1. Introduction
TOOLS 4R SCHOOLS lends crib sheets, instruments, bench time and paper records to schools. In the course of that work we receive personal information about the teachers, technicians and administrators who borrow from us, and about the visitors who contact us through this website. This policy explains what happens to that information from the moment it reaches us to the moment it is destroyed.
We believe that a lending relationship depends on trust, and trust depends on a borrower knowing exactly what a lender holds. For that reason we have tried to be specific rather than general. Where we collect a piece of information, we name it. Where we keep a record, we say for how long. Where we share a record with another party, we identify the category of that party and explain the reason.
This policy applies to the website at www.tools4rschools.org and to the paper and digital records that the crib keeps as part of its normal lending operations. It does not apply to any other organisation, including any school district that receives a copy of a loan ticket from us, because each district maintains its own privacy notices and its own record systems.
2. Who We Are
The controller of the personal information described in this policy is TOOLS 4R SCHOOLS, whose registered place of business is 12730 Ridgewood Rd SE, Jefferson - 97352-9282, United States (US). The organisation runs a tool crib that supports school technical programs across Jefferson and the surrounding county.
SchoolToolkit is the developer name used for the software that powers the digital parts of the crib, including the online enquiry form, the electronic ticket register and the document library index. When this policy refers to we, us or our, it refers to TOOLS 4R SCHOOLS acting as the responsible organisation, with SchoolToolkit providing the underlying system.
For any question about this policy, about how your information is handled, or about the exercise of a privacy right, you can reach the crib directly by email at grants@tools4rschools.org or by telephone on +13194209996. A named member of staff is assigned to privacy enquiries and will respond within one working day.
3. Scope of This Policy
This policy covers information we collect through three main channels. The first is the website itself, including the enquiry form, any newsletter sign up and the server logs written when a page is requested. The second is the lending counter, where we record borrower details, serial numbers, return dates and the content of shop notes. The third is correspondence, including email, telephone notes and letters that a school sends to the crib.
The policy does not cover information that a school district collects under its own authority. When a district sends us a student record as part of a repair request, for example, that record remains the responsibility of the district, and we handle it only as described in the data sharing agreement that the district has signed with us. The district privacy notice, not this policy, determines the rights of the student in that case.
The policy also does not cover third party websites that we link to from our pages. If you follow an external link, the privacy practices of the destination site apply, and we encourage you to read the notice published there before providing any information.
4. Information We Collect
We collect only the information that a lending counter genuinely needs. The categories below describe what we hold and why each one matters.
Contact and identity details
We collect the name, email address, telephone number, school name, room number and role of each person who contacts us or who signs a loan ticket. This information allows us to address a reply correctly, to reach a borrower when a return date approaches, and to maintain an accurate record of who is responsible for an item.
Loan and repair records
We collect the serial number, description and condition of each item lent or received for repair, together with the issue date, the expected return date, the actual return date and any notes written at the bench. These records are essential for tracking equipment and for resolving a dispute about damage or loss.
Shop note content
When a teacher works at a shop note desk, the resulting note may contain information about a fault, an incident or a safety observation. We keep the note in the same binder system as the rest of the lending record, and we treat it as part of the school documentation rather than as marketing data.
Technical and usage information
Our servers automatically record the standard technical data that any web server writes, including the internet protocol address, the browser type, the operating system, the referring page and the date and time of each request. We use this data only to keep the site running, to diagnose faults and to protect against abuse. We do not build advertising profiles from it.
Correspondence
When you send us an email or telephone us, we keep a record of the exchange so that the next person who picks up the thread can understand it without asking you to repeat yourself. We do not record telephone calls, and we do not monitor email content for any purpose other than reading and responding to it.
5. How We Use Information
We use personal information for a short list of clear purposes. Each purpose is tied to the lending work that the crib was set up to perform, and we do not add new purposes without updating this policy.
The first purpose is to respond to enquiries. When you fill in the form on the contact page or send us an email, we use your name and address to reply, and we use the content of your message to understand the job you are describing.
The second purpose is to operate the lending service. We use loan and repair records to issue tickets, to track items, to send return reminders and to reconnect a returning item with its next borrower. This is the core of the crib operation and cannot be performed without the record.
The third purpose is to keep the crib safe and well organised. We use usage information and shop notes to spot recurring faults, to update crib sheets when a procedure turns out to be unclear, and to protect the website against automated abuse.
The fourth purpose is to meet our legal obligations. We retain financial and tax records, we respond to lawful requests from public authorities, and we keep the records that a funder requires when a grant has supported a piece of equipment in the crib.
We do not sell personal information. We do not rent it. We do not trade it for advertising placements, and we do not use it to build a profile of a school for any commercial purpose.
6. Our Lawful Bases
Where data protection law requires us to identify a lawful basis for processing, we rely on the following grounds.
We process contact details and loan records because processing is necessary to perform the service that a school has requested. A loan cannot be tracked without a name attached to a ticket, and an enquiry cannot be answered without an address to reply to.
We process usage information and some shop notes on the basis of our legitimate interest in running a safe and reliable crib. Before relying on this basis we consider whether the interest is genuine, whether the processing is necessary and whether your rights are overridden. In practice we keep the processing minimal and we do not use this basis to justify any form of profiling.
We process financial records and certain correspondence because we have a legal obligation to keep them, for example under tax and accounting rules.
Where we ask for consent, for example when a visitor opts in to receive occasional updates about new crib sheets, we rely on that consent and you may withdraw it at any time by writing to grants@tools4rschools.org or by using the unsubscribe link in the message itself.
9. Service Providers
A service provider is an organisation that processes information on our behalf under a written agreement. We use a small number of such providers and we require each one to protect the information to a standard comparable with our own.
The hosting provider stores the website and the ticket register and provides routine backup. The email provider handles our correspondence with schools. The accounting provider assists with financial records that relate to repairs and equipment purchases.
Each provider is bound by a contract that limits its processing to the purpose we specify, requires appropriate security, and requires deletion or return of the information when the relationship ends. Providers may not use our information for their own purposes, and they may not appoint a subcontractor without our written agreement.
We review these arrangements at least once a year and after any substantial change in a provider service, so that the description in this section stays accurate.
10. Retention of Records
We keep information only for as long as a lending counter needs it. The periods below describe our current practice and apply unless a legal obligation, a grant agreement or a live dispute requires a longer period.
Enquiry correspondence is kept for twenty four months after the last message in a thread, so that a follow up question can be answered with context.
Loan tickets and repair notes are kept for six full school years after the return date, because a district may need to trace equipment history across several budget cycles and because a repair claim can surface long after the work is finished.
Financial records are kept for seven years in line with accounting and tax requirements.
Server logs are kept for ninety days on a rolling basis, except where a log forms part of a security investigation, in which case it is kept until the investigation closes.
When a retention period ends, the record is securely destroyed. Paper records are shredded, and digital records are deleted from the live system and from backups according to the provider backup schedule.
11. How We Protect Information
We take the protection of school information seriously. The measures below describe the main controls in place, and we review them whenever the crib system changes.
Access to the ticket register is limited to the small number of staff who issue tickets, diagnose instruments or handle grant reviews. Each person has a separate account, a strong password and multi factor authentication, and access is removed the same day that a person leaves the work.
Paper records are stored in a locked cabinet inside the crib office, and the office itself is locked whenever the counter is unattended. Shop notes are filed by school and by year so that retrieval is quick and misfiling is rare.
Digital records are encrypted in transit and at rest. Backups are taken daily and tested at regular intervals so that we know a restore would work if it were needed.
Staff receive a short training on data handling at induction and a refresher each year. If a security incident occurs, we contain it, assess its effect, notify the schools affected where the law requires, and record what we learned so that the same fault does not recur.
12. Your Privacy Rights
Depending on where you live, you may have some or all of the rights described below. We honour these rights for every person who contacts us, regardless of location, because a fair standard is easier to operate than a patchwork.
You have the right to know whether we hold personal information about you and to receive a copy of it. You have the right to have inaccurate information corrected. You have the right to ask for deletion when the record is no longer needed, subject to any legal retention obligation described above.
You have the right to restrict or object to certain processing, for example to object to the use of your contact details for occasional updates. You have the right to withdraw a consent you have previously given.
You have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing. We do not make such decisions, and every lending decision that affects a school is reviewed by a person.
To exercise a right, write to grants@tools4rschools.org or telephone +13194209996. We will confirm your identity, then respond within thirty days. If we need longer, we will tell you why. There is no charge for a reasonable request.
13. Privacy for Children
The crib lends to schools and to the adults who work in them. We do not knowingly collect personal information from a child, and we do not direct any part of this website at children.
Some lending records relate to classroom equipment used by students, but the record itself names the teacher or technician who signed the ticket, not the students in the room. Where a district sends us a document that happens to contain a student name, we handle it as a confidential school record, we minimise it before filing, and we delete it as soon as the repair or review that required it is finished.
If you believe that a child has sent us personal information without the knowledge of a parent or guardian, contact grants@tools4rschools.org. We will remove the information promptly and confirm the removal in writing.
14. International Transfers
Our work is based in Jefferson, and the great majority of the records we hold never leave the United States. Some service providers, however, operate infrastructure in more than one country, and a backup or a support session may therefore involve a transfer across a border.
When a transfer takes place, we rely on an approved transfer mechanism and on a contract that requires the recipient to apply protections equivalent to those described in this policy. We assess the legal environment of the destination before relying on the mechanism, and we review the assessment each year.
If you would like more detail about a particular transfer, for example because your school is in another jurisdiction, write to the crib and we will describe the arrangement in plain terms.
15. External Links
Our pages sometimes link to a funder, a standards body or a supplier that a school may find useful. These links are provided as a service to teachers, not as an endorsement, and we are not responsible for the privacy practices of the destination site.
We encourage you to read the privacy notice of any external site before you provide information to it. If you find a broken or misleading link on our pages, tell us and we will correct it.
16. Changes to This Policy
We update this policy when the way we handle information changes. A change might follow a new service, a new provider or a change in the law. When we make a material change, we update the effective date at the top of the page and we describe the change in a short note at the foot of this section.
If a change significantly affects the rights of schools that already borrow from us, we will also write to the main contact at each affected school and explain what has changed. We will never apply a new purpose retroactively to information that was collected under a narrower promise without first seeking fresh consent.
We recommend that schools review this page at the start of each school year, alongside their own data handling review.
17. Complaints and Regulators
If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your information, please tell us first. Most concerns can be resolved quickly by a conversation with the person who issued the ticket or with the reviewer who ran a grant round.
If a conversation does not resolve the matter, write to grants@tools4rschools.org with a short description of the concern and the outcome you are seeking. We will acknowledge the complaint within five working days and give you a substantive response within thirty days.
You also have the right to complain to a data protection regulator in your jurisdiction. If you are unsure which regulator applies, the crib can point you to the appropriate authority, but we encourage you to raise the matter with us first so that we have a chance to put it right.
18. How to Contact Us
The crib is reachable in three ways. By email at grants@tools4rschools.org, by telephone on +13194209996 during business hours, and in person at 12730 Ridgewood Rd SE, Jefferson - 97352-9282, United States (US).
Business hours are Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 17:00, with the handout window open on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Messages received outside those hours are read on the next working day.
Please address privacy correspondence to the Privacy Desk so that it reaches the assigned member of staff without delay. If your matter is urgent, telephone rather than email and ask for the privacy desk by name.
This policy was prepared by TOOLS 4R SCHOOLS with the assistance of the developer name SchoolToolkit and is reviewed at least once a year. The current version is the one published on this page, and earlier versions are available on request.