Classtopia - Start the School Year with Connection, Not Guesswork

About This Policy

Animal Genius (also known as “Classtopia”) is an educational assessment platform designed for K-12 classrooms. We help teachers understand their students through fun personality quizzes that assign animal personalities (like Panda, Owl, or Otter). This privacy policy explains how we protect student information in compliance with COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) and FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act).

Information We Collect

Student Information (Minimal)

Name: First name and last initial only (e.g., “Sarah M.”)
Quiz responses: Answers to personality assessment questions
Animal assignment: The animal personality result (Panda, Owl, etc.)
Virtual store activity: Items purchased with earned coins (no real money)
Technical data: Anonymous usage statistics to improve the platform

Teacher Information

Professional email address and name
School/district affiliation
Class roster management data
Content teachers choose to share in the educator community (posts, replies, and direct messages to other teachers)

We Do NOT Collect

Student last names or full names
Student email addresses or contact information
Home addresses or phone numbers
Photos or videos of students
Social Security numbers or other government IDs
Precise location data

How We Use Information

Educational Purposes Only: All student data is used exclusively for educational assessment and classroom activities.

Providing personality assessment results to help students understand themselves
Enabling teachers to better understand their students’ learning styles
Facilitating classroom discussions about personality differences and teamwork
Maintaining individual student progress and quiz history
Operating the virtual store and avatar customization features

We Never:

Market or advertise to students
Sell student information to third parties
Use student data for commercial purposes
Contact students directly via email or other means
Share individual student results outside the classroom

School Consent & COPPA Compliance

How We Comply with COPPA: Animal Genius operates under the “school consent” provision of COPPA, which allows schools to provide consent for educational services on behalf of students under 13.

School’s Role & Responsibilities

Schools have the authority to consent to educational tools under FERPA
Schools are responsible for obtaining necessary parental permissions for educational technology
Schools can access, review, and request deletion of their students’ data at any time
Schools maintain primary control over how the platform is used in their classrooms

Parental Rights

Parents can contact their child’s school to review what information is collected
Parents can request their child’s data be removed from our platform
Parents can ask questions about how the platform is used in their child’s classroom

Data Security & Protection

We take student privacy seriously and implement industry-standard security measures:

Encryption: All data is encrypted in transit and at rest
Secure hosting: Data is stored with enterprise-grade cloud providers
Access controls: Only authorized personnel can access student information
Anonymous identifiers: Students use secure passport codes instead of personal login credentials
Regular audits: We regularly review our security practices and procedures
Data minimization: We collect only the minimum data necessary for educational purposes

Information Sharing & Disclosure

We Do Not Sell or Share Student Information with third parties for commercial purposes.

Limited Sharing Only For:

Educational purposes: With the student’s teacher and school administrators
Service providers: With trusted vendors who help us operate the platform (under strict confidentiality agreements)
Legal requirements: If required by law or to protect safety (rare circumstances)
School requests: Data export or deletion as requested by the school

All service providers who may access student data are required to:

Use the data only for providing educational services
Maintain the same level of privacy protection
Not use student information for their own commercial purposes

Teacher Community & Direct Messages

Classtopia includes an educator-only community (“Zoo Keepers”) where teachers can share posts and, when the feature is enabled, send private direct messages to other teachers. These features are for adults only — students never have access to community content or messaging.

How Direct Messages Are Handled

Private by default: Direct messages are visible only to the two teachers in the conversation. Classtopia staff do not read direct messages in the ordinary course of operating the platform.
Moderation on report: If a teacher reports a message, the reported message and a limited number of nearby messages in that conversation are shared with Classtopia administrators, who may review them and take action (such as hiding a message, restricting a sender’s messaging access, or closing an account).
Moderation records: A copy of reported content is retained as a moderation record, even if the original conversation is later deleted.
Retention: Messages are retained while both teachers’ accounts are active. When a teacher’s account is deleted, their conversations are deleted for both participants (moderation records of reported content are kept).
Your controls: Teachers can block other teachers, turn off the ability to receive new direct messages, and report any message.

Keep student information out of messages: Community posts and direct messages are for professional collaboration between educators. Teachers should not share student personal information beyond the platform’s first-name-and-last-initial convention.

Data Retention & Deletion

Active use: Student data is retained while the school actively uses our platform
School departure: If a school stops using our platform, student data is deleted within 90 days
Individual removal: Schools can request immediate deletion of specific student records
Graduation/transfer: Schools typically manage student data when students leave their classroom
Security logs: Anonymous technical logs may be retained longer for security purposes (no personal information)

Your Rights & Choices

For Schools & Teachers

Access and review all student data for your classes
Export student information and quiz results
Request deletion of individual students or entire classes
Control which students can access the platform
Disable specific features if desired

For Parents

Contact your child’s school to review their Animal Genius data
Request removal of your child’s information through the school
Ask questions about how the platform is used in the classroom
Discuss any concerns with your child’s teacher or school administration

Cookies & Tracking

We use minimal tracking technologies to operate our platform:

Essential cookies: Required for login and basic platform functionality
Session management: To maintain student and teacher sessions securely
No advertising tracking: We do not use cookies for advertising or marketing
No third-party tracking: We do not allow external companies to track our users
Anonymous analytics: Basic usage statistics to improve the platform (no personal identification)

Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. When we make significant changes, we will:

Update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this policy
Notify schools and teachers via email about material changes
Provide schools with at least 30 days notice for significant changes
Give schools the opportunity to review changes before they take effect

Contact Us

If you have questions about this privacy policy or how we handle student information, please contact us:

Privacy Questions: privacy@animalgenius.com

General Support: support@animalgenius.com

Mailing Address:
Animal Genius Privacy Team
[Address to be updated]
United States

For Parents: Please contact your child’s school or teacher first with privacy questions, as they are the primary administrators of student data in our platform.

For Schools: We’re committed to working with you to address any privacy concerns and ensure our platform meets your educational needs while protecting student information.

Privacy Policy

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