Terms of service

AltEd provides tools for organising alternative education: student profiles, curricula, lessons, assignments, resources, a shared calendar, tutoring sessions, and a billing ledger between families and providers, including card payments processed by Stripe. AltEd is a software platform — we are not an education provider, a tutoring agency, or a party to the arrangements you make with each other.

• You must be at least 18 to open an account. Learner profiles are managed by their guardian. A learner's own sign-in, if their guardian gives them one, is set up, changed and removed by that guardian, who is responsible for how it is used.
• Keep your sign-in methods (email, passkeys, linked accounts) secure — you're responsible for activity on your account.
• Give us accurate information, and keep your email address current so service messages reach you.

AltEd connects home-educating families with tutors and education providers, but the relationship — including safeguarding checks, qualifications, the content and quality of teaching, and where and how sessions happen — is between you. Families are responsible for satisfying themselves about the providers they engage; providers are responsible for meeting the legal and professional obligations that apply to their work with children.

• Providers set lesson prices; completed sessions raise charges, and credits go through an approval step. The ledger records the position between a family and a provider — it is a record of your arrangement, not a debt owed to or guaranteed by AltEd.
• Card payments are processed by Stripe under Stripe's own terms; Stripe's standard processing fees apply and are passed through transparently.
• Disputes about what is owed are between family and provider. The shared transaction history exists to make those conversations short.
• Subscription fees for paid plans are billed in advance and are non-refundable except where the law says otherwise. You can cancel any time; access continues to the end of the paid period.

The records you create — student profiles, plans, notes, resources, ledger entries — remain yours. You grant us the limited licence needed to store, display and process them to provide the service, and you're responsible for having the right to enter what you enter, particularly information about other people.

• Don't use AltEd for anything unlawful, or to harm, exploit or endanger any child.
• Don't attempt to access other users' data, probe or disrupt the service, or misrepresent who you are.
• Don't use the platform to send spam or scrape its content.
• In messages: no abuse, threats, slurs or sexual content; don't ask for a child's own contact details, pictures of a child, secrecy from their parents or time alone with them; don't ask anyone for a password or sign-in code, or for payment by gift card, cryptocurrency or a money-transfer service.

Messages are screened as they are sent. A message that breaks these rules may be held before it is delivered, or removed afterwards, and the person who sent it is told why. A flagged message is read first by AI, which delivers or removes it only when it is sure and otherwise passes it to AltEd's moderators; only a person decides anything about a child's safety, and only a person warns, restricts or suspends anyone. Conversations that move off AltEd — to a phone, WhatsApp or email — can't be seen or moderated by AltEd, and you carry on there at your own risk.

When these terms are broken, AltEd's moderators may warn you, stop you sending messages for a time (a day, a week or 30 days), or suspend your account — immediately and without notice where a child's safety or the platform's security is at risk. You are told why. A suspended account can see only the reason and can appeal once: an upheld appeal lifts the suspension, and a rejected appeal is final. We may also close accounts in line with the law.

AltEd is in active development. Features may change, improve or occasionally be withdrawn, and while we aim for high availability we don't guarantee uninterrupted service. We'll give reasonable notice of material changes that affect paid plans.

To the extent the law allows, AltEd is provided 'as is', and our total liability to you is limited to the amount you've paid us in the twelve months before the claim. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited, including for fraud or for death or personal injury caused by negligence. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales.

Questions about these terms? Email us at info@alted.ac.