a vendor to educational agencies and institutions (LEAs), receives disclosures from the LEAs of personally identifiable information (PII) contained in student records. Only information that is needed for Aequitas to perform services outsourced to it by the LEA is disclosed to Aequitas These disclosures are authorized under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a federal statute that regulates the privacy of student records by LEAs that receive financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Education. Aequitas, as a contractor to the LEA, receives the disclosures on the same basis as school officials employed by the LEA, consistent with FERPA regulations, 34 CFR §99.31(a)(1)(i)(B). Consistent with those regulations, Aequitas has a legitimate educational interest in the information to which it is given access because the information is needed to perform the outsourced service, and Aequitas is under the direct control of the LEA in using and maintaining the disclosed education records, consistent with the terms of its contract.

Aequitas is subject to the same conditions on use and redisclosure of education records that govern all school officials, as provided in 34 CFR §99.33. In particular, Aequitas must ensure that only individuals that it employs or that are employed by its contractors, with legitimate educational interests – consistent with the purposes for which Aequitas obtained the information — obtain access to PII from education records it maintains on behalf of the district or institution. Further, in accordance with 34 CFR §99.33(a) and (b), Aequitas may not redisclose PII without consent of a parent or an eligible student (meaning a student who is 18 years old or above or is enrolled in postsecondary education) unless the agency or institution has authorized the redisclosure under a FERPA exception and the agency or institution records the subsequent disclosure. An example of such a disclosure is when Aequitas is requested by a school district to assist the district in the transfer of the student records from our system to another system.

Aequitas will not sell or otherwise use or redisclose education records for targeted advertising or marketing purposes. Aequitas does not allow advertising within its products, and therefore there is no behavioral or targeted advertising. Aequitas uses data within its products only to deliver the services contracted by the educational institution. Aequitas may use anonymized, non-PII data internally to improve the products and services it delivers to LEAs.

Aequitas employs extensive technological and operational measures to ensure data security and privacy, including advanced security systems technology, physical access controls, and annual privacy training for employees and partners, and criminal background checks of all employees. All data is housed within the United States. Details about the audits and company policies which support the Aequitas security programs are available to LEAs under a non-disclosure agreement.

All employees of Aequitas are required to sign an Employee Handbook that commits the employees to comply with Aequitas’s data privacy and security policies and receive required annual security and privacy training, including commitments and training regarding the prohibition on disclosure of student data.

Aequitas does not own any of the student data or district-created data within its products. These data within the products are property of, and under the control of the local educational agency. The collection, input, use, retention, disposal, and disclosure of any information in our software applications are controlled solely by the LEAs which license our products. Aequitas cannot delete, change, or disclose any information from our software applications controlled by the LEA. Students who wish to retain possession and control of their own pupil-generated content should contact the LEA. If the LEA is unable to fulfill the request of the student, Aequitas can assist at the direction and expense of the LEA.

In the event any third party (including the eligible student or parent/guardian of the eligible student) seeks to access education records, Aequitas will refer the request to the appropriate LEA. Aequitas shall not provide access to such data or information or respond to such requests unless compelled to do so by court order or lawfully issued subpoena from any court of competent jurisdiction or directed to do so by the LEA. Should Aequitas receive a court order or lawfully issued subpoena seeking the release of such data or information, Aequitas shall provide immediate notification, along with a copy thereof, to the LEA prior to releasing the requested data or information, unless such notification is prohibited by law or judicial and/or administrative order or subpoena.

If the LEA is unable to fulfill a request of an eligible student or parent/guardian to review the student’s records, Aequitas can assist at the direction and expense of the LEA. In such an event where a parent, legal guardian, or eligible student seeks to make changes to the data within our products parents, legal guardians, or eligible students shall follow the procedures established by the LEA in accordance with FERPA. Generally, these procedures establish the right to request an amendment of the student’s education records that the parent or eligible student believes is inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise in violation of the student’s privacy rights under FERPA. Parents or eligible students who wish to ask the LEA to amend their child’s or their education record should write an LEA official (often a Principal or Superintendent), clearly identify the part of the record they want changed, and specify why it should be changed. If the LEA decides not to amend the record as requested by the parent or eligible student, the LEA will notify the parent or eligible student of the decision and of their right to a hearing regarding the request for amendment. Additional information regarding the hearing procedures would be provided to the parent or eligible student when notified of the right to a hearing.

In the event Aequitas becomes aware of a data breach or inadvertent disclosure of PII, Aequitas shall take immediate steps to limit and mitigate such security breach to the extent possible. A senior executive of Aequitas will notify a senior member of the affected LEAs leadership team, ideally the Superintendent or similar chief executive. This typically will occur within 24 hours of confirmation of the event and would include the known relevant details. The LEA and Aequitas will work cooperatively in determining an action plan, including any required notification of affected persons. In the event that Aequitas is at fault for the breach or disclosure, Aequitas carries a cyber-liability insurance policy that provides for a number of potential remedies, such as credit monitoring for affected parties, fraud coverage, crisis management communications coverage, business interruption coverage, and data restoration coverage, among others.

In the event of termination of a license to use our products, Aequitas works with the LEA, in accordance of the terms of the LEAs contract, to destroy all student records contained in our systems and then will permanently delete all archival or backup copies of the agency’s or institution’s data. Aequitas shall not knowingly retain copies of any data or information received from LEA once LEA has directed Aequitas as to how such information shall be returned and/or destroyed. Furthermore, Aequitas shall ensure that it disposes of any and all data or information received from LEA in a commercially reasonable manner that maintains the confidentiality of the contents of such records (e.g. shredding paper records, erasing and reformatting hard drives, erasing and/or physically destroying any portable electronic devices). At the request of the LEA, Aequitas will provide written certification of destruction.

To the extent parents, guardians or students have questions regarding the content of, or privacy associated with, any applications used by the educational institution, please contact that agency or institution.

Aequitas may, from time to time, update this policy to follow evolving state and federal laws and regulations. We will not materially change our policies and practices to make them less protective of your privacy without the written consent of the LEA and the LEA may rely upon any and enforce any current or prior version of this policy unless otherwise agreed to in writing.

Data collected by our LEAs through the use of Q is not the property of Aequitas, nor does Aequitas use this data. Some examples of the data that can be collected by your child’s school or district include:

1. Class Attendance, Class Behavior, Student Enrollment, Testing scores, Transcripts, Student Schedule and assignments, GPA, etc.

2. Health information such as immunization and medical history.

3. Birth information, gender, language information, address information, and phone number.

4. Features available through the use of the mobile app include interaction with teachers and staff.

California AB 1584

Regarding FERPA and California AB 1584 (Buchanan) Privacy of Pupil Records: 3rd-Party Digital Storage & Education Software (Education Code section 49073.1),  Aequitas will abide to the following:

Student records obtained by Aequitas from an educational institution continue to be the property of and under the control of the educational institution. The educational institution retains full ownership rights to the personal information and education records it provides to Aequitas.

Aequitas users may retain possession and control of their own generated content by contacting Aequitas via email: [email protected].

Aequitas will not use any information in a student record for any purpose other than those required or specifically permitted by the Aequitas Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

Parents, legal guardians, or eligible students may review personally identifiable information in the student’s records and correct erroneous information by contacting their educational institution. Additionally, Aequitas users may access, correct, update, or delete personal information in their profile by signing into their account, accessing their parent and/or student account, and making the appropriate changes.

Aequitas is committed to maintaining the security and confidentiality of student records. Towards this end, we take the following actions: (a) we limit employee access to student data to only those employees with a need to such access to fulfill their job responsibilities; (b) we conduct background checks on our employees that may have access to student data; (c) we conduct regular employee privacy and data security training and education; and (e) we protect personal information with technical, contractual, administrative, and physical security safeguards in order to protect against unauthorized access, release or use.

In the event of an unauthorized disclosure of a student’s records, Aequitas will (1) promptly notify Users unless specifically directed not to provide such notification by law enforcement officials. Notification shall identify: (i) the date and nature of the unauthorized use or disclosure; (ii) the Private Data used or disclosed; (iii) general description of what occurred including who made the unauthorized use or received the unauthorized disclosure; (iv) what Aequitas has done or shall do to mitigate any effect of the unauthorized use or disclosure; (v) what corrective action Aequitas has taken or shall take to prevent future similar unauthorized use or disclosure; and (vi) who at Aequitas the User can contact. Aequitas will keep the User fully informed until the incident is resolved.

Aequitas will delete or de-identify personal information when it is no longer needed, upon expiration or termination of our agreement with an educational institution with any deletion or de-identification to be completed according to the terms of our agreement with the educational institution, or at the direction or request of the educational institution.

Aequitas agrees to work with educational institutions to ensure compliance with FERPA and the Parties will ensure compliance by providing parents, legal guardians or eligible students with the ability to inspect and review student records and to correct any inaccuracies therein as described in statement (4) above.

Aequitas prohibits using personally identifiable information in student records to engage in targeted advertising.

Data Storage and Subprocessors

To comply with Aequitas obligations under applicable data protection laws and to our customers, we provide a list of significant third-party suppliers that enable us to provide our products and services and operate our business. These third-party suppliers perform the functions described below and are considered subprocessors under applicable data protection laws (“Subprocessors”). We require our Subprocessors to implement proper security measures to safeguard and to respect the privacy rights attendant to Customer Data and Collected Data.

Data Processing Activity Location
On-Premise Clients Storage and/or Processing United States
Cloud Clients Storage and/or Processing United States

Aequitas may grow and reorganize. We may share your information, including personal information with affiliates such as a parent company, subsidiaries, joint venture partners or other companies that we control or that are under common control with us, in which case we will require those companies to agree to use your personal information in a way that is consistent with this Privacy Policy.

In the event of a change to our organizations such that all or a portion of Aequitas or its assets are acquired by or merged with a third-party, or in any other situation where personal information that we have collected from users would be one of the assets transferred to or acquired by that third-party, this Privacy Policy will continue to apply to your information, and any acquirer would only be able to handle your personal information as per this policy (unless you give consent to a new policy). We will provide you with notice of an acquisition within thirty (30) days following the completion of such a transaction, by posting on our homepage and by email to your email address that you provided to us. If you do not consent to the use of your personal information by such a successor company, subject to applicable law, you may request its deletion from the company.

In the unlikely event that Aequitas goes out of business, or files for bankruptcy, we will protect your personal information, and will not sell it to any third-party.

To the extent parents, guardians or students have questions regarding the content of, or privacy associated with, any applications used by the educational institution, please contact that agency or institution.

COPPA Compliance

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) does not apply to Aequitas. Aequitas products do not collect personally identifiable information (PII) from children under the age of 13. PII collected and maintained within the Aequitas products is entered by adults; either the child’s parent or guardian during an enrollment process or by the school officials that use our products to operate the school. Access to the system is granted to all users by the educational agencies and institutions (LEAs) which license our products.

Please note that the collection, input, use, retention, disposal, and disclosure of any private information in our software applications are controlled solely by the LEAs which license our products. Aequitas cannot delete, change, or disclose any information from our software applications controlled by the LEA. To the extent parents, guardians or students have questions regarding the privacy associated with the applications provided by the LEA, please contact that agency or institution.

HIPAA Compliance

Student records that are disclosed to Aequitas by LEAs and maintained within Aequitas products are by definition “education records” under FERPA and not “protected health information” under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). Because student health information in education records is protected by FERPA, the HIPAA Privacy Rule excludes such information from its coverage. See the exception at paragraph (2)(i) to the definition of “protected health information” in the HIPAA Privacy Rule at 45 CFR § 160.103. See, also, Joint Guidance on the Application of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) to Student Health Records, USED and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (November 2008).

Contact Info

For further information regarding this website privacy statement or related Aequitas policies and procedures, please contact us via email at [email protected] or:

ATTN: Privacy Office

Aequitas Solutions, Inc.

7365 Carnelian Street, Suite 208

Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730

 

Revised June 2023