Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (the "Terms") are an agreement between Pear Spark LLC ("Pearspark," "we," "us") and the school or organization that creates a Pearspark account (the "school," "you"). By creating an account or using the Pearspark service (the "Service"), you agree to these Terms on behalf of your school, and you confirm you have the authority to do so.

Staff, guardians, volunteers, and students who use the Service do so under accounts the school creates or invites, and must also use the Service consistently with these Terms. Our Privacy Policy and, for schools that execute one, our Data Processing Addendum ("DPA") are part of this agreement. If a school and Pearspark sign a separate written agreement, that agreement controls where it conflicts with these Terms.

Pearspark is school-management software for small private schools, micro schools, classical schools, and homeschool co-ops — enrollment, attendance, gradebooks and report cards, lesson planning, scheduling, health and behavior records, admissions, financial aid, family communication and portals, volunteer scheduling, and tuition billing. We improve the Service continually and may add, change, or retire features; we won't materially reduce the core functionality your subscription covers without notice.

• Your school controls who has access and what each person can see and do. You are responsible for the accounts you create, the permissions you assign, and for deactivating people who leave.
• Everyone must keep their credentials confidential. Tell us promptly at support@pearspark.com if you suspect unauthorized access.
• You are responsible for the accuracy and lawfulness of the information your school enters, including having any consents your state requires to store student records with a service provider.

The subscription is billed monthly per school, priced by enrolled student count: $50/month covering the first 20 students, then per student per month: $2.50 for students 21–100, $2 to 300, $1.50 to 600, and $1 beyond. Staff, parent, and volunteer accounts are unlimited and free. Current pricing is always on our pricing page.

• Payments are processed by Stripe. There are no setup fees and no long-term commitment.
• If we offer your school a trial or negotiated pricing, the terms stated in that offer apply.
• We may change standard pricing with at least 30 days' notice to your school's administrators; changes take effect at your next billing period after the notice period.
• If payment fails, we'll notify you and retry. We may suspend access to the Service for continued non-payment, after notice — your data is not deleted by a suspension.
• Fees are exclusive of any taxes you are required to pay.

Schools can invoice families and accept online payments through the Service. That relationship is between the school and the family:

• Online tuition payments run on the school's own Stripe account, which the school connects and controls. The school — not Pearspark — is the merchant of record for tuition, sets its own prices, discounts, aid, and refund policies, and is responsible for its obligations to families.
• Pearspark charges the school a small platform fee on online tuition payments (currently 0.5% unless we agree otherwise), shown in the school's billing settings and applied at checkout. Stripe's own processing fees are separate and are set by Stripe.
• Schools can also record offline payments (cash, check) at no fee.

Your school owns the data it and its users enter into the Service ("School Data"). We process it only to provide the Service, as described in our Privacy Policy — we never sell it, never use it for advertising, and never use it with AI. Where School Data includes education records under FERPA, we act as a school official under your direction. You can export your data at any time, and our retention and deletion commitments (including the permanent-records snapshot kept so families can obtain transcripts if a school closes) are described in the Privacy Policy. Schools that want a signed DPA can request one at support@pearspark.com.

Using the Service, you and your users agree not to:

• break the law, or use the Service to harm or harass anyone;
• access another school's data, or any account or record you are not authorized to access, or probe or circumvent our security;
• upload malicious code, or interfere with the operation of the Service;
• scrape, resell, or sublicense the Service, or use it to build a competing product;
• send spam or unlawful communications through the Service's messaging features.

We may suspend accounts that put the Service or its users at risk, and we'll tell the school when we do.

Pearspark owns the Service — the software, design, and everything in it other than School Data — and grants your school a non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use it for your school's operations while subscribed. If you send us feedback or suggestions, we may use them to improve the Service without obligation to you.

The Service is built on the service providers listed in our Privacy Policy. Payments (both the subscription and online tuition) are subject to Stripe's terms. We are not responsible for services your school connects that we don't operate.

We work to keep the Service fast and available, but we don't promise it will be uninterrupted or error-free — maintenance, updates, and events beyond our control can cause downtime. Support is available by email at support@pearspark.com, and we take regular backups of School Data as described in the Privacy Policy.

• You can cancel anytime from your billing settings or by emailing us. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the period you've paid for; we don't bill you again after that.
• We may terminate or suspend the agreement for a material breach of these Terms that isn't cured within 14 days of notice — or immediately for serious abuse or a risk to other schools.
• After termination, you can export your School Data, and we return and/or delete it as described in the Privacy Policy.

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available." To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. The Service stores the records your school enters; your school remains responsible for its own educational, legal, and reporting obligations.

To the fullest extent permitted by law: neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or lost profits or revenues; and Pearspark's total liability arising out of the Service is limited to the subscription fees your school paid us in the 12 months before the claim. These limits don't apply to a party's infringement of the other's intellectual property, to your payment obligations, or to liability that can't be limited by law.

Your school will defend and indemnify Pearspark against third-party claims arising from School Data you enter, your use of the Service in violation of law or these Terms, or your tuition-billing relationships with families — except to the extent a claim results from our breach of this agreement.

If we make material changes to these Terms, we'll email your school's administrators at least 30 days before they take effect and update the date at the top of this page. Continuing to use the Service after that date means the school accepts the updated Terms; if you don't, you can cancel before they take effect.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the U.S. state in which Pearspark is organized, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules. Before filing any claim, both parties agree to try in good faith to resolve the dispute informally by contacting the other — most issues are fixable with an email.

Questions about these Terms: support@pearspark.com.