Privacy Policy
STEP Certified, a product of Tech Cleanup, Inc. Last updated August 15, 2026.
Who we are
STEP Certified is an online curriculum platform for K-12 schools, operated by Tech Cleanup, Inc. Schools adopt the platform; students use it through accounts tied to their school.
What we collect
- Account information: name and school email address, provided through your school's sign-in system.
- School affiliation and class enrollment.
- Learning records: lesson progress, quiz answers and scores, and certification exam results recorded by your school.
- Conversations with the built-in AI study coach and, for teachers, the lesson-authoring assistant.
- Display preferences, such as light or dark mode.
We do not collect payment information from students or families, and we do not show advertising.
How we use it
Student information is used only to provide the service: delivering lessons, tracking progress, powering study help, and reporting to the student's own school. We act as a school official with a legitimate educational interest under FERPA, at the direction of the school. We do not sell student information, use it for targeted advertising, or build profiles for any purpose outside the service.
AI features
The study coach and lesson tools send the relevant lesson text and conversation to an AI model provider to generate responses. Conversations are visible to the student's own teacher so they can support learning. AI providers process this data to provide the service and are not permitted to use it for advertising.
Service providers
We use a small set of providers to run the platform:
- Hosting and database: Railway.
- Sign-in: Clerk, using your school's Google Workspace accounts.
- AI responses: xAI.
- Email notifications: Resend.
- Embedded videos: YouTube and Vimeo players, which load only on lesson pages that include a video.
- Certification exams: Certiport and GMetrix, used by schools that offer Microsoft certification. These have their own consent process managed through your school.
Retention and deletion
Records are kept while the student's school uses the platform. Schools can request correction or deletion of their students' records at any time, and we honor those requests. When a school leaves the platform, its student records are deleted on request.
Security
Access to student records is restricted by role: students see their own work, teachers see their own students, and school staff see their own school. Data is encrypted in transit, and sign-in is handled by the school's own account system.
Parents and eligible students
Parents and eligible students can review the student's records through the school. See our Student Privacy and FERPA notice for details on rights and how consent works.
Children under 13 (COPPA)
STEP Certified serves elementary and middle schools as well as high schools, so some students are under 13. For those students, the school provides consent on parents' behalf under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act school-authorization rule, strictly for educational use. We collect from children only what the service needs (listed above), never use it for advertising or profiling, never sell it, and delete it at the school's request. Parents can review their child's information, or ask for it to be deleted, through the school at any time.
Changes and contact
If this policy changes in a way that affects student data, schools are notified before the change takes effect. Questions can be raised through your school, which can contact Tech Cleanup, Inc. directly.