These Terms govern access to and use of Spark Filter, including its browser extension and any related services provided under an order form (“Spark”). They form an agreement between Spark Education Technology, LLC (“Spark Education,” “we,” or “us”) and the school, school district, or other educational institution identified in the applicable order form (“Customer” or “you”).
Acceptance and authority
By signing an order form incorporating these Terms or accepting these Terms through an authorized purchasing process, you agree to this agreement. The person accepting must have authority to bind the Customer.
Students and other end users are not parties to the Customer’s payment obligations. Installing Spark on a student’s device does not, by itself, constitute parental consent to collect or use personal information.
The service
Spark helps schools identify and restrict certain browser activity, including browser games and proxy technologies. Its capabilities depend on the purchased plan, supported browser environment, configuration, and applicable administrative policies.
During an active subscription, we grant you a limited, nonexclusive, nontransferable right to install and use Spark for your institution’s internal educational and administrative purposes, within the scope of your order form.
Spark may inspect browser activity, scripts, resource information, and runtime signals to perform its filtering functions. Applicable data practices must be described in our Privacy Policy and any signed data processing agreement.
School responsibilities
You are responsible for:
- Having authority to deploy Spark on the devices and browser profiles you manage.
- Providing required notices to students, parents, staff, and other affected users.
- Obtaining permissions or consents legally required for your deployment.
- Configuring filtering policies and reviewing whether they are appropriate for your educational environment.
- Protecting administrative access and promptly reporting suspected unauthorized access.
- Reviewing disputed classifications before making disciplinary or other consequential decisions.
Each party remains responsible for its own legal obligations. These Terms do not transfer Spark Education’s privacy or security obligations to the Customer.
Filtering limitations
Spark uses automated detection and rules that may produce false positives or miss activity. Websites, browsers, and third-party technologies change, and some environments may prevent or interfere with inspection.
We do not guarantee that Spark will identify or block every game, proxy, prohibited resource, or other activity, or that permitted resources will always remain accessible.
A classification or block is not proof of misconduct. Spark supplements school policies and human oversight and should not be the sole basis for disciplinary decisions.
Paid subscriptions and billing
Spark is provided through paid subscriptions. Your order form will specify the subscription term, fees, licensed usage, payment schedule, and any renewal or cancellation requirements.
Subscriptions renew automatically only if the order form expressly provides for automatic renewal. Any renewal price changes will be communicated before the applicable renewal decision deadline.
Unless an order form states otherwise:
- Invoices are payable within 30 days.
- Fees exclude applicable taxes. You may provide valid tax-exemption documentation.
- You must notify us promptly of a good-faith billing dispute and pay undisputed amounts when due.
- Fees paid are nonrefundable except as expressly provided in this agreement or required by law.
Exceeding licensed usage does not automatically authorize additional charges. Any increased subscription scope must be agreed in writing.
Privacy and student information
The parties will handle personal information in accordance with applicable law, the Privacy Policy, and any signed data processing agreement.
Where required, the parties must execute an appropriate student-data or data processing agreement before deploying Spark in a manner that involves covered student information. That agreement should address authorized purposes, data access, security, retention, deletion, subprocessors, and incident notification.
These Terms do not independently establish compliance with FERPA, COPPA, or state student-privacy laws, authorize unrelated uses of student information, or permit either party to disregard its obligations under those laws.
You retain your rights in information you provide to Spark. We may process that information only as authorized by the applicable agreements and law. You should not include unnecessary student information in support requests or diagnostic exports.
Acceptable use
You may not use Spark to:
- Monitor devices or people without appropriate authority.
- Violate applicable law or another person’s rights.
- Resell, sublicense, or provide Spark to unrelated organizations without our written permission.
- Interfere with the service, compromise its security, or access systems or information without authorization.
- Copy or modify Spark except as permitted by this agreement, applicable third-party licenses, or law.
These restrictions do not prohibit lawful interoperability work, legally protected activities, or security testing that we have authorized in writing.
Ownership and confidentiality
Spark Education and its licensors retain ownership of Spark and its intellectual property. No ownership rights are transferred under this agreement.
Each party will use the other party’s confidential information only to perform this agreement and will protect it with reasonable care. Disclosure is permitted to personnel and advisers who need access and are subject to appropriate confidentiality obligations.
These duties do not apply to information that is lawfully public, independently developed, or lawfully received without restriction. Legally required disclosures, including public-records disclosures, are permitted. Where lawful, the receiving party will provide advance notice and reasonably cooperate in seeking available protection.
Updates, support, and availability
We may update Spark to maintain security, compatibility, and functionality. Support commitments and any service-level commitments must be stated in your order form or a separate written agreement.
If we materially reduce purchased functionality during a prepaid term and cannot reasonably remedy the reduction, you may terminate the affected service and receive a prorated refund for its unused prepaid portion.
Suspension and termination
We may suspend affected access when reasonably necessary to address a material security threat, unlawful use, or a material breach. Where practical, we will provide notice and an opportunity to resolve the issue, limit the scope of suspension, and restore access promptly after resolution.
For undisputed overdue fees, we will provide at least 15 days’ written notice before suspension.
Either party may terminate for a material breach that remains uncured 30 days after written notice. A party may terminate sooner if the breach cannot reasonably be cured or continued performance would be unlawful.
If you terminate because of our uncured material breach, we will refund unused prepaid fees for the terminated portion of the subscription.
When a subscription ends, your right to use the affected service ends. You are responsible for removing managed deployments as appropriate. Data return, retention, and deletion will follow the applicable data processing agreement and Privacy Policy.
Warranties and liability
Each party represents that it has authority to enter into this agreement. Spark Education will provide the service with reasonable care and skill and substantially in accordance with the applicable documentation.
Except for express commitments in this agreement, and to the extent permitted by law, Spark is provided without additional warranties, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or noninfringement. We do not promise uninterrupted or error-free operation.
To the extent permitted by law, neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages arising from this agreement.
Each party’s aggregate liability arising from this agreement will not exceed the fees paid or payable under the affected order form during the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.
These limitations do not apply to fraud, willful misconduct, payment obligations, or liability that cannot lawfully be limited. Any separate liability provisions in a signed data processing agreement control for claims covered by that agreement.
Changes to these Terms
We may publish updated Terms and will provide notice of material changes. Material changes to an existing subscription will take effect at renewal or upon written agreement, unless an earlier change is required by law.
Posting updated Terms alone will not retroactively change an executed order form.
General provisions
The order form, any signed data processing agreement, these Terms, and documents expressly incorporated into them constitute the agreement between the parties.
If provisions conflict, the data processing agreement controls on privacy and data-protection matters, followed by the order form, then these Terms.
This agreement is governed by the laws of State of New Mexico, United States, subject to mandatory laws applicable to the Customer. Any agreed court venue must be specified in the order form.
Nothing in this agreement requires a public institution to waive sovereign immunity or accept an obligation it cannot lawfully undertake. Any required public-entity or funding provisions must be addressed in the order form.
Neither party may assign this agreement without the other’s written consent, except to a successor in a merger, reorganization, or sale of substantially all relevant assets, provided the successor assumes the agreement and applicable law permits the assignment.
If a provision is unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain effective. Failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver.
Legal notices to Spark Education must be sent to legal@sparkforschools.com and 1209 Mountain Road Pl NE, Ste 12292, Albuquerque, NM 87110. Notices to the Customer will be sent to the contact designated in its order form.