Children's Privacy Policy & FERPA Student Privacy Notice

Happy Youthful Minds LLC ("Happy Youthful Minds," "HYM," "we," "us," or "our") is committed to protecting the privacy, safety, and security of children, students, families, educators, and schools who use Wonder Voice™ and our related educational products and services.

Wonder Voice™ is an educational reading platform designed to support children's reading development through interactive reading experiences, stories, activities, reading practice, and related educational tools.

This Children's Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, protect, retain, and delete information relating to children and students. It also explains our approach to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA") and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act ("FERPA") when Wonder Voice™ is used by or on behalf of a school.

This policy applies to information collected through Wonder Voice™, including information collected through the Wonder Voice™ web application and related Happy Youthful Minds educational content, including books, stories, activities, games, and reading experiences.

1. Our Commitment to Children and Student Privacy

We believe children's educational information deserves a higher level of protection.

Happy Youthful Minds is committed to:

Collecting only information reasonably necessary to provide and improve the educational service.
Using children's information for educational and operational purposes.
Not selling children's or student personal information.
Not using children's or student personal information for behavioral advertising or targeted advertising.
Not using student data to train artificial intelligence models.
Not creating commercial advertising profiles of children based on their educational activity.
Maintaining appropriate technical and organizational safeguards for children's and students' information.
Providing parents and schools with appropriate access to children's and students' information.
Providing mechanisms for deletion of children's personal information.
Retaining children's personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected.
Working with schools and families to support compliance with applicable student privacy laws.

2. Information We May Collect

Depending on how Wonder Voice™ is used, we may collect information necessary to create and operate a child's account and provide reading services.

This may include:

Account Information

Child's first name or display name
Age or age range
Grade level
Username or account identifier
School or classroom information
Parent or guardian contact information
Teacher or educator information
Login and authentication information

Educational Information

When a child uses Wonder Voice™, we may collect information about the child's educational activity, such as:

Stories read
Reading activities completed
Reading practice activity
Words or passages practiced
Reading performance information
Progress toward reading goals
Responses to educational activities
Assessment results
Reading level or demonstrated reading skills
Time spent engaging with educational activities
Progress history
Teacher or parent observations entered into the platform

This information may constitute an education record when maintained by or on behalf of a school and may therefore be subject to FERPA and applicable state student privacy laws.

Uploaded Stories and Materials

If Wonder Voice™ makes an upload feature available, parents, teachers, and schools are responsible for reviewing every story, text, or file before a child uses it and for ensuring that the material is lawful, appropriate, child-friendly, and suitable for that child. Happy Youthful Minds LLC does not create or endorse user-uploaded material and, to the extent permitted by applicable law, is not responsible for its content.

WONZY™ is designed to discuss appropriate, child-friendly content only within the active story context. It applies child-safety controls, redirects unrelated side conversations back to the story, and does not engage in inappropriate interactions. These safeguards help the technology work safely and effectively, but they do not replace the parent, teacher, or school's responsibility to review uploaded material before sharing it with a child.

Voice and Audio Information

Wonder Voice™ uses voice technology as part of interactive reading experiences and reading activities. WONZY™ listens while a child reads aloud so it can respond and record what the child demonstrated.

Wonder Voice™ does not store recordings of children's voices. Audio is captured briefly in the child's browser, transmitted once over an encrypted connection to our speech-to-text processor, converted to text in memory, and discarded. No audio file of a child is written to our databases or file storage at any point.

Our speech-to-text processing is performed by a service provider whose published terms state that audio and transcribed text are not retained after the request completes and are not used to train models. We are in the process of obtaining that commitment in signed contractual form and will update this notice when it is executed. Any copy the processor holds during the request is transient; we do not claim, and parents should not read this notice to claim, that a processor keeps no temporary copy at all during processing.

Only the transcribed text — the words the child read — is retained by Wonder Voice™, together with the educational indicators derived from it. Speech classified as unsafe is never stored. Background noise and other speakers are never stored. Personal details detected in speech are removed before storage.

Transcribed text is retained only for the family's or school's chosen retention window and is then automatically erased by a scheduled deletion process that runs every day. Parents may shorten the window or erase all stored text immediately from the parent area.

We do not use children's voice or audio information for advertising.

We do not sell children's voice or audio information.

We do not use children's voice or audio information to create advertising profiles.

We do not use student data, including student voice data, to train general-purpose artificial intelligence models.

2A. Voice Data Handling Summary (for Schools and Districts)

This summary describes exactly what happens to a student's voice, in the order it happens, for procurement and privacy review.

Capture: the microphone runs in the student's browser. Short spoken segments are held in memory only. Nothing is saved to the device.
Transmission: each segment is sent once, encrypted in transit, to our speech-to-text processor through our AI gateway.
Processing: the processor returns text. The audio is not retained by Wonder Voice™, and under the processor's published terms is not retained after the request completes and not used for training.
Storage: only text and derived educational indicators are stored, in United States–hosted infrastructure, under access controls restricting them to the parent, authorized school personnel, and authorized Happy Youthful Minds staff.
Retention: default retention of stored text is 90 days for family accounts and 30 days for school-linked students. Schools may request a shorter window.
Deletion: a scheduled process runs daily and erases stored text past the retention window. Each run is logged so deletion can be evidenced. Parents and schools may also erase immediately on request.
Effect on records: deletion removes only the words. Reading scores, skill mastery, assessment results and progress history are preserved for ongoing progress monitoring.

Schools requiring a signed data processing agreement, a shorter retention window, or evidence of deletion runs may contact us at the address in the Contact section.

Our signed agreement with the speech-to-text processor covering retention and model training is being executed and will be made available to schools and districts on request once completed.

3. How We Use Children's Information

We use children's information to:

Provide Wonder Voice™ educational services.
Provide reading experiences and educational content.
Support reading practice and reading development.
Measure and display educational progress.
Provide teachers and authorized school personnel with educational information about their students.
Provide parents or guardians with information about their child's participation and progress.
Maintain and secure student accounts.
Provide customer and technical support.
Detect, prevent, and address security incidents, fraud, abuse, or unauthorized access.
Maintain, operate, and improve the technical reliability of Wonder Voice™.
Comply with legal obligations.

We do not use student information for purposes unrelated to the educational services provided to the student or school.

4. No Sale of Children's Information

Happy Youthful Minds does not sell children's personal information or student education records.

We do not sell student reading data, assessment results, educational records, voice information, or children's personal information to advertisers, data brokers, or other companies for their own commercial purposes.

5. No Behavioral Advertising

Wonder Voice™ does not use children's educational activity or personal information for behavioral or targeted advertising.

We do not build advertising profiles based on:

Reading activity
Reading performance
Assessment results
Educational interests
Voice interactions
Stories read
Words practiced
School performance
Teacher information
Classroom activity

We believe children's learning experiences should remain learning experiences.

6. No AI Training Using Student Data

Happy Youthful Minds does not use student data collected through Wonder Voice™ to train artificial intelligence or machine-learning models.

Student information, educational records, reading activity, assessment information, and children's voice information are not used as training data for general-purpose AI models.

This commitment does not prevent Wonder Voice™ from using technology necessary to provide the educational functionality requested by the user, such as processing a reading response or generating an immediate educational interaction. Such processing remains subject to this Privacy Policy and applicable contractual and legal restrictions.

7. COPPA and Children Under 13

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA") generally applies to the online collection of personal information from children under 13.

Happy Youthful Minds is committed to complying with COPPA when COPPA applies to Wonder Voice™.

How We Obtain Verifiable Parental Consent

For a family-direct account, no child profile can be created, and no information about a child is collected, until a parent or guardian has given verifiable parental consent inside the parent dashboard.

We verify that the person giving consent is an adult using an online payment transaction — a payment card held on the account — which is one of the verification methods recognized under the COPPA Rule. The card is processed by our payment processor; we do not store full card numbers.

Before consenting, the parent is shown, and must confirm each of, the specific practices being consented to: the limited information collected about the child, how the child's spoken words are processed into text and then deleted on a set schedule, that information is never sold and never used to train models, and that consent may be withdrawn at any time.

We record the date and time of consent, the name typed as a signature, the verification method used, the version of the consent text shown, and the device and network information associated with the request. Parents can view and download this record from the parent dashboard at any time.

Withdrawing consent immediately removes the child's profile and the information stored with it, and ends the child's access to Wonder Voice™. The consent record itself is retained as proof that consent was obtained and later withdrawn.

School-Authorized Use

When a school or school district contracts with Happy Youthful Minds to provide Wonder Voice™ for educational purposes, the school may, where legally permitted, provide authorization or consent on behalf of parents for the collection and use of children's personal information in the educational context.

Under COPPA, a school may act as a parent's agent in certain circumstances when an educational technology provider collects children's information solely for the use and benefit of the school and for no other commercial purpose.

When relying on school authorization under COPPA, Happy Youthful Minds will:

Provide the school with appropriate information about our collection, use, and disclosure practices.
Limit use of children's information to the authorized educational purposes.
Not use information collected through school authorization for unrelated commercial purposes.
Provide appropriate mechanisms for the school to review and request deletion of student information.
Maintain appropriate security safeguards.
Follow applicable retention and deletion requirements.

The school remains responsible for its own legal obligations, including its obligations to provide notices to parents where required.

Happy Youthful Minds remains responsible for complying with COPPA as an operator covered by the Rule.

8. FERPA and Student Education Records

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act ("FERPA") protects the privacy of student education records maintained by educational institutions and certain parties acting on their behalf.

When a school or school district uses Wonder Voice™ and provides Happy Youthful Minds with access to education records, Happy Youthful Minds may act as a service provider or "school official" with a legitimate educational interest where the applicable FERPA requirements are satisfied.

Under the FERPA school-official exception, an outside provider must, among other requirements:

Perform an institutional service or function for which the school would otherwise use its own employees;
Remain under the direct control of the school or educational agency with respect to the use and maintenance of education records;
Use personally identifiable information only for authorized purposes and comply with applicable redisclosure restrictions; and
Meet the criteria established by the school or educational agency for school officials with legitimate educational interests.

Accordingly, Happy Youthful Minds does not claim that every use of Wonder Voice™ automatically creates a FERPA school-official relationship. The applicable school, district, contract, and circumstances determine whether and how the FERPA school-official exception applies.

Where Happy Youthful Minds is acting as a school official or other authorized service provider:

We use student education records only for authorized educational and institutional purposes.
We do not sell student education records.
We do not use student education records for behavioral advertising.
We do not use student education records for unrelated commercial purposes.
We do not use student education records to train AI models.
We do not redisclose student education records except as authorized by the school, applicable agreement, or law.
We maintain appropriate safeguards for student education records.
We provide schools with appropriate administrative controls over student information.

9. Parent and Eligible Student FERPA Rights

FERPA generally provides parents with rights concerning their children's education records maintained by an educational agency or institution.

These rights include the right to:

Inspect and review education records;
Seek amendment of education records believed to be inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise in violation of privacy rights;
Consent to disclosure of personally identifiable information from education records except where FERPA permits disclosure without consent; and
File a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education concerning alleged FERPA violations.

Schools generally must provide access to education records within a reasonable period of time, not exceeding 45 days after receiving a request.

FERPA rights generally transfer to the student when the student reaches 18 years of age or attends a postsecondary institution at any age.

Because FERPA rights belong to the educational institution or agency that maintains the education records, requests concerning records maintained by a school should ordinarily be directed to the applicable school or district.

Where Happy Youthful Minds maintains information on behalf of a school, we will cooperate with the school in responding to appropriate FERPA requests.

10. Parent Rights Under COPPA

Where COPPA applies, parents may have rights to:

Review the personal information collected from their child;
Request deletion of their child's personal information;
Refuse or withdraw consent to further collection or use of their child's personal information;
Prevent further online collection of personal information from their child, subject to applicable legal requirements and exceptions.

The FTC requires covered operators to provide parents with appropriate access and deletion mechanisms and to maintain reasonable security and data retention practices.

Parents may contact us at:

support@happyyouthfulminds.com

When a request concerns a school-managed student account, Happy Youthful Minds may coordinate with the applicable school or district to verify the requester's authority and to ensure that the response is consistent with FERPA, COPPA, the school's agreement with Happy Youthful Minds, and applicable law.

12. Data Residency

Student data collected through Wonder Voice™ is intended to be stored in the United States, subject to the infrastructure and service providers used to operate the platform.

Happy Youthful Minds maintains appropriate controls designed to protect student information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction.

13. Security

Happy Youthful Minds takes reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational measures designed to protect children's and students' information.

Our security practices may include:

Role-based access controls;
Authentication and authorization controls;
Access limited according to job responsibilities;
Encryption or other appropriate security protections;
Monitoring for unauthorized access;
Security procedures for employees and contractors;
Vendor and service-provider controls;
Data minimization;
Secure deletion practices; and
Periodic security assessments.

Access to student information is limited to authorized personnel who have a legitimate business or educational need to access the information.

For school accounts, role-based access is designed so that teachers and school personnel can access only the student information appropriate to their authorized role.

14. Security Assessments

Happy Youthful Minds conducts security assessments on an annual basis.

Where appropriate and subject to confidentiality, security, and contractual restrictions, relevant assessment information may be made available to schools or authorized partners upon request.

15. Data Breach Notification

If Happy Youthful Minds discovers a security incident involving student personal information that constitutes a data breach under applicable law or contractual requirements, we will take appropriate steps to investigate, contain, remediate, and notify affected parties.

For school-managed accounts, Happy Youthful Minds will notify the applicable school or district within 72 hours of discovering a confirmed data breach, subject to applicable law and contractual requirements.

Where legally required, we will also provide notices to parents, individuals, regulators, or other authorities.

16. Data Retention and Deletion

Happy Youthful Minds follows data minimization and retention practices designed to retain children's information only for as long as reasonably necessary to provide the service or fulfill the purpose for which the information was collected.

We do not retain children's personal information indefinitely.

For school or organizational contracts, unless otherwise required by law or expressly agreed in the applicable contract:

Student data will be deleted within 30 days after termination of the applicable contract or service relationship.

Certain information may be retained for a longer period where reasonably necessary to:

Comply with legal obligations;
Resolve disputes;
Enforce agreements;
Protect against fraud or security threats;
Maintain required business or financial records; or
Meet other lawful requirements.

When information is no longer required, Happy Youthful Minds will take reasonable measures to securely delete or de-identify it.

The FTC's COPPA Rule requires covered operators to retain children's personal information only as long as reasonably necessary for the specific purpose for which it was collected and prohibits indefinite retention.

17. Children's Choices and Participation

Wonder Voice™ is designed to provide educational services without requiring children to provide more personal information than is reasonably necessary to participate in the applicable activity.

We seek to minimize the collection of personal information from children.

Children should not be asked to provide unnecessary personal information in order to access educational content.

18. Parents and Families Using Wonder Voice™ Directly

When a family creates and manages its own Wonder Voice™ account rather than accessing Wonder Voice™ through a school, the parent or legal guardian is responsible for establishing and managing the child's account.

Parents should review this policy and our applicable Terms of Service before allowing a child to use Wonder Voice™.

Parents may contact Happy Youthful Minds at any time with questions regarding their child's information.

19. Schools and School Districts

Schools and school districts using Wonder Voice™ are encouraged to review this policy and our contractual privacy terms before providing student information to Happy Youthful Minds.

Schools should ensure that:

Wonder Voice™ is approved for use by the appropriate school or district authority;
The school or district understands what information will be collected;
Appropriate notices are provided to parents;
Appropriate authorization or consent is obtained where required;
Access is limited to authorized personnel;
The school maintains appropriate control over education records; and
Student information is used consistently with applicable FERPA requirements and the school's privacy policies.

The U.S. Department of Education recommends that schools evaluate online educational services carefully and ensure that providers collecting personally identifiable information from education records under the school-official exception meet FERPA's requirements.

20. Student Privacy Pledge

Happy Youthful Minds LLC has committed to the principles of the Student Privacy Pledge, including responsible handling of student information.

Our commitments include:

Not selling student personal information;
Not using student information for behavioral targeting;
Supporting appropriate parental access to student information;
Maintaining appropriate security protections;
Limiting collection and use of student information to legitimate educational purposes; and
Protecting student privacy throughout the lifecycle of the information.

21. Children's Privacy and Third-Party Services

Wonder Voice™ may rely on carefully selected third-party service providers to provide necessary technical infrastructure and functionality.

We do not permit third-party service providers to use children's personal information for their own advertising or unrelated commercial purposes when that information is provided to them to perform services for Happy Youthful Minds.

Where required, contracts with service providers include appropriate confidentiality, security, data-use, and deletion obligations.

22. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Children's Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, technology, legal requirements, or privacy practices.

When we make material changes, we will update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this policy and provide additional notice where required by applicable law.

We will not materially reduce protections for children's information without providing appropriate notice and taking any legally required steps.

23. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Children's Privacy Policy, COPPA, FERPA, student information, or the privacy practices of Wonder Voice™, please contact:

Happy Youthful Minds LLC

Email: support@happyyouthfulminds.com

Parents and guardians may use this email to request information regarding their child's personal information or to submit a privacy request.

Schools and school districts may use this email to request information regarding student data practices, security, data processing, or contractual privacy requirements.

24. Additional FERPA Information

FERPA is administered by the U.S. Department of Education's Student Privacy Policy Office.

Parents and eligible students who believe a school or educational institution has violated FERPA may have the right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education.

More information about FERPA is available from the U.S. Department of Education's Student Privacy Policy Office.