Privacy Policy

Acton Academy Sault Ste. Marie respects your privacy — and, because we're a school, we take particular care with anything you tell us about your child. This policy explains, in plain language, what we collect through this website, why, who helps us process it, how long we keep it, and the choices you have. We follow the principles of Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). It covers this website only; information you share with us in person or after your child enrols is handled under the school's separate records practices.

What we collect

We only collect what you choose to give us, through a few clearly-labelled channels:

• Enquiries and requests — when you request the info kit, ask a question, or get in touch, we collect the name and email you provide and whatever you write in your message.
• Applications — our application form asks for a parent or guardian's name and email, your child's age, and a few short answers about your child and what you're looking for, so we can understand whether the school is a good fit. We don't ask for more than we need, and we never ask for sensitive identifiers like health or financial details through this site.
• The chat assistant — if you use the assistant on this site, we keep a record of that conversation so we can answer well, follow up, and improve our replies. Please don't type anything sensitive into the chat; if you'd like to share details about your child, an email or a call is the better place.
• Basic technical information — to keep the site secure and working, our hosting provider processes standard technical data (such as your IP address and browser type) and runs a bot check on our forms. We don't use advertising or tracking cookies.

Your child's information

The details you share about your child — their age and your short answers about them — are given by you as their parent or guardian. We use that information for one purpose: to understand whetherActon Academy Sault Ste. Marie is the right fit and to support your family's interest in the school. We do not use a child's information for marketing, we never send marketing email to a child, and we don't share it with anyone outside the service providers listed below who help us run the school's enrolment process. You can ask to see, correct, or delete your child's information at any time, and we act on that request. If your child enrols, their information becomes part of the school's student records, which are kept under the school's own records policy rather than this website policy.

How we use it

We use your information to reply to you, to follow up about enrolment, and — only if you've checked the box asking us to — to send occasional school news and updates. Submitting an application does not sign you up for marketing email; that is always a separate, optional choice you can withdraw at any time. To help our small team keep up, we use an internal operating system to organise enquiries and enrolment follow-up; the information you send us is copied into that internal system for the same purposes described here, and it is not shared outside the school.

Who processes it

We use a small number of trusted service providers to run this site and our email:

• Cloudflare — hosts the website, provides the bot check on our forms, and stores form submissions securely in its database service.
• Beehiiv — our email platform, used to send school updates to families who opt in. You can unsubscribe from any email.
• Resend — sends transactional email, such as the confirmation you receive after applying.

We do not sell or rent your information, and we don't share it beyond what's needed to provide these services. Some of these providers are based in the United States, which means your information may be stored or processed there and is subject to the laws of that country. We choose providers that commit to appropriate safeguards, and we only share what each one needs to do its job.

How long we keep it

We keep information only as long as we need it, and then we delete it:

• Enquiries (info-kit requests, questions, messages) — up to 12 months after our last contact with you, unless you become an applicant.
• Applications that don't lead to enrolment — up to 12 months after the enrolment decision, then deleted.
• Applications that lead to enrolment — moved into the school's student records and kept under the school's records policy.
• Chat conversations — up to 90 days, then deleted, unless you've asked us to follow up and we still need them for that.
• Marketing subscriptions — kept until you unsubscribe, which you can do from any email.

You can ask us to delete your information sooner at any time (see “Your choices” below).

How we protect it

Access to enquiry and application information is limited to the people at the school who need it, and it's protected behind a password-secured admin area. We use encrypted connections, keep our systems up to date, and design our forms to collect as little as possible.

Your choices

You can ask us what we hold about you or your child, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete it, or withdraw your consent to marketing email. To make a request — or if you have any question about your privacy — email hello@actonsaultstemarie.com. We'll confirm your request and act on it within 30 days.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we handle information, we'll update this page and the “last updated” date above. For a material change that affects information we already hold, we'll take reasonable steps to let affected families know.