PERTS has strong information security policies and a proactive security culture. This page summarizes how PERTS secures student data and PERTS policies regarding potential data breaches. Our privacy policies can be found at perts.net/terms.
These services operate our web servers and store potentially private information about teachers and students who use our programs. Each service protects data in transit with TLS, encrypts stored data, and segregates our data from all other service customers. Only a handful of PERTS staff have password-protected access to these accounts, which we never share. Please refer to each service's security statement for more details.
Third-Party Services used in 2021-22 school year for Elevate, Ascend, MessageIT, and Catalyze:
Third-Party Services used in 2021-22 school year for Growth Mindset for College Students, Social Belonging for College Students, and Growth Mindset for 9th Graders:
Services used by PERTS in prior years:
We consider an event a data breach if it involves the possibility that our privacy policy was violated, like the exposure of personal information to unauthorized parties.
The PERTS privacy policy defines personal information the same way as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), as “any information that, alone or in combination, is linked or linkable to a specific student that would allow a reasonable person in the school community, who does not have personal knowledge of the relevant circumstances, to identify the student with reasonable certainty.”
All PERTS team members are responsible for being alert to signs that a data breach has occurred. The Director of Technology is responsible for leading the response to suspected and actual data breaches. The Director of Programs is responsible for external communication required as a result of any data breach. Legal consultation is provided by our fiscal sponsor, Tides Center.
Any suspicions of a data breach are reported to the Director of Technology.
Our privacy policy covers all data stored or processed by cloud services across all PERTS programs.