Parent Notification Form

Dear Parent/Guardian/Independent Student,

Every year, at the beginning of the year, we notify you of the online applications we use as a division. In addition, this year, your child's teacher or school wants to use ABCya.

What is ABCya?
ABCya helps solve a common problem for families and teachers: finding safe, high‑quality practice and enrichment that keeps elementary students motivated. It offers 300+ fun, game‑based activities for PreK–6 designed by parents and educators, organized by grade and subject to build skills like multiplication, parts of speech, typing, and pattern recognition. Because the games are interactive, animated, and allow difficulty to increase, students— including very young learners—can engage independently and enjoy standards‑based practice without distracting ads. Teachers and families report that ABCya’s variety reinforces math and literacy while encouraging collaboration, critical thinking, and communication. This playful, technology‑rich experience provides engagement, choice, and skill practice that traditional pen‑and‑paper alone cannot.

Why you are receiving this notice:
As a public organization we need to notify you when we intend to collect personal information. In addition, we need to inform you what allows us to collect this information. For ABCya, we are collecting personal information under the Alberta Protection of Privacy Act, SA 2024, c P-28.5, s 4(c) and the Alberta Education Act, SA 2012, c E-0.3, s 33(1).

⚠️ Important Information for Parents

Parent Email Collection: This application collects parent email addresses. If you provide your email, you may receive communications from ABCya including product updates and educational resources.

📋 What Personal Information Does ABCya Collect?

Based on the information we have, ABCya may collect the following personal information about your child:

Low Sensitivity Personal Information

IP Address
Parent's Email Address
Student's Personal Email
Student's Unstructured Work (e.g., essays)

General Profile Personal Information

First Name
Platform Usage Analytics

🎯 How is the personal information used?

Grasslands Public Schools Uses of Collected Personal Information

To provide this app as a core learning tool for your child (Education Act, Sec. 33(1)(a))

ABCya Uses of Collected Personal Information

To show ads based only on the page currently being viewed (no tracking)
To provide the basic features of the app and make it work
To share data with outside companies to analyze how the app is used
To manage accounts, billing, and send important service messages
To improve the product by analyzing how people use it

🔒 How Personal Information is Protected

Based on available documentation, here's what we know about data protection for ABCya:

⚠

Security Measures

Gaps

Based on available documentation, the most sensitive data appears to be identifiable student work and student email addresses. The vendor states staff receive security training and alignment with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. However, the vendor does not state encryption at rest or in transit, or SOC 2 or ISO certifications.

⚠

Data Sharing Practices

Partial

The vendor states it does not use Student Data for targeted ads and uses contextual ads only. However, documentation indicates sharing with third-party analytics providers and use of de-identified data for marketing. These practices are not fully detailed.

✓

Policy Completeness

Good

The documentation does not state encryption at rest or in transit, or specific data retention periods. A public list of other companies and security testing practices are not provided. Documentation indicates data may be stored outside Canada, which means different privacy laws may apply.

⚠

Parent & Student Rights

Partial

In the Alberta context, the vendor's policy states a method for parents to access data via the School and email. The vendor's policy states a process to correct data through the School. However, the documentation does not clearly state how long data is kept after expiry. It references a vendor retention schedule, which creates some uncertainty about deletion.

This assessment is based on the vendor's stated documentation. The school division continues to evaluate these practices.

✅ Your Rights as a Parent

To opt out of the use of ABCya for your student at any time
To request to see the information that is collected by ABCya about your child
To ask for corrections to personal information in ABCya if the information is incorrect
To request the deletion of any personal information that is held by ABCya
To contact us or ABCya with any privacy concerns. Contact information is listed below.

ABCya

Notification for the collection and disclosure of personal information

⚠️ Important Information for Parents

📋 What Personal Information Does ABCya Collect?

Low Sensitivity Personal Information

General Profile Personal Information

🎯 How is the personal information used?

Grasslands Public Schools Uses of Collected Personal Information

ABCya Uses of Collected Personal Information

🔒 How Personal Information is Protected

Security Measures

Data Sharing Practices

Policy Completeness

Parent & Student Rights

✅ Your Rights as a Parent