New Terms and Conditions for Teachers - Why?

[TimDaniel]

Privacy legislation, and the interpretation and enforcement of the legislation, has evolved since Simplegradebook was created in 2013.  At this time, it is important to bring the use of Simplegradebook into line with current privacy legislation.

To ensure that compliance with privacy laws, teachers need to review the applicable privacy legislation in their jurisdiction and determine if their use of Simplegradebook complies with them.  In general, it is important to understand who the owner or custodian of the student private information is.  The information is typically owned by your school district, but may in some cases be owned by the school (eg. a private school) or even the teacher (eg. a private music teacher).

Authorization to Store Student Information

Up to now, Simplegradebook has not been asking teachers whether or not they are authorized to store student information in Simplegradebook; that will change with the new terms and conditions on February 1, 2026. On your first login after that date, you will be asked to read through the new terms and confirm that you are authorized to store student information in Simplegradebook. If you are not authorized, either do not use Simplegradebook, or anonymize the private student information.

Anonymized Information

You may choose to anonymize the information as an alternative to confirming you are authorized. For example, when adding students to your classes, instead of entering

Albert Einstein 245367 

you could enter a code such as

E763A Student 1

or a completely randomized letter/number combination code and keep a written key to who has been assigned which code.

If you have already entered students into a class and need to anonymize them, use the Students button beside the class to edit the student information. 


Students will still be able to access their grades and reports through the access code.  However, when printing reports, you may have to manually write names and student numbers on the reports if there is a report collation process at your school, and students will need to be given an access code for each class they are in.

For Simplegradebook Pro users, it is important to ensure that any communications with students using the messaging system do not contain any information that could be used to identify the student. A note about this will be added to the student acceptance of the terms, but keep in mind that students may not read them.

Simplegradebook recognizes that these new privacy protection requirements may result in teachers no longer being able to use the service efficiently, or at all.  If you have paid for Simplegradebook Pro, and the new terms and conditions prevent you from using it, please email your request for a refund to info@simplegradebook.ca.