How long does Classroom Hero keep Children's information?

Retention and deletion of Student Data and education records is at the direction of the school and the individual teacher. We enter into Student Data Privacy Addendums with schools or districts that further describes our duties, responsibilities, and commitments with respect to Student Data that we collect or receive.

Classroom Hero will not retain a child's personal information for any longer than is reasonably necessary for educational purposes or legal obligations, or to provide the Service for which we receive or collect the child's personal information. Additionally, we only keep a child's personal information for as long as his or her Student Account is active, unless we are required by law or the child's school to retain it, need it to ensure the security of our community or our Service, or to enforce our Terms.

More specifically, Classroom Hero operates a student data protection policy to protect all students' information ("Student Data Protection Policy"):

Immediate Teacher Control: Teachers have complete control over student data retention and can delete individual student records, entire classes, or their complete teacher account at any time. When a teacher deletes their account, all associated class and student data is permanently deleted from our systems.

Individual Data Management: Teachers can delete specific student records or remove students from classes as needed, permanently removing all associated data including:

Points earned through teacher-defined Actions

Marketplace transaction history

Avatar customizations and preferences

Mysteria game progress and achievements

Quiz completion data and scores

Any other student activity data

Inactive Account Deletion: If a teacher's account is inactive for 12 months or more (meaning the teacher has not logged into their account for 12 months), Classroom Hero will automatically delete the teacher account and all associated student data.

Data Retention Limits: We automatically delete or de-identify certain categories of data:

Server logs and IP addresses are automatically deleted after six months

Product event logs containing IP addresses are deleted after six months

Temporary JWT tokens used for student sessions are deleted when sessions expire

Student Activity Data:

Points earned and Action completion records: Retained until teacher or school requests deletion

Marketplace purchases and transaction history: Retained until teacher or school requests deletion

Avatar customizations: Retained until teacher or school requests deletion

Mysteria game progress: Retained until teacher or school requests deletion

Quiz responses and completion data: Retained until teacher or school requests deletion

Account Information:

Student names (as provided by teachers): Retained until teacher or school requests deletion

MD5 hashed usernames and secure identifiers: Retained until account deletion

Class assignment data: Retained until teacher or school requests deletion

System Data:

Analytics data sent to PostHog and Google Analytics: Anonymized and retained according to those services' policies

Server logs: Automatically deleted after six months

Crash reports and technical diagnostics: Retained only as long as necessary for system improvement

FERPA Compliance: Certain student activity data may be considered "education records" under FERPA or state student privacy laws. In such cases, we retain this information at the direction of the school for legal compliance purposes.

School Direction: If a school or district requests that we retain specific student data for educational or legal compliance reasons, we will follow those directions as outlined in our Student Data Privacy Addendum.

Legal Obligations: We may retain student information if required by law, needed to ensure platform security, or to enforce our Terms of Service.

Teacher-Initiated Deletion:

Teachers can delete student data immediately through their dashboard

Complete account deletion removes all associated student information

We provide clear instructions on how to delete accounts at https://classroomhero.com/deactivate

Parent-Requested Deletion:

Parents may request data deletion through their child's teacher

Teachers can then immediately delete the requested student information

We do not have direct parent communication features, so all deletion requests go through the educational institution

School-Directed Deletion:

Schools and districts can request deletion of student data at any time

We will promptly comply with school-directed deletion requests

Custom deletion timelines can be established in Student Data Privacy Addendums

Even after deletion, please note that:

Deletion by our service providers (like DigitalOcean) may not be immediate

Deleted information may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time

We take daily database snapshots through DigitalOcean for disaster recovery purposes

Backup data is subject to the same deletion policies as primary data

We may retain de-identified data for as long as we deem appropriate or as otherwise allowed by law, or as further limited by any school or district's Student Data Privacy Addendum. This de-identified data cannot be used to identify individual students and helps us improve our educational platform.

Unlike some educational technology platforms, Classroom Hero does not retain student data for long-term commercial purposes. Our retention is focused solely on:

Providing the immediate educational service

Complying with legal and educational requirements

Maintaining platform security and functionality

We only keep a child's personal information for as long as the teacher's account is active, unless we are required by law or the child's school to retain it, or need it to ensure platform security. Teachers have complete control over student data and can delete individual students, entire classes, or their complete account at any time, immediately removing all associated student information. We automatically delete certain system data (like server logs) after six months and will delete teacher accounts that are inactive for over twelve months. We may retain de-identified data for platform improvement purposes as allowed by law or as limited by school agreements.