Terms & Conditions

1. Who These Terms Are Between

These Terms of Service (the "Terms") are an agreement between Montessori Digital Studio ("MDS", "Provider", "we", "us"), the operator of the software platform available at https://www.montessorids.com (the "Platform"), and the person or organization using the Platform ("you").

If you use the Platform on behalf of a school or other organization, you accept these Terms for that organization, and you represent that you are authorized to bind it. In that case "you" means the organization. If you accept as a parent or guardian, you accept on behalf of your household, including the children whose profiles you manage.

You accept these Terms by ticking the acceptance box in checkout when you purchase, or, for accounts created without a purchase, by selecting the accept option when signing in. Purchase pages link to these Terms, the Privacy Policy, and the Refund Policy before payment is taken. We record the version you accepted and when; if the Terms change materially you will be asked to review and accept the new version at your next sign in. Student sign-ins are shown a simplified notice instead: a minor cannot accept these Terms, and does not need to, because the school's or the parent's acceptance covers the student's use.

2. Accounts and Account Types

The Platform offers several account types, including school administrator, teacher, and student accounts for schools, and family, adult learner, and kids memberships for households. What each membership includes is described on the register page and in your plan at purchase.

You are responsible for all activity under your accounts and for keeping credentials confidential. Accounts and credentials may be used only by the individual they were issued to and may not be shared outside your school or household, or used to give any third party access.

Student accounts are operated under the responsibility of the school or the parent or guardian who created them. Schools and parents must have the authority, and where required the consent, to create profiles for their learners.

3. Your License to Use the Platform

While your membership is active and paid (or covered by an arrangement we have made with you in writing), Provider grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable license to access and use the Platform for your own internal educational purposes, within the seat limits and features of the plan you purchased.

This license does not include rights that are sold separately, such as the PDF Print Library or white-label branding, unless they are active on your account.

4. Intellectual Property

The Platform and all of its content, including software, lesson guides, digital materials, printable materials, illustrations, 3D models, audio narration, text, translations, curricula, layouts, trademarks, and the "Montessori Digital Studio" name and logo, are and remain the exclusive property of Provider and its licensors, protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws.

No ownership rights are transferred by these Terms. Except for the limited licenses stated here, all rights are reserved. You may not remove or alter copyright, trademark, attribution, or license-identification notices, including notices embedded in printed output.

You retain ownership of the information you enter into the Platform (rosters, names, school branding, and similar "Your Data"). You grant Provider a limited license to host and process Your Data solely to provide the service.

5. Acceptable Use

You must not: (a) resell, rent, lease, or provide the Platform or its content to any other institution or the public; (b) reverse engineer, decompile, scrape, crawl, or copy the Platform or any substantial portion of its content; (c) probe or circumvent security, seat limits, or content protections; (d) use the Platform to develop a competing product; or (e) upload unlawful, infringing, or harmful content.

Provider may suspend accounts that it reasonably believes violate this section, after notice where practicable.

6. Materials, Printing, and the PDF Print Library

Digital lessons, lesson guides, and materials may be used only within your own school with enrolled students and assigned staff, or within your own household, according to your membership type.

Printing rights are not included in any membership by default. They are granted only by the PDF Print Library add-on, and only under the PDF Print License, which is a part of these Terms. In short: printed materials are for use in your own classrooms or household, they remain with the school or household that purchased them, they may not be passed to other schools, to staff for personal use, or to parents, and they must be disposed of when the subscription ends. The full PDF Print License is presented for acceptance when the add-on is active on your account.

Downloading, copying, or printing Platform content without an active PDF Print Library add-on, or outside the license terms, is a material breach of these Terms.

7. Student Data and Privacy

Provider only requires minimal student information (such as a first name or alias and a login identifier) to operate student profiles. Do not enter more student personal information than necessary; aliases or initials are encouraged for young learners.

As between the parties, data relating to students remains the property of the school, or of the students' parents or guardians, as applicable. Provider processes it solely to provide the Platform, does not sell it, does not use it for advertising, and does not disclose it except as required to operate the service (such as hosting infrastructure) or as required by law.

Schools are responsible for obtaining any consents or providing any notices required by the laws that apply to them (including, in the United States, FERPA and COPPA, and elsewhere, applicable data protection laws such as GDPR) before creating student profiles. Our Privacy Policy, published on the Platform, describes our data practices in more detail, including our COPPA direct notice describing exactly what is collected from child users.

Where Provider acts as a 'school official' with a legitimate educational interest under FERPA, or as a processor with respect to student records, it does so under the school's direction and control as described in this section. Provider uses student records only to perform the services the school has requested, does not re-disclose them except as the school directs or the law requires, and returns or deletes them on the school's written request as described below.

Children's data authorization. Opening any account that can hold student profiles (school, family, and kids memberships) requires a separate, confirmed authorization covering children's data; an adult learner membership has no student profiles and gives no such authorization. The account holder confirms it during account acceptance, agreeing that: (a) if the account holder is a parent or legal guardian, they consent to the collection and use of their child's information as described in the Privacy Policy; and (b) if the account holder acts for a school or institution, the school is authorized to consent on parents' behalf for educational purposes under COPPA, has provided parents the required notice, and will pass through parents' requests to review or delete their child's information. The purchase transaction at signup and this recorded confirmation together establish the consent; the confirmation, its version, and the time are recorded on the account. Student profiles may not be created, and student logins may not be used, until this authorization has been confirmed for the current version of these Terms.

During child (student) sessions the Platform loads no third-party advertising or analytics services. Technical data such as IP address and browser type is collected from student sessions only to keep accounts secure and the service operating (support for internal operations).

Upon written request following termination of your membership, Provider will delete your student records within 30 days, except where retention is required by law.

8. Billing, Renewals, and Refunds

Memberships are billed yearly through our payment processor and renew automatically at the end of each term unless cancelled beforehand. Prices, seat counts, and add-ons are those shown at purchase or in a written quote we issued to you.

Adding seats mid-term: when an administrator adds users beyond the seats included in the plan, you authorize Provider to charge the payment method on file, at the seat rates published at purchase, prorated so the charge covers only the remainder of the current term. The exact amount is shown for confirmation before the seat is added, and the added seats are then included at the full rate in each renewal until removed.

Where a paid seat is deactivated mid-term, any credit is applied on a prorated basis rather than paused. Refunds are handled according to the Refund Policy published on the Platform. You are responsible for any taxes that apply to your purchase, other than taxes on our income.

9. Pilot Program

If your school's access was granted under a Pilot Program Agreement, that agreement governs your use of the Platform during the pilot term, and controls over these Terms wherever the two overlap. These Terms apply in full from the moment the pilot converts to a paid membership, or whenever you use features outside the scope of the pilot.

10. Service Availability and Changes

Provider will make commercially reasonable efforts to keep the Platform available and to respond to support requests by email. Maintenance, updates, and feature changes may occur at any time; Provider will not materially reduce the core functionality of a paid plan during a paid term.

11. Disclaimer of Warranties

THE PLATFORM IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE", WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, OR UNINTERRUPTED OPERATION.

Educational content is provided for instructional support and does not replace your professional judgment about your curriculum or your students.

12. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, NEITHER PARTY WILL BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, REVENUE, OR DATA, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THESE TERMS, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

PROVIDER'S TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID FOR THE PLATFORM IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM. NOTHING IN THESE TERMS LIMITS LIABILITY THAT CANNOT BE LIMITED BY LAW.

13. Suspension and Termination

You may stop using the Platform and cancel renewal at any time. Provider may suspend or terminate access immediately if you materially breach these Terms, including exceeding seat limits, redistributing materials, or misusing credentials, and otherwise may terminate with notice effective at the end of your paid term.

Upon termination or expiration of your membership: access ends, the disposal obligations of the PDF Print License apply to any downloaded or printed materials, and Sections 4 through 7 and 11 through 15 survive. Your data is retained for a reasonable reactivation window (at least 30 days), after which Provider may delete it; you may request earlier deletion in writing.

14. Changes to These Terms

Provider may update these Terms from time to time. When the changes are material you will be asked to review and accept the new version at your next sign in before continuing to use the Platform. The version you accepted, and when, is recorded on your account.

15. General Terms

These Terms, together with your plan or ordering document, the PDF Print License where active, and any Pilot Program Agreement where applicable, are the entire agreement between the parties about the Platform. If any provision is found unenforceable, the remainder stays in effect. Failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without Provider's consent; Provider may assign them in connection with a merger or sale of the business.

Notices to you go to the administrator or account email on file; notices to Provider go to the support email published on the Platform.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, USA, excluding its conflict-of-laws rules, and the parties consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in California for disputes that cannot first be resolved informally between the parties.

Electronic acceptance: the parties agree that electronic acceptance and records satisfy any requirement that this agreement be in writing and signed, in accordance with applicable e-signature laws (including the U.S. E-SIGN Act).