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Privacy Policy

Effective date: April 30, 2026  ·  Last updated: April 24, 2026

River of Life Christian School (“ROLCS,” “we,” “our,” or “us”) is a Christ-centered K–8 school located in Benton Harbor, Michigan. We are committed to protecting the privacy of our students, families, donors, employees, and website visitors. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have.

This policy applies to riveroflifeschool.org and all related subdomains, services, and online interactions with ROLCS (collectively, the “Services”).

1. Information We Collect

a. Information you provide directly

We collect information you give us when you interact with our Services. Depending on how you engage with ROLCS, this may include:

  • Enrollment applications — prospective student’s name, date of birth, grade level, parent/guardian contact information, academic history, and any information requested by the application (via Gravity Forms)
  • Inquiry and contact forms — name, email, phone number, and message content
  • Employment applications — name, contact info, résumé, work history, references, and any information required by the role you are applying for
  • Volunteer applications — name, contact info, availability, relevant background information
  • Event registrations and RSVPs — name, email, number of attendees, and any special requirements you share (via The Events Calendar)
  • Donation forms — name, billing address, email, phone, donation amount, fund designation, and payment card/ACH information (processed by Click and Pledge — see “Third-Party Services” below)
  • School store purchases — name, billing and shipping address, email, phone, order details, and payment card information (processed by WooCommerce Payments / Stripe)
  • Newsletter signups — email address and optional name; managed through Mailchimp and/or MailPoet
  • School portal accounts — administrators, teachers, parents, and (with parental consent) students may have login accounts in our school operations portal (WPSchoolPress) containing records such as attendance, grades, assignments, timetables, and role-based dashboards

b. Information collected automatically

When you visit our website, we and our service providers may automatically collect certain technical information, including:

  • IP address, approximate geographic location, browser type, device type, operating system, and referring URL
  • Pages viewed, time on page, and navigation patterns (via Jetpack’s built-in site analytics, which are first-party and do not follow you around the web)
  • Cookies and similar technologies (see Section 4 below)
  • Server logs maintained by our host, Automattic / WordPress.com, for security and performance monitoring

c. Information from third parties

We may receive information about you from service providers we use — for example, payment confirmations from Stripe or Click and Pledge, or bounce-back information from email providers — as needed to deliver the Services you’ve asked for.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

  • Administer enrollment and deliver educational services to our students
  • Respond to inquiries, contact requests, and applications for enrollment, employment, or volunteering
  • Process donations, issue tax receipts, and acknowledge gifts
  • Fulfill school-store orders and provide customer support
  • Manage event registrations and communicate event details
  • Operate the parent/teacher/student portal, including attendance, gradebooks, timetables, and school communications
  • Send newsletters, fundraising appeals, and school updates (with your consent where required)
  • Improve our website, programs, and donor stewardship
  • Ensure the security and integrity of our Services
  • Comply with legal, accreditation, accounting, and regulatory obligations

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use student information for targeted advertising.

3. How We Share Your Information

We share personal information only as needed to operate the Services and as permitted or required by law:

  • Service providers — the third-party services listed in Section 5, each under contractual or platform obligations to protect your information
  • Donor-record management — donation information processed by Click and Pledge syncs to our Salesforce CRM, where authorized ROLCS staff maintain donor records
  • Legal, safety, and compliance — when required by law, subpoena, or court order, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of students, staff, or others
  • With your consent — for any other purpose we describe to you at the point of collection

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it with unrelated third parties for their own marketing purposes.

4. Cookies and Similar Technologies

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:

  • Essential cookies — required for login sessions, school-portal access, shopping-cart functionality, donation checkout, and security (e.g., anti-fraud protection from Akismet and Jetpack)
  • Analytics cookies — Jetpack’s first-party analytics collect aggregate information about how visitors use the site; this data is not sold and is not used to track you across other sites
  • Payment and donation cookies — temporarily set by Stripe, WooCommerce Payments, and Click and Pledge during checkout/donation to process transactions securely

You can manage or disable cookies in your browser settings. Note that disabling certain cookies may prevent features like the school portal, checkout, and donations from functioning correctly.

5. Third-Party Services We Use

We rely on reputable third-party platforms to operate our website, process payments, and manage school communications. Each has its own privacy policy governing how they handle the data we share with them.

Hosting, security, and site analytics

  • Automattic / WordPress.com — website hosting, backups, security scanning, and infrastructure. See automattic.com/privacy.
  • Jetpack — site analytics (Stats), spam filtering (Akismet), image/font optimization proxy, and downtime monitoring, provided by Automattic under the same policy linked above.
  • Google Fonts — our site uses the Montserrat typeface; font files are served through Automattic’s proxy at fonts-api.wp.com, so no direct requests are made from your browser to Google.

Donations and donor management

  • Click and Pledge — processes online donations, including recurring gifts and fund designations. See clickandpledge.com/privacy-policy.
  • Salesforce (Nonprofit Cloud) — our donor, parent, and community CRM. Donation records from Click and Pledge are automatically synced here. See salesforce.com/company/privacy.

School store and payments

  • WooCommerce — powers our school store and order management.
  • WooCommerce Payments / Stripe — processes card payments for store purchases. Stripe is a PCI-DSS-compliant payment processor. See stripe.com/privacy.

Forms, events, and email

  • Gravity Forms — stores submissions from enrollment, contact, volunteer, and employment forms on our own website database. Submissions are not transmitted to Gravity Forms as a company.
  • The Events Calendar Pro — manages event listings, RSVPs, and ticketing; event data is stored on our website.
  • Mailchimp (Intuit) — email newsletters, event invitations, fundraising appeals. See intuit.com/privacy.
  • MailPoet — internal email management (optional alternate to Mailchimp). See mailpoet.com/privacy-notice.

School operations portal

  • WPSchoolPress Pro — powers parent, teacher, and student logins, attendance, gradebook, and timetables. All portal data is stored on our own hosting environment.

6. Children’s Privacy (COPPA)

Because ROLCS serves students in grades K–8, many of our students are under the age of 13. We comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and take the protection of students’ personal information seriously.

  • We collect personal information from students under 13 only with verifiable parental consent, typically obtained through the signed enrollment packet.
  • Student data is used solely for educational, school-administrative, and safety purposes.
  • We do not use children’s data for behavioral advertising, profiling, or any marketing purpose unrelated to the School.
  • Parents and legal guardians may at any time review the personal information we have collected from or about their child, ask us to correct or delete it, or refuse further collection by contacting us using the information in Section 13.
  • Photographs, student work, or directory information are shared only in accordance with consent given during enrollment; parents may update these preferences at any time.

7. Educational Records (FERPA)

Student education records maintained by ROLCS are protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Parents (and eligible students) have the right to:

  • Inspect and review the student’s education records
  • Request correction of records believed to be inaccurate or misleading
  • Consent in writing to the disclosure of personally identifiable information, except where FERPA authorizes disclosure without consent (for example, to school officials with legitimate educational interests)
  • File a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education concerning alleged failures to comply with FERPA

Requests to review or correct education records should be directed to the school office.

8. Data Security

We use a combination of technical, administrative, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information, including:

  • TLS/SSL encryption on all web traffic
  • Automated real-time backups and malware scanning through our WordPress.com Commerce hosting
  • Role-based access controls on our school portal and administrative systems
  • PCI-DSS-compliant payment processing handled entirely by Stripe and Click and Pledge — payment card numbers are never stored on our servers
  • Limited data access, granted only to staff and volunteers who need it to perform their duties

Despite our efforts, no method of transmission or storage over the internet is 100% secure. We encourage you to choose strong passwords for any portal accounts and to notify us promptly if you suspect unauthorized access.

9. Data Retention

We retain personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Policy, to comply with legal, tax, and accounting obligations, and to resolve disputes. Representative retention periods include:

  • Student education records — retained according to FERPA and applicable Michigan state requirements
  • Donation records — retained for at least seven (7) years, consistent with IRS guidance for charitable contributions
  • Newsletter subscriptions — retained until you unsubscribe or request deletion
  • Contact and inquiry submissions — typically retained for two (2) years after last contact
  • Employment applications — retained for two (2) years for candidates not hired; retained as part of personnel files for those who are hired
  • School-store orders — retained as required by tax and commercial-record laws

10. Your Rights and Choices

Depending on your relationship with the School and your state of residence, you may have the following rights:

  • Access, correction, and deletion — you can ask us what information we have about you, correct inaccuracies, or request deletion (subject to retention obligations described above)
  • Opt out of marketing emails — every newsletter and fundraising email includes an unsubscribe link
  • Cookie controls — manage cookies through your browser settings
  • Parental rights — review, correct, or delete your child’s personal information under COPPA/FERPA (see Sections 6 and 7)
  • California residents — under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA), you may have additional rights including the right to know, delete, correct, and opt out of any “sale” or “sharing” of personal information. ROLCS does not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.
  • Other state residents — other U.S. states have begun enacting comprehensive privacy laws; to the extent those laws apply to ROLCS, we will honor the rights they grant you

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details in Section 13. We will respond within the time required by applicable law (typically 30 to 45 days).

11. Links to Other Websites

Our website may link to third-party sites (for example, our social media profiles, partner organizations, or news articles). We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites and encourage you to review their privacy policies.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time as our Services, legal obligations, or technology change. When we make material changes, we will post the updated Policy here with a new “Last updated” date and, when appropriate, notify you by email or through the school portal.

13. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us:

River of Life Christian School
Attn: Privacy Officer — [PRIVACY OFFICER NAME]
671 McAllister Street
Benton Harbor, MI 49022
Email: privacy@riveroflifeschool.org
Phone: (269) 757-7549

For requests specifically regarding a student’s records (COPPA or FERPA), please reference “Student Privacy” in the subject line so we can route your inquiry appropriately.