PUBLISHED 23 AUG 2026 · THE DPA IS A TEMPLATE — FOR REVIEW BY DISTRICT COUNSEL BEFORE ANY USE

🛡️ AcornSmarts District Privacy Evidence Pack

Prepared 22 Aug 2026 · AcornSmarts (a Black Swan Media Solutions product) · acornsmarts.com · Every technical claim in this pack is verified against the shipped codebase (v2.80.0) and enforced by automated build guards; the verification method is stated beside each claim. Statute references were checked against the official published sources cited at the end. This pack is informational and is not legal advice; the DPA template is a starting point for district counsel.

1 · The one-page data map — generated from the code, not from marketing

Why you can trust this table: the in-app privacy receipt ("Where your child's data lives") renders exactly these lists, and an automated test (privacyReceipt.test.ts) locks them against the real network payload builders in the code. If any sync path ever gains a field, the build fails until this document tells the truth. The same regime a district applies to a data inventory, applied by the vendor to itself.

What reaches our servers — ONLY if a family or teacher signs in (cloud sync is opt-in)

DataContents, precisely
Grown-up accountThe adult's email and display name — the adult's, never the child's.
Child identifierNickname, grade, avatar emoji. A child's real name never leaves the device (there is no field that carries it).
Practice resultsSkill id, level, right/answered counts, seconds, and per-question-TYPE tallies (an internal type name plus seen/missed counts — never question text, never a child's answers).
Progress numbersPer-skill level/score/attempts; acorn count, day streak, self-check count, weekly goal; awards list (badge name + emoji).
Reading totalsCounts and minutes only — never a single book title.
Comfort settingsPractice targets and accessibility display prefs (easy-read, dyslexia-friendly font, text size, high contrast), so a second device is pre-set.
Class membershipWhich class a child joined by code, plus a last-practiced timestamp (the time only).
Writing Coach (paid plans)When a child taps "Check my writing," that answer's text is transmitted once for automated grading and immediately discarded — never stored server-side, never used to train AI. The coaching the child reads comes from a fixed set of lines authored under human direction and human-reviewed.

What never leaves the device

2 · Architecture facts a technology director will ask about

QuestionAnswerHow it's verified
Advertising?None, ever. No ad SDKs, no behavioral advertising, no sale of data.Full dependency list is 7 functional libraries (React, Supabase client, animation, QR, icons). Source audit: zero analytics/tracker/social SDKs.
Third-party trackers / analytics?In the app children use: none. The app at app.acornsmarts.com references no external host — no analytics, no pixels, no CDNs, no cookies; the browser talks only to the app's own domain and its database/functions provider (Supabase). The adult-facing marketing site (acornsmarts.com) uses standard Google Analytics on its marketing pages only — never in the app, and not on the public standards report pages.Source + markup + live-page audit (v2.81.0), all four surfaces checked individually.
Works offline?Yes — the app is local-first; every question, helper, and printable works with no connection. Only the opt-in cloud dashboard syncs.Shipped PWA design; the in-app receipt invites families to test in airplane mode.
Student enrollmentDone by the family, never by staff — no student personal information passes through staff hands. Teachers see nicknames only.Join-code flow; server schema stores nickname/grade/avatar only (FERPA note below).
Biometrics? Psychological profiling?No biometric collection of any kind; no emotional-state assessment mechanisms.Source audit; relevant to K.S.A. 72-6314 prohibitions (below).
DeletionA parent can delete the account in-app; deletion removes the cloud account and its data. Redemption/audit ledgers retain no personal link after deletion.delete-account function; deletion path exercised in testing 22 Aug 2026.
Breach notificationCommitment: affected accounts notified without unreasonable delay upon any confirmed breach of personally identifiable data (see DPA §6).Policy commitment in this pack; aligns with K.S.A. 72-6318.
Data location / subprocessorsOne infrastructure provider (Supabase — managed Postgres + auth, US region); one payment processor (Stripe) that sees only the paying adult, never a child; transactional email (Resend) to adults only. Writing Coach grading calls Anthropic's API server-side with the single answer text, which is not retained.Complete list — there are no other subprocessors.

3 · COPPA position (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act)

Primary path: direct parental relationship. AcornSmarts accounts are created by the parent, for the parent — the child never creates an account and the app requests no contact information from a child. Where the state's ESA program or a district deploys AcornSmarts, enrollment still runs through the family, so the operative consent is the parent's own, not a school's proxy consent.

Where a school authorizes use instead (the FTC's school-authorization pathway), AcornSmarts' standing notice is: (1) it collects the limited child data listed in §1 under the school's authorization; (2) that data is used for the school-authorized educational purpose and no other purpose — no commercial use of any kind; (3) the school may review the information collected and request deletion at any time. These are the three notice elements the FTC's guidance requires of ed-tech operators relying on school authorization.

4 · FERPA position (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act)

When a district uses the teacher dashboard, AcornSmarts operates as a "school official" with a legitimate educational interest under the district's direct control for the limited records involved (34 C.F.R. §99.31(a)(1)): the district decides who joins a class, may review everything the dashboard holds, and may end access at any time. The design keeps the FERPA surface deliberately small — the vendor side holds nicknames and counts, not education records in the traditional sense: no real names, no addresses, no demographic data, no assessment answers, no free-text student work stored server-side. The signable DPA below binds AcornSmarts to use-limitation, non-redisclosure, and deletion-on-request, which is the substance districts require of school-official vendors.

5 · State law mapping — Kansas and Missouri

RequirementHow AcornSmarts meets it
Kansas Student Data Privacy Act, K.S.A. 72-6312 through 72-6320 (2014)
Prohibits unauthorized disclosure of personally identifiable student data, unauthorized biometric collection, and unauthorized psychological/emotional-state assessment; requires breach notification.
No disclosure of student data to any third party (there is no third party — §2 subprocessor list); no biometric collection exists in the product; no emotional-state assessment mechanisms; breach-notification commitment in DPA §6. The data minimization in §1 means the personally identifiable surface is a nickname.
Missouri HB 1490 (2014), §161.096 RSMo — Student Data Accessibility, Transparency & Accountability
Requires a public data inventory, FERPA-consistent policies, and privacy/security requirements reflected in vendor contracts; violations by vendors carry civil penalties; Attorney General enforces.
The §1 data map IS a public data inventory, machine-locked to the code; the DPA template below supplies the contract-level privacy/security terms §161.096 expects districts to obtain from vendors.

6 · Signable Data Privacy Agreement — TEMPLATE

⚠️ TEMPLATE — for review by district counsel before execution. Provided so procurement has a starting point on day one; AcornSmarts will also review and sign a district's own standard DPA (e.g. an SDPC/NDPA form).

Student Data Privacy Agreement between __________________________ School District ("District") and Black Swan Media Solutions LLC d/b/a AcornSmarts ("Provider").

  1. Scope of data. Provider receives only the data enumerated in the attached Data Map (§1 of the Privacy Evidence Pack, incorporated by reference): student nickname, grade, avatar, and practice-progress counts. Provider will not request or accept student real names, contact information, demographic data, or free-text student work for storage.
  2. Use limitation. Student data is used solely to provide the AcornSmarts service to the District and families — never for advertising, marketing, profile-building beyond the educational service, or sale in any form.
  3. Non-redisclosure. Provider will not disclose student data to any party except the infrastructure subprocessors listed in §2 of the Pack, each bound to equivalent protections.
  4. FERPA. Where the District designates Provider a school official, Provider acts under the District's direct control with respect to student data, and the District may review all data held and direct its deletion.
  5. Deletion. Provider deletes a student's cloud data upon the family's in-app request or the District's written request, within 30 days.
  6. Breach notification. Provider notifies the District and affected account holders without unreasonable delay, and in no event later than 30 days, after confirming a breach of personally identifiable student data, consistent with K.S.A. 72-6318 (Kansas districts) and §161.096 RSMo (Missouri districts).
  7. Term & survival. Use-limitation, non-redisclosure, and deletion obligations survive termination. Upon termination, remaining District-linked class data is deleted within 60 days; family-owned accounts remain the family's own.

District: ______________________   Date: ________     Provider: ______________________   Date: ________

7 · Verification appendix — how each claim stays true

Sources verified 22 Aug 2026: K.S.A. 72-6312 (ksrevisor.gov; overview via Justia and the Kansas Attorney General) · §161.096 RSMo / HB 1490 (revisor.mo.gov; bill text at house.mo.gov) · FTC COPPA school-authorization guidance (ftc.gov) · FERPA school-official exception, 34 C.F.R. §99.31(a)(1).