Privacy Policy

Last updated September 18, 2026 · last reviewed for accuracy September 18, 2026

IEP Navigator is built and operated by Casey, a Minnesota school counselor, as a tool to help parents and guardians organize and understand their child's special education records. This page explains what information the app collects, how it's used, and who -- if anyone -- it's shared with.

Who this applies to

IEP Navigator accounts are created and used by adult parents or guardians. The app is not directed at children, and children are not expected to create their own accounts or interact with the app directly -- any information about a child (name, disability category, IEP or other document contents) is entered by their parent or guardian, on their own behalf, to manage their child's records.

What we collect

When you create an account, we collect your name, email address, and a password (stored as a one-way hash -- we never store or can see your actual password). When you add a child to your account, we store the information you choose to enter about them, which may include their name, disability category, IEP goals and services, meeting dates, and any documents you upload, such as IEP PDFs, evaluations, or written correspondence. If you subscribe to a paid plan, payment is handled entirely by Stripe (see below) -- IEP Navigator never receives or stores your card number.

How we use it

Your information is used to run the features you're using: storing and organizing your child's documents, tracking deadlines, generating the AI-assisted tools available on a paid plan (such as drafting letters or summarizing a document), and sending you email reminders you haven't disabled. We don't use your data to train AI models, and we don't build advertising profiles from it.

Who we share it with

IEP Navigator does not sell your information, and there are no advertising, third-party analytics, or data-broker integrations in the app. The only traffic measurement anywhere in the app is an anonymous count of page visits to the public marketing pages (not anything inside your logged-in account) -- just a path and a timestamp, no IP address, cookie, or account tied to it, so there's no way to tell "who" visited from it, only "how many." It's never shared with anyone and never leaves this app.

Separately, from within your own account, you can choose to invite another parent or guardian ("co-parent access") to a specific child's full record -- documents, goals, deadlines, everything you can see yourself. This is entirely your own choice to make or not make for each child; IEP Navigator doesn't initiate or suggest it, and you can revoke it at any time. It's a sharing decision you're making, not a third party IEP Navigator is sharing your data with -- but worth naming plainly here since it's a real way another person can end up with access to your child's information.

Beyond that, information is shared only with the specific services needed to run the features you use:

• Stripe processes payments for paid subscriptions. Stripe receives your billing information directly; IEP Navigator never sees or stores your card number.
• Anthropic's Claude API powers every AI-assisted feature in the app, whether or not the specific feature requires a paid plan (for example, drafting a letter, extracting information from an uploaded document, summarizing your state's special education law, or translating a document). When you use one of these features, the relevant document text or information is sent to Anthropic's API to generate the result. This includes two free-tier features specifically: quick translated document summaries (a limited number per month, currently 15) and full-document translation (a separately limited number per month, currently 3) -- both go through the same Claude API as the paid translation and extraction features.
• Outgoing emails (deadline reminders, account emails) are sent through a standard email delivery service configured for the app. For the emails you receive directly, that service sees only the email address and message content needed to deliver the email, and nothing more. Separately, Casey receives an automated, encrypted database backup by email on a recurring schedule (an admin-side operational backup, not something tied to your specific account or actions) -- the same email delivery service relays that message too, but the backup attachment itself is encrypted before it's ever handed to the service, so the service itself cannot read its contents.

Your data, your choices

You can export a copy of your account's data at any time from the Export Data page in your account. You can also delete your account and everything in it yourself, immediately, from your account settings -- every child you own, their documents, and every record under them is permanently removed as soon as you confirm, not queued for later. If you own a child that you'd shared with a co-parent, deleting your account deletes that child's data for both of you, not just your own access to it -- there's no way to remove yourself while leaving the child's record in place for the other parent. (If you only have co-parent access to a child someone else owns, deleting your own account just removes your own access; the child and their data stay with the parent who owns them.) If you'd rather have us do it for you, or run into any trouble doing it yourself, email iepnavigator.net@gmail.com instead.

Security

Passwords are stored as one-way hashes, not plain text. The app is served over HTTPS. As with any online service, no method of storage or transmission is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable, standard precautions to protect your information.

A note on access

As a small, early-stage service, Casey may access account or document data directly -- for example, to troubleshoot a problem you've reported, or to set up a hardship or partner account. This isn't automated or routine monitoring; it happens in response to a specific need, and the same discretion applies as would with any sensitive family record.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes in a way that meaningfully affects how your information is handled, we'll update the "last updated" date at the top of this page. Significant changes will also be noted for users with an active account. Separately, the "last reviewed for accuracy" date means we've rechecked every claim on this page against how the app actually works right now, even on a period where nothing needed to change.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or a request related to your data, can be sent to iepnavigator.net@gmail.com.