Terms of Service

1. Agreement to These Terms

By using boardofeducations.org/ (the "Site"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you don't agree, please don't use the Site. These Terms form a legally binding agreement between you and the publisher of boardofeducations.org/ ("we," "us," "our").

Read these Terms alongside our Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, and Disclaimer.

2. About This Site

boardofeducations.org/ is an independent informational guide that publishes practical, step-by-step instructions for U.S. State Boards of Education, state Departments of Education, local school district boards, and the federal K-12 oversight framework. We are not a school, school district, state board, the U.S. Department of Education, or any complaint resolution body.

3. Eligibility

The Site is intended for general use. We do not knowingly direct content to children under 13 and we comply with the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), 15 U.S.C. §§6501–6506. If you are a student under 13, please ask a parent or guardian before using the Site.

4. Permitted Use

You may use the Site for personal, journalistic, academic, and lawful research purposes — finding state board contacts, attending public meetings, requesting public records, navigating IDEA / Title IX / FERPA procedures, understanding your rights as a parent or student, preparing for a school board candidacy, and similar uses. You may share links to our pages on social media, in personal correspondence, or in professional communications. Journalists, researchers, and attorneys may quote short excerpts under fair use, with attribution to boardofeducations.org/ and a link back to the source page.

5. Prohibited Use

• Using the Site in violation of any applicable federal, state, or local law
• Harassment, intimidation, or threats against school board members, educators, students, or parents
• Doxing — publishing personal information of school officials, board members, parents, or students to enable harassment
• Identity theft (18 U.S.C. §1028)
• Filing false civil rights, FERPA, or IDEA complaints
• Using the Site to misrepresent your identity or affiliation when contacting agencies, school boards, or schools
• Disrupting public meetings beyond the scope of permitted public comment
• Scraping, harvesting, or systematically extracting content from the Site for resale, republication, or to power a competing service
• Using automated tools to send a high volume of requests that interferes with normal Site operation
• Attempting to gain unauthorized access to the Site, our systems, or any account or data — which may also be an offense under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C. §1030
• Introducing malware, viruses, trojans, worms, or any other malicious code
• Submitting any FERPA-protected student information through any channel on the Site

6. Intellectual Property

All content on the Site — text, layout, design, graphics, logos, organization, and code — is owned by us, licensed to us, or used with permission, and is protected by United States copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property law.

You may view and print pages for personal or professional reference. You may not copy substantial parts of the Site, reproduce our editorial structure, or republish content commercially without our prior written permission.

Agency names — state Boards of Education, state Departments of Education, school districts, the U.S. Department of Education, OCR, OSEP, NASBE, CCSSO, NSBA — and their seals belong to the relevant agency. Our use is for the practical purpose of identifying the agency each page covers and does not imply sponsorship, endorsement, or affiliation.

7. User-Submitted Content

If you submit content to us — a correction report, feedback, or comment — you confirm that you own it or have the right to share it, that it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, that it is not defamatory, threatening, harassing, obscene, or unlawful, and that it does not contain any FERPA-protected student information. You give us a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use the submission for the purpose of operating and improving the Site.

8. Third-Party Links and Services

The Site links extensively to state and federal agency websites, school districts, and education-policy organizations. We have no control over those sites and cannot guarantee their availability, accuracy, security, or accessibility. A link from us is not an endorsement beyond the specific information we are pointing to.

9. Advertising Disclosure

The Site is funded by display advertising. Advertisements are served by recognized ad networks and labeled as advertising where required. We do not allow advertisers to dictate editorial content; the verified state agency links always come first on every state page. Where any commercial relationship exists, it is disclosed in context per the FTC Endorsement Guides at 16 C.F.R. Part 255. Full position in our Editorial Policy and Disclaimer.

10. Changes to the Site or These Terms

We may add to, change, or remove parts of the Site at any time. We may also update these Terms from time to time. The “Last reviewed” date at the top reflects the current version. Substantive changes will be flagged on the homepage banner for at least 30 days before they take effect.

11. Disclaimer of Warranties

• The Site is provided on an “AS IS” and “AS AVAILABLE” basis
• WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT
• We make no warranty that the Site will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or free from viruses or other harmful components
• We make no warranties about the accuracy, completeness, currency, reliability, or suitability of any information on the Site for any particular purpose
• We make no representations about the accuracy of any agency-published policy, statute citation, or contact at any specific moment — those change continually

The full operational disclaimer is on the Disclaimer page.

12. Limitation of Liability

• WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES — INCLUDING SCHOOL DISCIPLINE OUTCOMES, IDEA / TITLE IX / FERPA RESOLUTION OUTCOMES, OR ANY OTHER EDUCATIONAL DECISION — ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, THE SITE
• OUR TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY MATTER RELATING TO THE SITE IS LIMITED TO ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100), EXCEPT WHERE A HIGHER AMOUNT IS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW

13. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from any claims, losses, costs, or expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising from your breach of these Terms — including any harassment of school officials, doxing, false complaints, or any infringement of any third-party right through your use of the Site. This clause does not apply to consumers using the Site for personal, non-commercial purposes except where the loss arises directly from a deliberate or reckless breach.

14. Suspension and Termination

We may suspend or restrict your access to the Site without notice if you breach these Terms in a material way, your use causes a security risk or operational problem, we are required to do so by law or court order, or we discontinue all or part of the Site. You may stop using the Site at any time.

15. Dispute Resolution

If a dispute arises out of these Terms or your use of the Site, please contact us first at info@boardofeducations.org with subject line “Dispute resolution” so we can try to resolve the matter informally. We commit to a good-faith response within 30 days.

If we cannot resolve the dispute informally, you and we agree to binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, except that:

• Either party may bring an individual claim in small-claims court if it qualifies, instead of arbitration
• Either party may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in court for intellectual-property infringement
• The arbitration will take place in Delaware, or, by agreement of the parties, in the state where you reside
• Class-action waiver: arbitration will be conducted on an individual basis only — no class actions, class arbitrations, or representative proceedings

AAA Consumer Arbitration Rules: adr.org/Rules.

16. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These Terms and any dispute arising under them are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. For any matter that is not subject to arbitration under Section 15, the courts of the State of Delaware (and the federal courts located in the District of Delaware) have exclusive jurisdiction, except that:

• If you are a consumer in another U.S. state, nothing in these Terms deprives you of the protections of mandatory state consumer law in your state of residence
• If you are a consumer outside the U.S., you may have rights to bring proceedings in your jurisdiction of residence under applicable consumer-protection law

17. General Provisions

Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, and Disclaimer, set out the entire agreement between you and us in relation to the Site.

Severability. If any provision is unenforceable, the rest continues in full force.

No waiver. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.

Assignment. You may not transfer your rights or obligations without our written consent. We may transfer ours to a successor in business as part of a corporate restructuring.

Force majeure. We are not liable for delays or failures caused by events outside our reasonable control.

18. Contact

For any question about these Terms, email info@boardofeducations.org with the subject line “Terms inquiry.”