Compliance Documentation
Built for district procurement.
This page is designed for district IT officers, curriculum coordinators, and procurement teams. It covers federal law alignment, state student-privacy statutes, E-Rate eligibility, and Plio's compliance position on each.
Last updated: May 2026
E-Rate Eligibility
Important clarification for district E-Rate coordinators
Plio Academy is a cloud-hosted educational software platform. It is not a telecommunications service, internet access provider, or telephone service. Plio is ineligible for E-Rate Category 1 funding by design — that category covers connectivity and telecom infrastructure, which Plio does not provide.
Category 1 covers broadband internet access, wide-area networking, and telephone services. Plio is not a telecom or connectivity provider and does not apply for or receive Category 1 E-Rate funding.
Category 2 covers internal connections, managed Wi-Fi, and — under certain district procurement structures — cloud-hosted educational software licensed as part of a qualifying managed services agreement. Districts should consult their E-Rate consultant to determine if a Plio subscription fits their Category 2 budget. Plio can provide SPIN numbers and service descriptions upon request.
Questions about how to structure a Plio contract for E-Rate review? compliance@plio.academy
State Student Privacy Laws
Five states with the most active student-privacy enforcement. All statuses as of May 2026.
| State | Law | Status |
|---|---|---|
| IL | SOPPA (105 ILCS 85) | Compliant |
| CA | AB 1584 (Education Code §49073.1) | Compliant |
| NY | Education Law 2-d | Compliant |
| TX | SB 820 (Education Code §32.151) | Compliant |
| WA | OSPI Student Privacy / RCW 28A.604 | Compliant |
Compliance determinations reflect Plio's platform practices as of the effective date above. This is not legal advice. Districts should have their own counsel review any contract.
FERPA — School Official Status
When districts contract with Plio Academy, Plio operates as a “school official” under FERPA (34 CFR §99.31(a)(1)(i)(B)) — a third party that performs an institutional service or function for which the district would otherwise use its own employees, under the direct control of the district with respect to the use and maintenance of education records.
- Student education records are used only for the educational purpose for which they were shared.
- Plio does not sell, trade, or transfer student education records to any third party for commercial purposes.
- Role-based access controls restrict teachers and administrators to only the records they are authorized to see.
- Every privileged access event is audit-logged with timestamp, user ID, and action.
- Districts may request a full export of their students' records at any time.
- FERPA-compliant data processing agreement available upon request.
COPPA — Operator Status & Parental Consent
Plio Academy is a COPPA operator. We have structured our platform so that children under 13 never create accounts directly. All student accounts are created and managed by a verified adult — either a parent/guardian (via guardian account creation flow) or a school administrator (via Clever rostering or admin provisioning).
- Verifiable parental consent mechanism: guardian creates and controls the student profile.
- Student profiles collect only first name and age range — no email, phone, address, or photo.
- No behavioral advertising or tracking pixels on student-facing pages.
- Schools acting under “school consent” exception: district admin provisioning satisfies COPPA consent requirement per FTC guidance when used for educational purposes.
- Guardians may withdraw consent and delete all data at any time with no penalty or waiting period for the request.
CIPA — Note for District IT
Plio Academy is not an internet content filter or filtering service. CIPA (Children's Internet Protection Act) requires schools to deploy internet filtering technology as a condition of E-Rate eligibility. Plio does not provide, replace, or interfere with your existing content filtering solution (e.g., Securly, GoGuardian, Lightspeed).
District IT teams should ensure Plio's domains (plio.academy and *.plio.academy) are allowlisted in their content filter so students can access lesson content. Plio does not expose students to unfiltered external internet — all lesson content is served from Plio's own infrastructure.
Need a DPA, FERPA Agreement, or custom documentation?
Our compliance team responds within 2 business days. We can provide signed DPAs, FERPA Data Processing Agreements, state-specific addenda, and references for district counsel.