Indian Mountain School Website Privacy Policy

This document explains how Indian Mountain School collects and handles information from candidates, their families, students, alumni, and others who interact with Indian Mountain School through our website, www.indianmountain.org, including our publicly accessible web pages and our user-authenticated web portal.  

Indian Mountain School is committed to protecting the personal information of the entire Indian Mountain School community. Although our community is global, we use our best efforts to comply with data protection laws regardless of where our constituents find themselves.  We try to collect only the information necessary to fulfill      the purpose for which it is collected – whether that’s for admissions, enrollment, serving active students and alumni, or for staying connected with all those who desire to remain within the Indian Mountain School community.

Indian Mountain School is grateful for your trust.  We wish to be transparent about the types of data we collect from you, how it is stored and used, how it might be shared, and what if any rights and choices you may have with respect to your personal data.  Please read carefully.

The What, When, and How of Collecting Your Personal Data

Indian Mountain School collects and processes personal information when you consider and apply for admission, while you are enrolled, and beyond graduation, if you desire. You provide this information directly to us via text fields, online forms, and other uploads through our website, as well as through email, phone calls, and online surveys.

Prospective and Enrolled Students:

During the admissions period and while enrolled at Indian Mountain School, we collect personal data about the student and their family for the purposes of:  evaluating the candidate and properly placing them if accepted, making financial aid decisions, caring for and educating the student, and communicating with students and families in the event of emergency and to keep them abreast of what is happening on campus.  To fulfill these purposes we collect the following categories of data:

  • Biographical information (including student and parent/guardian name, address, phone number, email, as well as student gender, date of birth, citizenship, etc.)
  • Parental/household information (including parent or guardian occupation, child’s primary residence, and caregiver(s) for communication, billing, and safety purposes) 
  • Emergency contacts, not including parents/guardians (including name, phone number, and email address in case of emergency)      
  • Scholastic, academic and programmatic information (such as academic, athletic, and extra-curricular records, as well as information about personal interests, writing samples, and narrative responses to interview or application questions)
  • Financial information (to evaluate financial aid requests, process tuition, etc.)
  • Online survey responses (on issues pertaining to campus and academic life)

As part of admissions and enrollment processes, we may gather or receive information about the student from other sources where appropriate and authorized (such as      medical/educational, standardized tests, etc.).  We receive and process such data pursuant to your agreements with service providers, and in furtherance of your agreements with us and pursuant to our legitimate interests in assessing your application and continued enrollment.  For information on the privacy practices of such third parties, please consult your agreements with them and their own privacy policies. 

Indian Mountain School staff who receive and process personal data related to admissions may include:  Admissions office, Head of School’s office, alumni office, technology office, business office, academic office, Dean of Students office, Health Services, and the Admissions Committee (which consists of Admissions officers, faculty, and administrators who review applications).     

Without this personal data, Indian Mountain School cannot process a student’s application or enroll them, or maintain their enrollment.  If we request any personal data that is not necessary for us to fulfill our agreements and policies related to these processes, we will first tell you why we are requesting it and also get your consent to collect and process it.    

Alumni and Friends:

Membership in the Indian Mountain School community extends beyond graduation.  Through the efforts of our alumni office, we keep alumni, friends, and parents connected with us and one another, in ways that suit their personal preferences. 

In this context, Indian Mountain School might process your personal data for various reasons, including: 

  • Newsletters and bulletins about campus happenings
  • Inviting you to receptions, reunions, events or other gatherings
  • Promoting projects and opportunities to support the school (by volunteering, giving, and so forth)
  • General fundraising
  • Online surveys to gauge the opinions and preferences of our community on various topics impacting the Indian Mountain School community
  • Promoting alumni services          

To fulfill these purposes we collect these categories of data:

  • Biographical information (such as name, address, phone number, email, gender, date of birth)
  • Giving history
  • Event attendance
  • Online survey responses
  • Secondary School/High School
  • College/University 
  • Occupation/Employment  

Indian Mountain School staff who receive and process this personal data may include the alumni office, business office, admissions office, technology office, communications office, and Head of School’s office.      

Data We Get from You Indirectly through Your Use of Our Site

In addition to the information that you submit to us directly, Indian Mountain School collects information about you whenever you interact with our website.  For example, we may collect your browser name, the type of computer being used, and technical information about your means of connection to our site, such as the operating system and the Internet service providers utilized and other similar information.

Yes, This Includes Cookies     

Our website may use “cookies” to permit the site to perform, to provide security, and to enhance your experience. Web browsers place cookies on a user’s hard drive for record-keeping purposes and sometimes to track information about the user. You may choose to set your web browser settings to refuse cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. If you do so, note that some parts of the site may not function properly.               

For more information on cookies and your options for managing them, visit https://www.ftc.gov/site-information/privacy-policy/internet-cookies. For information on targeted or “interest-based” advertising and your options for limiting such tracking or to “opt out” of interest-based advertising across browsers and devices from companies that participate in the Digital Advertising Alliance or Network Advertising Initiative opt-out programs, please visit their respective websites. If you opt out, you will still receive ads but they may not be as relevant to you and your interests, and website services may be degraded.

How We Might Share Your Data

Indian Mountain School uses cloud-based software for running the school in an efficient manner.  Most data, including personal data, is stored in these systems.  Indian Mountain School uses these systems for security, reliability, and usability.  We never sell or share your data to third parties for their use.  We keep control over your data through our vendor contracts and require that service providers use your data for Indian Mountain School purposes only.

Indian Mountain School will not otherwise disclose your personal data without your consent to do so, except:

  • to comply with applicable laws and regulations, to respond to a subpoena, search warrant or other lawful request for information we receive, or to otherwise protect our rights;
  • under certain circumstances, in response to valid requests by public authorities, including for instance to meet public health, national security, or law enforcement requirements; or
  • for purposes of research and development where your data is combined with all or some of the personal data of others and such aggregated data is de-identified or otherwise anonymized and no longer contains personally identifiable data.

Indian Mountain School requires recipients to comply with the terms of this Privacy Policy and all applicable data privacy and security laws.

In the unlikely event we discover that a recipient is using personal information in way that conflicts with this Privacy Policy, we will take all reasonable steps to stop them.

Cross Border Transfers

Indian Mountain School processes school data, including data submitted through our website with respect to your admissions application and enrollment contract, within facilities located in the United States.  Although the laws of this jurisdiction may provide data protection different than your particular jurisdiction, Indian Mountain School implements appropriate measures and safeguards to ensure that personal data is transferred, processed, and protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable data protection and security laws.

Under some circumstances, we may need to transfer personal data from one jurisdiction to another, including to jurisdictions where the laws provide different protection than the jurisdiction from which the information was derived. In any such case, we will take appropriate measures to ensure that personal data is transferred, processed, and protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy and all applicable data protection and security laws.

How We Protect Your Data

We have implemented commercially reasonable security safeguards to protect your personal data against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification. Methods of protection include: physical measures (e.g., locked filing cabinets and restricted access to offices); organizational measures (e.g., security clearances and limiting access on a “need-to-know” basis); and technological measures (e.g., the use of complex passwords and encryption of data at rest and in transit). 

Where Indian Mountain School engages third parties to process personal data on its behalf for school purposes, they do so based on written instructions, are under a duty of confidentiality, and are obliged to implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure the security of data.

How Long We Keep Your Data

Indian Mountain School will hold and process your personal data only for as long as reasonably necessary to carry out the purposes for which you submitted the data unless applicable law requires a longer period or a longer period is necessary in order to protect our rights or the rights of others. 

Children Under 13

Although Indian Mountain School’s mission is to serve learners in Pre-K through grade 9, and although in fact our students including those under 13 maintain parent/guardian-approved, user-authenticated access to our student web portal, our public-facing web pages are intended for use by students aged 13 or older and their parents and guardians.  They are not in any way designed for children under 13. If we discover that a person under the age of thirteen (13) has submitted personal data to our website without the properly verified consent of their parent or guardian, or that someone has inappropriately done so on their behalf, we will delete such information from our databases as soon as practicable and in accordance with applicable law.

Your Rights and Choices

Under some circumstances there are a number of rights that you may seek to exercise with respect to your personal information. For example, you may be entitled to:

  • access and obtain one copy of your data on request in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format;
  • request that we transmit to a third party the data that we have received directly from you (as opposed to data that we may receive about you from sources other than you), provided the data processing in question is based on the enrollment contract and is being carried out by automated means; 
  • request that we change incorrect or incomplete data;
  • request that we delete or stop processing your data under certain circumstances and subject to certain limitations, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected;
  • object to the processing of your data where we are relying only on either the necessity of public interest or our own legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing your data; and
  • ask us to restrict processing your data for a period under certain circumstances, for example if you are contesting the accuracy of your personal data or if there is a dispute about the lawfulness of certain processing.

If you wish to exercise any of the rights described above, please do so by contacting us as described below.  We will attend to your request promptly and will respond within a reasonable time.  

If you are dissatisfied with our handling of your request, we ask that you give us the opportunity to resolve the issue; however, you may have a right to lodge a complaint with the data protection authority where you are located.   

Contact Us

Should you have any questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy or our collection or use of your personal information, please contact us by email at privacy@indianmountain.org or by mail at 211 Indian Mountain Road, Lakeville, CT, 06039.

Changes

We may make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make changes to this Privacy Statement that we believe will materially affect your rights, we will notify you by email about these changes and post a notice to the website and change the “Last Updated” date above. If you continue to use our website after we provide such notice, you are agreeing to accept these changes. Otherwise, for non-material changes, the Privacy Policy will be updated on the website. You should consult this Privacy Policy regularly for any changes.  We will take reasonable measures to obtain your consent where required by applicable privacy laws.