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Privacy Policy

Website and Community Communications

Introduction

The Lake Stevens School District (LSSD) collects data when you visit our website and communicate with us through email, social media, and phone calls (including text messages). This page outlines our Privacy Policy and explains how we handle your data and the relevant state and federal laws that apply to personally identifiable information that you might provide in the course of navigating this site and communicating with our school district.

This Privacy Policy does not encompass information and communications that occur related to or derived from student records. Student record privacy policy is governed by the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and state laws (RCW 28A.605.030, RCW 42.56.230).

Data Collection and Use

When you browse this website, we may collect and store information about your visit to improve the services we offer:

  • The internet domain and network address you use to access our site;
  • The type of web browser and operating system you are using;
  • The date and time of your visit;
  • The pages you visit on this website;
  • The last website you visited before coming to ours; and
  • Other web traffic statistics.

If you volunteer information on our website such as participate in a survey, send us an email or text message, or perform some other transaction online, the following additional information may be collected:

  • If communicating by email, your email address and the contents of the email.
  • Personally identifiable information such as your email address and the information you volunteer through an online form or survey is collected, unless the form or survey is explicitly stated as being anonymous, in which case only your responses are collected.
  • Information volunteered through a request submitted to us to contact you.
  • Information provided through social media, including user or account names.
  • The phone number that you called or texted from and the contents of any text message sent.

For the most part, we save what you send us. The information collected is not limited to text characters and may include audio, video, and graphic information. Any emails, text messages, or public, private, or direct messages that you send to us may be used to respond to issues and to further improve our services. We may forward your email or other communication to another agency or a vendor for appropriate action.

The records retention schedules mandated by the State of Washington require us to keep this information for a limited time period, after which time it may be destroyed.

Personal Information

Personally Identifiable Information ("PII"), as used in this Privacy Policy, means information about a natural person that is readily identifiable to that specific individual. PII includes such things as your name, address, and phone number.

We will not collect PII about you unless you voluntarily provide it to us by sending us an email or text message, communicate with us through social media or send us messages through social media, include the PII in a communication to us, or provide PII by completing an online form or survey that is not explicitly described to you as anonymous. You may choose not to contact us by email or text message or to provide any PII using an online form or survey or any other means. Your choice to not participate in these activities will not restrict your ability to access information provided on our web site; nor while it prevent your use of our social media pages or other resources. If you choose to provide PII by any means such as emailing or texting us, messaging us, participating in a non-anonymous survey that collects your PII, or completing an online form, we may store this information.

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) governs information gathering online from or about children under the age of 13. We are especially concerned about protecting children's privacy. Under COPPA, a website must get parental permission before collecting PII about a child under the age of 13.

Disclosure of PII to Third Parties

We will not sell your data to third parties. We do not use or share your data for marketing purposes. Our communications with you under the scope addressed by this policy are either “conversational” or “customer care” and not for marketing.

We may share data with trusted third-party service providers that we work with to provide specific services that support our operations. We require that these third-party service providers comply with privacy regulations.

We will comply with any court order that requires and directs disclosure of PII. We will provide PII to law enforcement as required by law.

Consent, Opt-in

When you send us “inbound” communications by text, email, or other means of communication, or you provide your contact information in a form or survey that is not described as anonymous, we consider your inbound communication or contact information submission as consent for us to reply to you or contact you in regards to the communication or information you sent us.  

Public Access to Information

In Washington state, laws exist to ensure that the government is open and to ensure that the public has a right to access appropriate records and information possessed by your government. At the same time, there are exceptions to the public's right to access public records that serve various needs including the privacy of individuals. Both federal and state laws provide exceptions to public access.

As a public agency, all our information is governed by laws such as Washington's Public Records Act RCW 42.56. Information you send us may become a public record, and it may be subject to public inspection and copying if not otherwise protected by federal or state law.
Information collected through the use of this site may be public information and subject to inspection and copying by members of the public. For example, the Public Records Act states that:

Each agency, in accordance with published rules, shall make available for public inspection and copying all public records, unless the record falls within the specific exemptions of subsection (6) of this section [RCW 42.56.070(6)], Chapter 42.56 RCW , or other statutes which exempts or prohibits disclosure of specific information or records. To the extent required to prevent an unreasonable invasion of personal privacy interests protected by Chapter 42.56 RCW, an agency shall delete identifying details in a manner consistent with Chapter 42.56 RCW when it makes available or publishes any public record; however, in each case, the justification for the deletion shall be explained fully in writing.

In the event of a conflict between this Privacy Policy and the Public Records Act or other law governing the agency's disclosure of records, the Public Records Act or other applicable law will control.

Correcting Personally Identifiable Information

We have procedures for correcting inaccurate information and you can request corrections to PII that you believe are inaccurate (RCW 43.105.365).  Send your request for corrections to our email address at tellus@lkstevens.wednet.edu. We will do our best to make corrections following receipt of your written request that demonstrates a factual error.

User Tracking and Customization of Pages

To better serve our users, we use a variety of indicators to customize your browsing experience with our website, including "cookies." If your browser is configured to block all cookies this could affect the availability and functionality of this website. We only have control over indicators we provide and not over third-party tools or other technologies deployed on this website that may be created by using embedded third-party applications.

Security

LSSD has taken steps to safeguard the integrity of its data and prevent unauthorized access to information maintained by us. These measures are designed and intended to prevent corruption of data, block unknown or unauthorized access to our systems and information, and to provide reasonable protection of information in our possession.

LSSD uses Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure as the primary protocol used to send data through our website and, whenever sensitive information is being shared, data is encrypted using SSL/TLS.

In case of any data breach we will comply with all applicable laws. We will attempt to inform anyone that has had any PII compromised of the nature and extent of the data breach if we have contact information for the individual(s) that have had their PII exposed.

Copyright

This site contains text, artwork, photos or other content that is copyrighted by LSSD or by others and is being used with permission of the copyright holder. Therefore, we recommend that you contact LSSD for permission to use any content contained on this site by emailing your request to tellus@lkstevens.wednet.edu.

Disclaimer

Neither the Lake Stevens School District, nor any officer, or employee of LSSD, warrants the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of any information published by this system, nor endorses any content, viewpoints, products, or services linked from this system, and shall not be held liable for any losses caused by reliance on the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of such information. Portions of such information may be incorrect or not current. Any person or entity who relies on any information obtained from this system does so at their own risk.

Our website contains links to other websites. These include links to websites operated by other government agencies, nonprofit organizations and private businesses, including but not limited to the websites of our vendors. When you follow a link to another site, you are no longer on our website and this Privacy Policy will not apply. You will be subject to the privacy policy of that new site.

Reference in this website to any specific commercial products, processes, or services, or the use of any trade, firm, or corporation name is for the information and convenience of the public and does not constitute endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the LSSD or its officers, employees or agents.

LSSD reserves the right to revise and update this Privacy Policy at any time without notice by posting the revision on our site.

Glossary

A "network address" or "IP address" is a numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. In other words, it's a way to identify your computer while accessing the internet and based on that automatically assigned address by an internet service provider, your location can be determined.

"Cookies" are small data files stored on your computer or smartphone when you visit a website. Cookies and similar technologies are widely used by websites to make them work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the website operator about how users are using their website. Most browsers allow you to block cookies by adjusting the "settings," "preferences" or "internet options." To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, please refer to your browser 'help' section.