Privacy Policy

IEP Pulse ("we," "our," or "the Service") is operated by Mekoce Walker, an individual based in Washington, DC. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, store, and protect information — including student education records protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

1. Who This Service Is For

IEP Pulse is designed for use by special education teachers, related service providers (such as SLPs, OTs, and school social workers), and school administrators. Students do not directly use IEP Pulse. All student data is entered and managed by authorized educators.

2. FERPA Compliance — School Official Exception

IEP Pulse operates under FERPA's "school official" exception (34 CFR §99.31(a)(1)). When an educator uses IEP Pulse to manage student IEP data, the Service:

• Performs an institutional service or function — IEP progress monitoring and reporting
• Has a legitimate educational interest in the records accessed
• Is under the direct control of the school/educator regarding use and maintenance of records
• Uses education records only for the authorized purposes described in this policy
• Does not redisclose personally identifiable information (PII) from education records without consent

3. Information We Collect

Account Information

When you sign up, we collect your email address, password (hashed, never stored in plaintext), and optionally your full name and school name.

Student Education Records

Educators may enter student data into IEP Pulse, including: student names or pseudonyms, grade level and disability category, IEP goals and present levels of performance, observations and progress monitoring data, AI-generated progress reports, services and accommodations, IEP dates, and uploaded work sample images. We encourage educators to use pseudonyms or nicknames when entering student names to minimize PII exposure.

Uploaded Files

When using the local import feature, IEP PDF files are parsed entirely in the user's browser. The PDF file itself is never uploaded to our servers. Only the structured text data extracted from the PDF is transmitted after the educator reviews and approves it.

4. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect solely to:

• Provide the IEP progress monitoring and reporting service
• Generate AI-powered progress reports and goal analysis
• Send IEP due date notification emails to the educator's email address
• Maintain and improve the Service

We do NOT sell, rent, or lease student data; use student data for advertising or marketing; build user profiles for non-educational purposes; or share student data with third parties except as described in Section 5.

5. Third-Party Service Providers

IEP Pulse uses Supabase (database, auth, storage), Anthropic (Claude API for AI processing — does not retain inputs or train on submitted data; we de-identify text before submission in supported flows), Vercel (application hosting; no student data persisted), and Resend (email notifications). Each sub-processor receives only the minimum data necessary.

6. Data Security

We implement encryption in transit (TLS) and at rest, Row-Level Security so each educator only sees their own caseload, authenticated-only file storage, audit logging on all FERPA-relevant changes, and a strict no-PII policy in application logs.

7. Data Sharing and Shared Caseloads

Educators can share individual students with other IEP Pulse users via email invitation. Shared users can view goals, view all observations, record their own observations, and generate progress reports. Shared users cannot edit goals, delete students, or manage sharing permissions.

8. Data Retention

See our Data Retention Policy for specific retention periods and deletion procedures.

9. Data Deletion

Educators can delete individual students (cascades to all associated goals, observations, reports, and uploaded files) or delete their account entirely (purges all data, processed immediately; backups containing deleted data are purged within 30 days).

10. Children's Privacy (COPPA)

IEP Pulse is designed for adult educators, not children. Students do not create accounts or interact with the Service directly.

11. Your Rights

As an educator using IEP Pulse, you can access, correct, delete, or export all data you have entered, and receive notification of any data breach affecting your records (see our Breach Notification Plan).

12. Changes to This Policy

We will notify registered users via email at least 30 days before any material changes take effect.

13. Contact

For privacy questions: privacy@ieppulse.com.