STECK-VAUGHN COMPANY PRIVACY POLICY FOR POWER UP!^TM SITE USERS

This Site is offered by Steck-Vaughn Company as part of its POWER UP! Building Reading Strength reading program for middle-school students. The POWER UP! program uses books in print and CD form to enable students to improve their reading abilities. This Site provides additional reading activities coordinated with the POWER UP! books. This Site is only made available to schools who have purchased the POWER UP! program. Access to the Site is limited to the school administrators responsible for implementing the program, participating classroom teachers and their students. The school administrator establishes a password-protected account for each participating classroom teacher. Each classroom teacher creates a password-protected account for each of their students participating in the program. The only information provided by the teacher for a participating student is the name and school grade, along with the assigned Member ID and Password, which in the student's case may be a nickname or other identifier chosen by the student. The only other information relating to the student and associated with that student's name and Member ID is data generated by the student participation in the interactive learning activities offered on the Site for use by the teacher for student instruction and assessment.

The information provided or gathered with respect to students will be available only to the student, the classroom teacher, the student's parent or guardian and other teachers and school administrators within the school's or school district's subscription to the POWER UP! program.

In addition, teachers may post their students' book reviews in our Book Review area. Such book review postings are subject to the POWER UP! Terms of Use which specifically limit inclusion of any personal information about the student in, or in association with, such book reviews. Personal information which may not be posted includes first and last names, home or other physical address, e-mail address, telephone number or other information which, when used in combination with other information on the Site, would permit physical or online contacting of the student. In such book review postings, teachers may only include the student's first name and last initial and the state of the student's school to identify the author of the book review. The Site does not offer activities, such as chat rooms, message boards or e-mail accounts, that allow the student or the Site to disclose any personal information of the student publicly.

If you are an administrator or teacher submitting student materials to the Site or assigning Passwords and Member IDs to students, you acknowledge that you have received a signed parent permission letter from such students, and you accept responsibility for informing students' parents or guardians about the students' use of and access to the Site, the materials that students are submitting and the ways in which the materials may be used by us.

Steck-Vaughn cares about protecting the online privacy of teachers and their students. To let you know how we collect information through this Site and use such information, we have established the following Privacy Policy. Since this policy may change from time to time, please refer to it regularly.

This Privacy Policy applies only to this POWER UP! Website and information gathered through this Site and does not apply to any information otherwise provided by students, teachers and administrators to us, whether in connection with the POWER UP! program or otherwise. The POWER UP! Site meets the requirements of COPPA, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

Access to our Site is restricted to students, teachers and school administrators who use POWER UP! for school instruction. The only information provided to us is (i) the student's name and school grade along with the assigned Member ID and Password, (ii) data generated by the student's participation in interactive learning activities offered on the Site and (iii) book reviews created by the students and posted by the teachers which will only identify the student by the student's first name and last initial and the state of the student's school. The information provided with respect to students will be available only to the student, the classroom teacher, the student's parent or guardian and other teachers and school administrators within the school's or school district's subscription to the POWER UP! program.

Aside from any information you may actively disclose to us, there is other, less obvious, information which we might gain from you. Generally, we use such information for internal purposes, such as to improve the content of our Web pages.

Our system automatically gathers information about the areas you visit on our Site. We use this navigational information in the aggregate to understand how our members (be they teachers or K-12 students) as a group use our service, so that we can make our Site better. (We may also share this aggregate statistical information with our partners or other outside companies, but in doing so, we never disclose individual names or personal navigational information.) We may use "cookies" to recognize you and your access privileges on the Site, as well as to trace usage of the Site. A cookie is a piece of information that is sent to your Web browser from a Website and stored on your computer's hard drive. Each time you return to the Site, we are able to identify you as a previous or registered user. Cookies also enable us to measure the Site traffic, including the number of repeat versus new visitors, the time users spend online, and their navigation behavior. Collecting this information allows us to make changes that improve the Site.

We do not allow students registered on the Site to provide any direct personally identifiable information (for example, name, address, and telephone number information); all such information will be collected solely from teachers and/or parents and will generally be limited to the name of the student as part of a class list provided by the teacher to allow access to the Site to such students. Such personal information provided by teachers and/or parents will be available only to the teachers, the student, the school administrators and the student's parent or guardian. We will never otherwise share or use such information without prior teacher or parental consent.

In accordance with the Terms of Use for the POWER UP! Site, teachers and administrators who submit information about the students to the Site acknowledge that they have received a signed parent permission letter from such students, and have accepted responsibility for informing students' parents or guardians about the student's use of and access to the Site, the materials that students are submitting and the ways in which the materials may be used by us. The only other information relating to the student is data generated by the student's participation in the interactive learning activities offered on the Site for use by the teacher for student instruction and assessment.

Linking to other Sites is an integral part of the functionality of the Internet, including the POWER UP! Site. Any link to a page which displays a URL of a non-POWER UP! Site in the address window of your browser is a link to a Site outside of our service. These other Sites may send their own cookies to you, collect data or solicit personal information. Although we monitor the Sites that we link to, we cannot guarantee and are not responsible for the content of outside Sites. While Steck-Vaughn strives to protect the personal information and privacy of users of our POWER UP! Site, we cannot guarantee the security and privacy of any information you disclose at other Websites, and you do so at your own risk.

We take reasonable precautions to protect our users' information and we also do everything in our power to protect user information offline. Only authorized employees have access to sensitive information online. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific task, such as customer support, have access to users' personally identifiable information. To help protect your account, please keep your password secure.

We may disclose personal information when required by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary in order to conform to the edicts of the law or comply with a legal process served on our Website.

We will notify you directly via e-mail if there is a material change in our privacy practices. We will also post the changes in our Privacy Policy 30 days prior to a change.

By using this Site, you signify your assent to the POWER UP! Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use. If you do not agree with these policies, please refrain from using our Site. Your continued use of the POWER UP! Site following a reasonable notice of changes to these terms will mean you accept those changes. If you have questions or concerns regarding this Website's Privacy Policy and/or Terms of Use, please contact us via e-mail at: mrivas@steckvaughn.com.

mypowerup!.com is operated by Steck-Vaughn Company, a Delaware corporation, and unit of Harcourt Supplemental Publishers, which is one of the companies of The Harcourt Education Group, a worldwide leader in publishing for the K-12 school market. To learn more about our company, visit us at www.steckvaughn.com. Our general mailing address is:

Steck-Vaughn Company
PO Box 26015
Austin, TX 78755

Our toll-free phone and fax numbers are:
(800) 531-5015 (Phone)
(800) 699-9459 (Fax)

To contact us about privacy issues, please e-mail mrivas@steckvaughn.com.