Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are a legal agreement between you and Education Management Studio (d/b/a “EMStudio,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). By creating an account, accessing, or using EMStudio, you agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy.

If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use EMStudio. If you are using EMStudio on behalf of a school, district, or other organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that organization to these Terms.

2. Eligibility

EMStudio is intended for use by teachers, tutors, and education professionals who are at least 18 years old. By creating an account, you represent that you are at least 18 years of age and have the legal capacity to enter into this agreement.

Students do not create accounts on EMStudio. Teachers enter student data into the platform as part of their educational workflow. For details on how we handle children's data, see our COPPA Compliance page and Section 5 below.

3. Account Registration & Security

To use EMStudio, you must create an account via email or OAuth (Google, Microsoft, Apple). You agree to:

Provide accurate and complete registration information
Keep your login credentials confidential and not share them with others
Notify us immediately if you suspect unauthorized access to your account (see our Security practices for how we protect your account)
Accept responsibility for all activity that occurs under your account

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms, are used fraudulently, or remain inactive for an extended period (with advance notice).

4. Description of Service

EMStudio is an education management platform that helps teachers organize classes, manage student records, plan lessons, track grades and attendance, and collaborate on curriculum. The platform includes:

Class management: create and organize classes, schedules, and semesters
Student records: track student information, grades, attendance, and notes
Lesson planning: create, organize, and share lesson plans and units
AI assistance: optional AI-powered lesson planning tools (see Section 7)
File storage: upload and attach documents, images, and other files
Data export: download all your data at any time

We offer both free and paid subscription tiers. Feature availability and usage limits vary by plan. See our pricing page for current plan details.

5. Teacher Authority & Student Data

This is important

This section establishes the legal framework for how student data is handled in EMStudio. Teachers are responsible for ensuring they have proper authorization to enter student data.

Your authority to enter student data

By entering student data into EMStudio, you represent and warrant that:

You have authority under your school's policies, applicable law, or both, to input student information into an education management tool
Any required parental consents have been obtained through your school's own consent process
You will not enter special category data (health, disability, religion, ethnicity) beyond what is educationally necessary
You will comply with all applicable student privacy laws, including FERPA and the FTC's COPPA Rule, as applicable to your institution

COPPA school authorization

Under the FTC's COPPA school authorization exception, schools may authorize teachers to use education technology services on the school's behalf, provided the data is used solely for educational purposes. By using EMStudio, you represent that you are acting within the scope of this authorization.

Our commitments regarding student data

EMStudio commits to the following regarding student data entered by teachers:

We will not sell or rent student data to anyone, for any reason, ever
We will not use student data for advertising or behavioral targeting
We will not build profiles about students for non-educational purposes
We will not use student data to train AI models (ours or any third party's)
We will only use student data to provide the EMStudio service as directed by the teacher
We will delete student data when the teacher requests it or closes their account

These commitments are part of our 12 Privacy Commitments. For full details on what data we collect, how we process it, and your rights, see our Privacy Policy.

FERPA alignment

If your school designates EMStudio as a “school official with legitimate educational interest” under FERPA, we are prepared to accept that designation via a Data Processing Addendum. Student education records remain the property of the school at all times. See our FERPA compliance page for full details.

Parental access

Parents may request review or deletion of their child's data through the school or teacher. EMStudio will cooperate with any such request directed to us at info@emstudio.pro.

6. Your Content & Data Ownership

You own your data. All content you create in EMStudio — lesson plans, notes, grades, student records, uploaded files — belongs to you (or your school, in the case of student education records). We do not claim ownership of any content you create or upload.

You grant EMStudio a limited, non-exclusive license to host, store, display, and transmit your content solely for the purpose of providing the service to you. This license terminates when you delete the content or your account.

You can export all your data at any time from Settings. When you delete your account, we permanently remove all your content within 30 days. For details on data retention and deletion, see our Privacy Policy.

7. AI Features

EMStudio offers optional AI-powered lesson planning assistance. By using these features, you understand that:

No student data is sent to AI: Our AI features only receive lesson-level metadata (title, subject, class name, and a sanitized content preview). Student names, grades, attendance, parent contacts, and all other student data are never sent to any AI provider.
AI output is not advice: AI-generated lesson content is a starting point, not professional pedagogical advice. You are responsible for reviewing, editing, and adapting any AI output before using it in your classroom.
No training on your data: Your lesson content and student data are never used to train, fine-tune, or improve any AI model. See our privacy commitments for more.
Third-party processing: AI requests are processed by OpenRouter (routing to Google Gemini) under a zero-retention policy.
You can opt out: AI features can be disabled entirely from your profile settings at any time.

For complete details on what data reaches the AI and our privacy safeguards, see our Privacy Policy and Transparency page.

8. Acceptable Use

You may use EMStudio to:

Manage classes, students, lessons, grades, and attendance for educational purposes
Create and organize curriculum and lesson plans
Upload educational materials and documents
Use AI tools to assist with lesson planning

You may not use EMStudio to:

Violate any applicable law, regulation, or third-party rights
Upload or distribute malware, viruses, or harmful code
Attempt to gain unauthorized access to other users' accounts or data
Scrape, crawl, or automated-access the platform without permission
Use the platform for commercial purposes unrelated to education (e.g., marketing lists)
Upload content that is illegal, defamatory, harassing, or sexually explicit
Circumvent security measures, rate limits, or access controls
Impersonate another person or misrepresent your affiliation with an organization
Resell, redistribute, or sublicense access to the service

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate this acceptable use policy, with or without notice depending on the severity of the violation.

9. Subscription, Billing & Refunds

EMStudio offers free and paid subscription plans. For paid plans:

Billing: Subscriptions are billed monthly or annually through Stripe. By subscribing, you authorize us to charge your payment method on a recurring basis.
Free trial: New accounts receive a 30-day free trial of paid features. No payment information is required to start a trial. At the end of the trial, your account automatically transitions to the free plan unless you subscribe.
Cancellation: You may cancel your subscription at any time from Settings. Access to paid features continues through the end of your current billing period. Your data is never deleted upon cancellation.
Refunds: We offer refunds on a case-by-case basis for recent charges. Contact us at info@emstudio.pro.
Price changes: We will notify you at least 30 days in advance of any price increases. Existing subscriptions continue at their current rate until the next renewal after the notice period.

10. Intellectual Property

The EMStudio platform — including its code, design, features, branding, documentation, and all related materials — is owned by Education Management Studio and is protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws.

These Terms do not grant you any right to use our name, logo, trademarks, or branding in any way without our prior written consent.

Your content remains yours. We do not claim intellectual property rights over the lesson plans, notes, or other materials you create in EMStudio.

11. Third-Party Services

EMStudio integrates with and relies on third-party services to operate:

Authentication: Google, Microsoft, and Apple sign-in via OAuth
Payments: Stripe for subscription billing
AI: OpenRouter (Google Gemini) for lesson planning assistance
Analytics: PostHog and Google Analytics (with consent)

These services have their own terms and privacy policies. We are not responsible for the practices of third-party services. For a complete list of all vendors that process your data, see our Sub-Processors page. Schools may also request a Data Processing Addendum governing third-party data flows.

EMStudio may also display links to external websites or embed content (e.g., YouTube videos, Google Docs). We do not control these external services and are not responsible for their content or privacy practices.

12. Service Availability & Modifications

We strive to keep EMStudio available and reliable, but we do not guarantee uninterrupted access. The service may be temporarily unavailable due to maintenance, updates, or circumstances beyond our control.

We may modify, add, or remove features at any time. For significant changes that materially affect your use of the service, we will provide reasonable advance notice. We will never remove core functionality (classes, students, lessons, grades, attendance) without a migration path for your data.

13. Warranty Disclaimer

EMStudio is provided “as is” and “as available” without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.

We do not warrant that:

The service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure at all times
AI-generated content will be accurate, complete, or appropriate for any specific educational context
The service will meet all of your specific requirements

EMStudio warrants that we will not repurpose student data, will not train AI models on student data, will not sell or rent data, and will maintain reasonable security measures as described in our Security page. See our Transparency page for a plain-language breakdown of how your data flows through our systems.

14. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, EMStudio's total cumulative liability to you for all claims arising from or related to these Terms or your use of the service is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the 12 months preceding the claim, or (b) $100 USD.

In no event will EMStudio be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including but not limited to loss of data, loss of profits, or interruption of service, regardless of the theory of liability.

EMStudio is not liable for the accuracy of data entered by teachers. Teachers are responsible for the content they input, including student records, grades, and notes.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages. In such jurisdictions, our liability is limited to the greatest extent permitted by law.

15. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless EMStudio and its officers, directors, and employees from any claims, damages, losses, or expenses (including reasonable attorney's fees) arising from:

Your violation of these Terms
Your use of the service in a manner not authorized by these Terms
Entering student data without proper authorization or consent
False representations regarding your authority to enter student data

EMStudio agrees to indemnify you from claims arising directly from our breach of the security commitments described in our Security page or from our unauthorized repurposing of student data in violation of these Terms.

16. Termination

By you

You may terminate your account at any time by using the “Delete Account” option in Settings, or by contacting us at info@emstudio.pro. Upon deletion, your data will be permanently erased from our systems and all sub-processors within 30 days. Before deleting, you can export your data from Settings.

By EMStudio

We may suspend or terminate your account if you materially violate these Terms, use the service fraudulently, or engage in conduct that harms other users or the platform. Where possible, we will provide notice before termination and an opportunity to export your data.

Effect of termination

Upon termination, your right to use the service ceases immediately. Sections that by their nature should survive termination will survive, including ownership, warranty disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, and dispute resolution.

17. Dispute Resolution & Governing Law

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the United States. Any dispute arising from or relating to these Terms or the service will first be attempted to be resolved through good-faith negotiation between the parties.

If negotiation fails, disputes will be resolved through binding arbitration in accordance with the rules of the American Arbitration Association, except that either party may seek injunctive relief in a court of competent jurisdiction to protect intellectual property rights or prevent irreparable harm.

Class action waiver: You agree that any dispute resolution will be conducted on an individual basis and not as a class action, consolidated action, or representative action. You waive any right to participate in a class action lawsuit or class-wide arbitration.

If you are located in the EU, nothing in this section limits your right to bring a claim before the courts in your country of residence or to file a complaint with your local data protection authority. For details on your rights under European law, see our GDPR Compliance page.

18. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we make material changes, we will notify you via a notification in the app and update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page.

Your continued use of EMStudio after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms. If you do not agree with the changes, you should stop using the service and delete your account. We will never change these Terms in a way that is less protective of student data without providing at least 30 days' advance notice.

19. Contact

For questions about these Terms of Service:

Education Management Studio
d/b/a EMStudio
Email: info@emstudio.pro