Terms of Service

These terms are between you and the AssignHQ team ("AssignHQ", "we", "us") and govern your use of the AssignHQ service (the "Service"). You accept them by ticking the box when you create an account. If you don't agree, please don't create one.

1. The Service

AssignHQ lets teachers create, deliver, and grade assignments and assessments, with optional AI tutoring, Google Classroom import, and exam-integrity features such as browser lockdown and screen recording. Features change as we improve the Service.

2. Accounts

• Teacher accounts are for educators. You are responsible for activity on your account and for keeping your password to yourself, and you must give us accurate information and not impersonate anyone.
• Students do not create AssignHQ accounts. They join an assignment through a link or code from their teacher. Where a school or district licenses AssignHQ, the school may provision accounts for its own students; those accounts are set up and controlled by the school.
• What a class can hold depends on the plan. Where a school has recorded its authorization over student records (described in our school notice), its teachers may enroll students of any age, including students under 13, by name. On the Free plan there is no school to authorize, so the Free plan is built to hold no student identity at all: students are known by nicknames the Service generates (no one types a name), every question is multiple choice, there is no tutor and no other place a student can type free text, and no rosters of real names can be entered or imported. Because it holds no student identity, the Free plan may be used with students of any age. Any teacher who keeps a list of which nickname belongs to which student keeps it outside the Service, and the Service offers no place to store it. Students under 13 may be identified by name in AssignHQ only through a school whose authorization is on record.

3. Student data and education records

This is the section a school's privacy officer will want. Where AssignHQ is used at the direction of a teacher, school, or district (each a "School"), information about students that we process ("Student Data") may include education records governed by FERPA.

The service we provide to the School is an online platform for creating, delivering, grading, and reviewing classroom assignments and assessments, including optional AI-assisted question authoring and tutoring and optional exam-integrity features. That is the only service for which we process Student Data.

3.1 The School's data, and our role

• Student Data is and remains the property of, and under the control of, the School.
• AssignHQ acts as a "school official" with a legitimate educational interest, performing an institutional service or function for which the School would otherwise use its own employees, under the School's direct control with respect to the use and maintenance of education records, and using education records only for the authorized purposes in these terms — within the meaning of 34 CFR § 99.31(a)(1)(i)(B).
• We use Student Data solely to provide and support the Service for that School, and for no other purpose.
• We do not re-disclose Student Data except to the service providers named in our Privacy Policy, each bound by terms no less protective than these — and except where the law requires it, in which case, unless we are legally barred, we will tell the School first.
• A parent or eligible student who wants to see, correct, or delete records should contact their School. The School directs us, and we act on that direction.

3.2 What we collect, and what we never do with it

The categories of Student Data we collect are set out in our Privacy Policy and summarized in plain language at What we store: the teacher's roster names (in Gradebook classes), student answers and grades, AI-tutor messages, and — only when a teacher enables it for a specific assessment — exam screen recordings and integrity events. We do not collect birth dates, addresses, parent contacts, government or student ID numbers, health or disability information, discipline or attendance records, eligibility status, demographic categories, biometrics, or location.

AssignHQ will never:

• sell or rent Student Data;
• use Student Data for targeted advertising, or advertise to students at all;
• build a commercial profile of a student for any purpose other than providing the Service;
• use Student Data to train, fine-tune, or otherwise improve any machine-learning model, whether ours or a third party's — and our AI providers are contractually prohibited from training on or retaining what we send them; or
• use an AI model to grade student work. To be precise about what does happen: automatically-graded questions are checked by deterministic software that compares the student's answer to the answer key the teacher wrote — numerically, by units, or by symbolic equivalence — which is arithmetic, not judgment. No AI model assigns, changes, or releases a grade; a teacher does. AI helps teachers author questions and answer keys, and tutors students on problems. A student's name, email address, and grade are never sent to an AI provider.

3.3 Purpose, scope, and duration

We process Student Data for the sole purpose of providing the Service to the School whose teacher directed it, and only for as long as that relationship lasts plus the retention windows in 3.4. We do not use Student Data for any commercial purpose. We do not use Student Data to improve, develop, train, or analyse our products. Where we look at aggregate usage to run the business, we use de-identified data only, and we will not attempt to re-identify it.

3.4 Retention and deletion

• The School, or a teacher acting for it, may direct deletion of Student Data at any time, and may export it at any time without our involvement.
• Account-deletion and end-of-service deletion requests are honored within 30 days. On request we provide written confirmation that deletion is complete.
• When Student Data is no longer needed for the purpose it was provided for, or when the relationship with a School ends — whichever comes first — we delete it, or return or transfer it to the School if the School asks us to instead. Where the trigger is the end of the relationship, we complete this within 90 days, unless the School directs otherwise or the law requires retention.
• Deletion is carried out in a manner consistent with recognized media-sanitization practice (NIST SP 800-88).
• Deleted records may persist in our database provider's encrypted backups for up to 7 days before those backups expire. We say so rather than claiming instantaneous erasure.
• Exam screen recordings are deleted within 7 days, or when the teacher files the assessment, whichever comes first.
• A preservation obligation — a parent's records request, or a legal hold placed by the School — pauses every deletion clock above until the School releases it.

3.5 Security

We maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the data. Specifically: Student Data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest; access to production systems holding Student Data is limited to AssignHQ personnel who are authorized and whose duties require it, and is protected by multi-factor authentication; access is removed when it is no longer required; and our service providers are bound by terms no less protective than these. Our current practices are described in our Privacy Policy.

3.6 If there is a breach

If we determine that Student Data has been subject to unauthorized access, disclosure, or acquisition, we will notify the affected School in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay, and in no event later than 30 calendar days after that determination. Where applicable law or a signed agreement with the School requires faster notice, that requirement controls. We will cooperate with the School's own obligations to notify parents and authorities.

Breach costs. Where a breach is attributable to AssignHQ, we bear the reasonable and documented costs the School incurs in investigating and remediating it, including notifying affected parents and students and providing credit monitoring where the law or the School's policy requires it. Where a breach is attributable to the School — for example a teacher's password being shared — those costs remain the School's. Where both contributed, costs are shared in proportion to responsibility.

3.7 How this fits your obligations

FERPA and most state student-privacy statutes regulate what a school or district must do; they place duties on us as a service provider acting for that School. The commitments in this section 3 are written so that a School can meet its obligations while using AssignHQ, and so that they mirror the substantive terms of the SDPC National Data Privacy Agreement.

Where a state requires specific contractual terms of a school-service provider, these terms are intended to satisfy them; where a state or district requires its own executed agreement, section 3.9 applies and we will sign one. We are glad to work with districts — including New York districts putting Education Law §2-d documentation in place — to complete whatever paperwork their state requires. If your state requires something these terms don't cover, tell us and we will address it.

3.7a Our certification to your School

AssignHQ certifies to each School whose teacher accepts these terms that it will comply with this section 3, including the sole-purpose limitation in 3.3, the prohibitions in 3.2, and the destruction obligations in 3.4. A School may request a countersigned copy of this certification at admin@assignhq.org.

3.7b Publishing this agreement

Some states require a school or district to publish agreements of this kind, or make them available for public inspection at its administrative office. These terms are published at this address for that purpose, and we will provide a dated copy on request. Where a School must redact provisions before publishing, tell us and we will identify anything we consider confidential.

3.8 Your authority as a teacher

If you use AssignHQ with students as a teacher or school staff member, you represent and warrant that your use is for a school-authorized educational purpose and that you are authorized to accept these terms on behalf of your school for that use. If your school requires its own agreement before you use tools like this, please put that in place first — and send it to us; we would rather sign yours.

If we learn that the person who accepted these terms was not authorized to do so, we may terminate the agreement and the related accounts, after giving the School and the teacher a reasonable opportunity to put an authorized agreement in place instead. We may also ask a teacher or School to provide records of any notice given to, or consent obtained from, parents where their own policy requires it. If you leave the school you accepted these terms for, please tell us.

3.9 If your district signs its own agreement

If a School and AssignHQ execute a separate data-privacy agreement — the SDPC National Data Privacy Agreement, a state template, or the district's own form — that agreement controls over this section 3 for that School's Student Data. We are happy to enter into one on request, and we may ask for reasonable modifications before signing.

4. Changes to these terms

These terms are dated and versioned. If we make a material change — anything that changes what we do with Student Data, how long we keep it, or the commitments in section 3 — we will ask you to review and accept the new version the next time you sign in, with a summary of what changed. We will not apply a material change to Student Data already collected without that acceptance. Non-material edits (a clarified sentence, a corrected link) may be made without re-acceptance; the version date changes either way.

5. Acceptable use

• Don't use the Service to break the law, infringe intellectual-property rights, or upload malicious content.
• Don't probe, disrupt, or try to gain unauthorized access to the Service or anyone's data.
• Don't misuse the AI tutor or try to extract answers during an assessment. Teachers may review integrity signals for their own assessments.

6. Assessment monitoring

Some assessments use browser lockdown and screen recording at the teacher's direction. Students are shown a recording disclosure before such an assessment begins and must acknowledge it and grant the required permissions to proceed. We do not capture webcam or microphone on any plan. Recordings are visible to the assigning teacher and are deleted as described in 3.4.

7. Your content

Teachers and students keep ownership of what they create and upload. You grant us the license needed to host, process, and display that content in order to operate the Service for you, including processing by the AI providers named in our Privacy Policy where you use AI features. That license ends when the content is deleted. You are responsible for having the rights to the material you upload.

8. Third-party services

Optional integrations (such as Google Classroom) are subject to the third party's own terms. We are not responsible for third-party services.

9. Plans

AssignHQ has two plans. The Free plan is for an individual teacher and is free. The School plan is for a school that has recorded its authorization over student records, and is licensed and billed under a written agreement with the school; nothing is charged to an individual teacher. If a school's relationship with AssignHQ ends, its teachers' accounts continue on the Free plan, and student data held for the school is handled as described in section 3.

10. Availability, warranties, and liability

We work to keep the Service available and reliable, but provide it "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost data, profits, or revenues; and our total liability for any claim relating to the Service is limited to the greater of $100 or the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim. Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law, and this section does not limit our obligations under section 3.

11. Suspension and termination

You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate an account that violates these terms or creates risk for other users, and we will tell you why unless we are legally barred from doing so. On termination you may export your data, and 3.4's deletion terms apply. Sections that by their nature survive termination do so.

12. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, USA, without regard to conflict-of-law rules.

13. Contact

Questions about these terms, a district agreement, a records request, or a deletion request: admin@assignhq.org.

What changed in version 2026-08-02

Two corrections. Neither changes what the product does — the text had fallen behind it, in both cases by stating a stronger promise than we keep. (1) Section 3.4 said Privacy-class work was "never retained more than 45 days after the last submission." Work a teacher never files is locked at 45 days and deleted within 30 days after that, so the true ceiling is 75 days; the section now says so, and it is what our Privacy Policy and the product itself have said all along. (2) The summary at the top said we delete "including from backups," three lines above the clause admitting that backups expire on their own schedule. It now says deletion reaches backups as they expire, within days.