FERPA — applicability to the third-party-pay flow
FERPA (20 U.S.C. §1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) protects "education records" — records directly related to an identified student, maintained by a school. In this purchase flow a payer pays for a named chooser (educator, parent, caregiver, or school BCBA) to access training content. The only data Special Learning receives is the chooser's email plus the payer's vendor/AP/PO information. No student education records — no student names, grades, rosters, IEPs/BIPs, or progress tied to identified students — are transmitted to or maintained by Special Learning. Special Learning is therefore not acting as a "school official" handling education records, and FERPA does not attach to this flow. A standby trigger is described in §3 below.
§2 — Institutional / Third-Party Purchase Terms
2.1 Parties & scope. These terms govern a purchase in which the entity paying ("Payer") is not the individual receiving access ("Chooser"). The Payer's sole obligation is payment of the quoted amount; access is granted to the named Chooser and seat(s) only and is non-transferable beyond them.
2.2 Payment before release (no credit). A purchase order is an intent-to-pay, not a receivable Special Learning carries. No access, license, or deliverable is provided until payment actually posts (check cleared / funds settled). Special Learning extends no credit and offers no net terms.
2.3 What is purchased. A limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license for the named Chooser/seat(s) to access the specified digital training for the stated term. No resale, redistribution, or sublicensing.
2.4 Payer data entitlement. Payment entitles the Payer to a receipt/proof-of-purchase and, for named seats, a completion/enrollment confirmation. It does not entitle the Payer to the Chooser's account credentials, personal data, or course-level activity beyond that confirmation. Where the Chooser is an individual (e.g., a parent), the Payer receives purchase confirmation only.
2.5 Chooser's terms. The Chooser's use is governed by Special Learning's consumer Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The Payer's payment does not make the Payer a party to those consumer terms and grants the Payer none of the Chooser's user rights.
2.6 No warranty; educational purpose. Training content is provided for educational and professional-development purposes and is not medical, clinical, legal, or diagnostic advice and creates no clinical relationship. Provided "as is" to the extent permitted by law.
2.7 BACB ACE non-endorsement (only when a CE/CEU item is in the cart). "Special Learning is an active BACB ACE Provider (#OP-14-2437). Authorization as an ACE Provider does not imply endorsement or approval of the ACE event content by the BACB."
2.8 Refund and Cancellation. Fees are non-refundable once access has been provisioned or released to any named seat or learner. An order is refundable in full only before any seat is provisioned (i.e., the order is placed but no access has been activated). Cancellation of a future renewal term must be requested in writing before that term begins.
2.9 Governing law & venue. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois; the exclusive venue for any dispute is Cook County, Illinois. Remittance entity: Special Learning, Inc., 445 E. Illinois, Suite 6702, Chicago, IL 60611.
§3 — FERPA standby trigger
The FERPA determination above holds only while no student education records flow to Special Learning. It changes, and a FERPA-compliant district data-privacy agreement (commonly the district's own vendor DPA or an NDPA-style agreement) becomes mandatory, if a future phase does any of:
- Special Learning ingests student rosters / student PII (names, IDs, demographics) to provision or roster access;
- Special Learning stores student-level progress, assessment, IEP/BIP, or behavior data tied to identified students on the school's behalf;
- Special Learning is designated a "school official" with legitimate educational interest under the FERPA school-official exception (which itself requires a written agreement and use/redisclosure limits).
Until any of those occur, the chooser's email plus the payer's AP information is the entire data footprint of the purchase, and no student PII is collected in this flow.
This page was designed with AI assistance and reviewed by Special Learning. It states Special Learning's institutional purchase terms and FERPA determination.