Terms of service

Pencilbox grades photos of your kid's schoolwork, plans and prints the next week, and prepares what your charter's education specialist (ES) asks for at the end of each learning period. It is a tool for the parent. It is not a school, a teacher, a tutor, or a substitute for your ES, and it does not enroll, assess, or certify anyone.

• You are at least eighteen and the parent or legal guardian of each kid on the account.
• One account per family, in the name of one adult. You may add another adult's name as a grown-up on duty, but the account and these terms are yours.
• Kids do not get accounts. The upload link is for your child to use under your supervision, and you are responsible for how it is used and who has it.

The photos, answers, settings, and anything else you or your kid put into Pencilbox are yours. You give us permission to store them, send them to the providers named in the privacy policy, and make grades, plans, packs, and packets from them, only to run the service for you. You confirm you have the right to upload what you upload.

Grades, notes, plans, and packets are drafts for you to check. They can be wrong: a page misread, an answer marked off that was right, a lesson planned a week early. The app shows you every grade next to its photo and lets you change anything before it goes further. You, not Pencilbox, decide what is printed, what is logged, and what goes to your ES.

Your charter's rules, calendar, deadlines, and sample requirements are set by the charter. We keep our copy current, but the charter's word is the one that counts, and meeting its requirements is your responsibility.

Pencilbox is invite-only at the moment. Some families are on a free trial; some are paid for by their charter through a purchase order; some pay directly. The price and term are the ones agreed in writing when the account is opened, and they do not change during that term without your agreement. If a charter purchase order is not approved, the account continues as a trial until we agree otherwise.

• Upload work that is not your own kid's, or anyone's personal information you do not have the right to share.
• Share your sign-in code or give another family access to your account.
• Use the service to break your charter's rules, for example by submitting work as a sample that was not done by your kid.
• Try to get at other families' data, overload the service, or copy its contents to build a competing one.

You can close your account any time by emailing hello@pencilbox.io; the privacy policy says what happens to the data. We can close an account that breaks these terms, and we can stop offering Pencilbox altogether, in which case we will give you at least thirty days' notice and time to download your packets.

Pencilbox is provided as it is. We work to keep it accurate and available, but we do not promise that it will be error-free or uninterrupted, or that a grade, plan, or packet will be accepted by your charter. To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential losses, and our total liability to you for any claim is limited to the amount you (or your charter on your behalf) paid for Pencilbox in the twelve months before the claim. Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

If we change these terms in a way that matters, we will email the address on your account before the change takes effect; continuing to use Pencilbox after that is agreement to the new terms. These terms are governed by the laws of California, and any dispute will be heard in the state or federal courts in Santa Clara County, California. If a part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest still applies.

Questions about these terms go to hello@pencilbox.io.