This privacy policy lets you know how we collect, use, share, and protect information we may gather from our websites, information we may collect from you outside of our websites, such as by phone, fax or through postal mail, as well as information about you passed to third party tools used in our learning environment. This policy does not apply to information about you collected by online educational resources and content hosted on servers outside our systems which are linked to or otherwise accessible from within our systems. The information collected or received by external online educational resources and offerings not directly integrated into our learning environment are subject to their own privacy policies.
Security of your information
To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information in our custody, we have put in place commercially reasonable physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard security, integrity and confidentiality of the information we collect. We maintain adequate data security measures, consistent with industry standards and technology best practices, to protect Student Data from unauthorized disclosure or acquisition by an unauthorized person. We also use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol and encryption to protect sensitive personal information throughout all of our web systems/websites.
Student educational records are protected by VHS, Inc. as required by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), similar state laws, and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for students who are both citizens and residents of the European Union. Our officers and employees have passed criminal background checks, signed confidentiality agreements, and have received or will receive training on security and the federal and state laws governing confidentiality of such data prior to receiving access.
It is our intent to fully comply with current and emerging privacy laws. Partners who have signed, active contracts on file are covered by those contracts, including additional amendments as needed to comply with the Partner’s local laws.
Personal information provided by partners, schools or parents about children
We understand that our student users who are under 13 years of age need special safeguards and privacy protection, and it is our intent to fully comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Our corporate website does not collect personal information from children online at any point. You can review certain personal information we have regarding your child by making a request in writing to privacy@vhslearning.org. Please be aware that some personal information relating to your children's educational records may not be able to be disclosed due to state and/or federal law.
You can request that your child's personal information not be used by VHS, Inc., and any affiliates and/or vendors acting on behalf of VHS, Inc., by making a request in writing to us. Please be aware that to participate in our programs, some information must be collected and shared. If you opt out, your student may not be able to continue to take courses with us.
How we use student personally identifiable information
VHS, Inc. may use student personally identifiable information for educational support purposes for children enrolled in our courses. Such support includes but is not limited to: academic progress, test scores, attendance, and general student guidance.
VHS, Inc. limits internal access to education records to those individuals that are determined to have legitimate educational interests and does not use education records for any other purposes than those explicitly authorized in VHS, Inc. Third-Party Vendor Contracts or Partnership contracts; does not disclose any personally identifiable information to any other party that is not an authorized representative to the extent they are carrying out the contract.
VHS, Inc. may pass student personally identifiable information to integrated third party tools used to enrich student activity and experience. When we pass such personally identifiable information to integrated third party tools, we do so with the minimum amount of information required by that tool. Our integrated vendors understand they have no rights to any personally identifiable student data we provide and have agreed to maintain confidentiality of any such data that gets passed to them.
We may share data with trusted partners to help us perform statistical analysis. Such third parties are prohibited from using student personally identifiable information except to provide these services to VHS, Inc., and they are required to maintain the confidentiality of your information.
Personally identifiable information we collect
If you contact us or sign up for our newsletters, webinars, courses, or other offerings we will collect the information you submit to us, whether through an online form, email, phone, fax, or other communication. If you register your student directly or indirectly with us through a local school affiliate you are providing us personally identifiable information about you and/or your children. The types of personally identifiable information you or an affiliated school may be asked to provide about your student include, but are not limited to: first name, middle name, last name, street address, gender, date of birth, phone number, email address, and graduation year. The types of personally identifiable information a parent or guardian may be asked to provide include but are not limited to: title, first name, last name, address, phone number, and email address.
How we use non-student personally identifiable information
If you contact us directly, we will respond to your request or take other suitable action. The information regarding your contact remains within our systems and we will not share, sell, or trade any personally identifiable information to any third party.
We may also use your personally identifiable information to inform you of other products or services available from VHS, Inc. and our affiliates. We may also contact you via surveys to conduct research about your opinion of current services or of potential new services. We may also, from time to time, contact you on behalf of external business partners about an offering that might be of interest to you. In those cases, your unique personally identifiable information (e-mail, name, address, telephone number) is not transferred to the third party without your explicit consent.
You may choose not to receive marketing or promotional emails from us by clicking on the "unsubscribe" link located on the bottom of the emails we send you. Additionally, you may unsubscribe by contacting us directly by phone or mail. Note that our participants cannot opt out of non-marketing communications.
Our work and our web statistics are not automatically available to the government or to the public, and any information we choose to share will be on an aggregated, non-identifiable basis.
We will disclose your personal information, without notice, only if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to: (a) conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on VHS Inc. or the site; (b) protect and defend the rights or property of VHS, Inc.; and, (c) act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of users of VHS, Inc. services, or the public.
Non-personally identifiable information we collect
We may also use "cookies" to track when you have returned to a specific page. A cookie is a text file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server. Cookies are not used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you and can only be read by a web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you. We may use cookies to help us understand the products and pages that interest you, personalize your experience on our website, and recall your specific information such as personal information, billing addresses, and so on to simplify the process of recording your information on subsequent visits.
Beyond that, the only information about your visit that we receive is the standard Internet log information collected by all websites. This includes the host system from which your visit originated and the time and duration of your visits to our pages. No personally identifiable information is collected about you in this process, and the log information is combined with all other visits to create traffic statistics. Such statistics help organizations know overall traffic levels to their website.
Definitions of terms used in this privacy policy
"VHS, Inc.", and “VHS Learning” refer to VHS, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides learning opportunities through online courseware either directly or indirectly to students of all ages.
“Partnership” and “Partner” refer to schools, school districts, or other entities that have a current signed contract with VHS, Inc.
Personally identifiable information, as defined by the United States Government Accountability Office: is "any information about an individual maintained by an agency, including (1) any information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual's identity, such as name, social security number, date and place of birth, mother's maiden name, or biometric records; and (2) any other information that is linked or linkable to an individual, such as medical, educational, financial, and employment information."
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act "is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records." The U.S. Department of Education provides additional details about Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act from their website.
The Federal Trade Commission's Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and refers to individuals under the age of 13. The Federal Trade Commission provides additional details about Children's Online Privacy Protection Act from their website.
"Third Party Tools" refer to software and resources integrated with VHS Learning's learning environment that add depth and breadth to VHS Learning course offerings. Some tools include anti-plagiarism software, blogs & wikis, eBooks, etc. The list of current Third-Party tools used in VHS Learning courses is available for your review. Click here to access the list of Third-Party tools.
VHS Learning is a member of the Student Data Privacy Consortium (SDPC)
Changes to the privacy policy
We will occasionally amend this Privacy Policy to reflect feedback from faculty, staff, customers, and to incorporate any changes to privacy laws. We will inform faculty and staff of changes to this privacy policy via our weekly announcements and we encourage you to check back often to review our policy to stay informed of changes. The effective date of this Privacy Policy is documented at the beginning of the Privacy Policy.