Legal

FERPA Compliance

Effective date: May 1, 2026. Last reviewed: May 2026.

Overview

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. When Tendril is used by a school or district under a signed agreement, Tendril acts as a "school official" with a legitimate educational interest in student data as defined under FERPA. This page explains what data we collect, how we use it, what rights parents and eligible students have, and how school administrators can manage access.

Student Data We Collect

When Tendril is provisioned through a school or district account, we may collect and process the following categories of student information:

• Account identifiers: name, display name, email address (or school-assigned username), and grade level.
• Learning records: lesson completions, quiz scores, bookmarks, notes, certificates earned, and activity timestamps.
• Preference data: reading mode settings, notification preferences, and learner tier selection.
• Operational logs: standard security and error logs used to maintain service reliability (retained for up to 90 days).

We do not collect Social Security numbers, biometric data, financial information, or disciplinary records. We do not use student data for advertising, behavioral targeting, or any purpose unrelated to delivering the educational service.

How We Use Student Data

• To create and authenticate managed student accounts.
• To save and display learning progress, quiz results, and earned certificates.
• To power teacher dashboards so educators can track class-level progress and identify students who may need support.
• To improve the Tendril curriculum based on aggregated, de-identified usage patterns (no individual student is identified in product analytics).
• To respond to school-administrator requests about account management, data export, or deletion.

We do not sell, rent, or disclose student data to third parties for commercial purposes. We do not share individual student records with sponsors, partners, or advertisers.

Parental Rights

Under FERPA, parents (and students who have reached 18 or attend a post-secondary institution — referred to as "eligible students") have the following rights with respect to education records maintained by Tendril on behalf of a school:

• Right to inspect and review:Parents or eligible students may request access to their student’s Tendril learning records by contacting the school administrator, who can provide or export those records from the Teacher Dashboard.
• Right to request amendment: If a parent or eligible student believes a record is inaccurate or misleading, they may request correction through the school administrator.
• Right to consent to disclosures: We will not disclose education records without written consent, except where FERPA authorizes disclosure without consent (such as to school officials with a legitimate educational interest, or in health and safety emergencies).
• Right to file a complaint:Parents and eligible students may file complaints about alleged failures to comply with FERPA requirements with the U.S. Department of Education’s Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO).

School Official Access

Tendril grants access to student data only to users with verified school roles (teacher, librarian, administrator, or parent with confirmed consent) as provisioned by the institution. Each role has scoped access:

• Administrators: Can view and export all student records within the organization, manage accounts, and request deletion.
• Teachers: Can view learning progress and quiz scores for students enrolled in their class section.
• Librarians: Can view patron usage summaries within their branch; cannot access individual student quiz scores.
• Parents (verified):Can view the progress records of their confirmed child’s account.

Tendril employees do not access individual student records except to provide contracted support services, investigate security incidents, or comply with legal obligations. All employee access is logged.

Data Retention

Student learning records are retained for the duration of the school or district’s active agreement with Tendril. When an agreement ends or an institution requests deletion, we will delete or de-identify all associated student records within 30 days unless a legal or regulatory requirement mandates a different timeline.

Individual student accounts can be deleted at any time by a school administrator from the Teacher Dashboard, or by contacting us directly. Deleted accounts are purged within 30 days.

Contact

For FERPA-related questions, data requests, or complaints, contact the Tendril privacy team at hello@neural-forge.io. Please include the school or district name and the account email address associated with the request. We will respond within 5 business days.

For disputes that cannot be resolved through Tendril, parents and eligible students may contact the U.S. Department of Education at studentprivacy.ed.gov.