Via Nova Academy logoVia Nova Academy
Beta review draft

Student Data and FERPA Commitments

Effective date: June 1, 2026

This Student Data and FERPA Commitments document explains how Via Nova Academy handles student data when the service is used by a teacher, school, or district for educational purposes.

This draft is not legal advice. District-specific contracts may require additional terms.

Roles

When Via Nova is used by or on behalf of a school or district, the school or district controls the student education records provided to Via Nova.

Via Nova acts as a service provider that processes student data only to provide, maintain, secure, and support the service, or as otherwise directed by the school, district, or authorized teacher.

Educational Purpose

Via Nova is designed for legitimate educational interests, including classroom engagement, quizzes, score tracking, class presentation, student dashboards, teams/houses, badges, titles, and teacher workflows.

Student Data

Student data may include:

  • Student display names.
  • Student emails used for authentication and invitations.
  • Optional SIS IDs or school student IDs.
  • Class membership.
  • Teams/houses.
  • Scores, grades, quiz attempts, submissions, and point events.
  • Badge, title, avatar, leaderboard, and presentation data.
  • Audit logs related to PII-bearing exports.

Ownership and Control

Schools and districts retain control over their student education records. Via Nova does not own student education records and does not sell student data.

Use Limits

Via Nova uses student data only to:

  • Provide and operate the service.
  • Authenticate users.
  • Support classroom workflows.
  • Send transactional invitations.
  • Support teacher-initiated exports.
  • Secure, debug, and maintain the service.
  • Comply with legal or contractual obligations.

Via Nova does not use student data for targeted advertising.

AI Limits

Student PII and education-record data are never sent to AI services. AI features are teacher/admin-only and are used for content generation such as quiz/test questions and team avatars.

See the AI Use Policy for additional detail.

COPPA Alignment

Via Nova is designed for school-authorized educational use. When Via Nova is used with students under 13, the teacher, school, or district authorizing the service is expected to have authority to use Via Nova for the school's educational benefit.

Via Nova does not sell child or student personal information, does not use it for targeted advertising, and does not use it for unrelated commercial purposes.

See the COPPA Notice for Schools and Parents and School Authorization and COPPA Terms for additional detail.

Redisclosure and Vendors

Via Nova may share student data with subprocessors only as needed to provide the service. Current service providers are described in the Vendor and Subprocessor Disclosure.

Via Nova requires subprocessors to process data under applicable data processing, confidentiality, security, and use-limitation obligations.

Access and Correction

Teachers, schools, districts, parents/guardians, and eligible students may have rights to inspect, correct, export, or delete student records under applicable law and school policy.

Via Nova will support reasonable verified requests from authorized teachers, schools, or districts.

Parent or guardian requests about child information should generally be made through the school unless Via Nova has a direct relationship with the parent or guardian.

Security

Via Nova uses technical and organizational safeguards designed to protect student data. Access to private student records is limited by role-based application logic and Firestore security rules.

Exports

Teachers may export data to Google Sheets for legitimate educational workflows. PII-bearing exports should be limited to official school workflows, such as SIS import, and should use school-approved identifiers and destination accounts.

Via Nova audit logs PII-bearing exports.

Deletion

Via Nova will delete eligible student data or de-identify it by removing information that identifies a specific student in response to verified authorized requests, subject to technical feasibility, backup retention, legal obligations, security needs, and contract requirements.

See the Data Retention and Deletion Policy for additional detail.

Incident Notice

Via Nova will provide notice of a confirmed security incident affecting student data as required by applicable law or contract.

Contact

Student data questions or requests can be sent to:

privacy@vianovaacademy.com