Policies & Disclaimers for Professional Learning Events

These policies & disclaimers apply to all ISACS professional learning events (virtual & in-person)

Community of Learners Policy
All registrants and/or attendees acknowledge and agree that as a member of ISACS learning community, they will enter as a listener, learner, and thoughtful contributor, and will abide by all policies set forth by the association. ISACS intent is to provide an easily accessible learning experience, promoting each attendee’s full participation in a space where it is safe to share perspectives, ideas, and questions. Professional, collegial communications are required at all times.

Registration and/or attendance constitutes agreement that the registrant’s and/or attendee’s image or voice may be used in, but not limited, to photographs, videos, electronic reproductions, and/or audio recordings, to be shared on ISACS website, social media, or via an on-line resource page/link shared with authorized users.

Unauthorized Recording and/or Use of AI Software/Applications Prohibited Policy
ISACS prohibits the recording or reproduction of any professional learning events, including presenter and attendee comments, presenter resources, or any other supplementary resources. Creating any form of recording, including but not limited to video, audio, or photography, is a violation of the intellectual property rights of the presenter and a violation of ISACS participation policies. ISACS further prohibits the use of artificial intelligence (AI) (e.g. transcription software, or other AI tools, whether a feature of the videoconference platform used to access the event, or separate tool, to summarize, transcribe, or record the event. ISACS reserves the right to disable any AI software enabled by a participant on its learning event platform. Anyone who violates this prohibition without the express permission of ISACS and the presenter(s) of the event may be subject to liability for such prohibited use.

Health & Safety Policy
Participation at an in-person ISACS event signifies an attendee’s acknowledgement of infectious and other diseases and voluntary assumption of the risk of exposure or infection. Attendees agree to comply with all guidelines and procedures, including but not limited to distancing and/or masking, which may be implemented by ISACS during an event, in accordance with recommendations from the CDC and other public health authorities. Please know that masks are not required at this time; however, ISACS is a mask friendly environment.

Recordings & Resources Disclaimer
The recording of this event, and the accompanying resources, are provided solely for the use by registrants, and registered attendees, schools, and their school’s community for the purpose of professional learning. Recordings and resources will be provided only to those who have registered and/or attended the event and should not be shared. If needed, ISACS will provide instructions on how to access recordings and resources. By accessing the recording and resources, you are notified that these recordings and resources must not be copied or distributed to anyone not registered for this specific event and/or those outside of your school community. Access to recordings will be time limited; deadlines will be provided by ISACS.

Adhering to this policy allows ISACS to offer extended listening opportunities to facilitate a more flexible schedule in support of our member schools and other attendees. Unauthorized use or distribution of these recordings and resources outside the terms set forth is a violation of the intellectual property rights of the presenter and a violation of ISACS participation policies. Anyone who violates this prohibition without the express permission of ISACS and the presenter(s) of the event may be subject to liability for such prohibited use.

Zoom Attendance & Recordings Disclaimer
Upon entering the Zoom, attendees will acknowledge the following: I acknowledge and agree that as a member of ISACS learning community that I will enter this event as a listener, learner, and thoughtful contributor, and will abide by all policies set forth by the association. And if recorded, my attendance constitutes agreement that my image or voice may be used in photographs, videos, electronic reproductions, and/or audio recordings of this event, to be shared on ISACS website, social media, or via an on-line resource page/link shared with authorized users. I further understand that any unauthorized recording, posting, or redistribution of any part of this event, including attendee comments and supplementary resources is strictly prohibited. Lastly, I understand and acknowledge that if I do not adhere, ISACS may remove me from the Zoom and from future ISACS events.

Consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act, ISACS provides reasonable accommodations to qualified participants. If reasonable accommodation is necessary for participation, please contact programinfo@isacs.org.

ISACS legal counsel has reviewed these policies. | June 2025

ISACS Privacy Policy

The Independent Schools Association of the Central States (“ISACS,” “we,” “our,” or “us”) values your privacy. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, share, and protect your personal information when you visit www.isacs.org, participate in ISACS programs, or interact with us in any way.

1. Information We Collect

We collect information in the following ways:

• Information You or Your Organization Provides Directly: When you contact us, fill out a form, register for an event, complete a survey, create an account (or your organization creates one for you), we may collect information such as but not limited to your name, title, school or organization, email address, phone number, and mailing address. 
• Payment and Transaction Information: When you make payments (e.g., for membership dues, events, or resources), we collect necessary billing details. Payment information is processed securely by third-party providers and is not stored by ISACS.
• Automatic Data Collection: Our website may use cookies, analytics tools, and similar technologies to understand usage patterns and improve site performance. These technologies collect non-identifiable information such as IP address, browser type, and device data.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use your information to:

• Provide and manage ISACS programs, services, and events.
• Communicate important updates, resources, and opportunities.
• Maintain accurate member and school records.
• Respond to your inquiries or requests.
• Improve our website, programs, and services.
• Comply with legal obligations.

3. How We Share Information

ISACS takes your privacy seriously. We do not sell, rent, or share member contact lists, educator information, or any personal data with third-party marketers, advertisers, or unrelated organizations.

However, in limited and mission-aligned circumstances, ISACS may share directory information with:

• Sponsors and exhibitors participating in ISACS conferences or events;
• Association partners collaborating on professional development programs;
• Vendors providing services on ISACS’s behalf (e.g., event registration platforms, email systems), bound by confidentiality agreements.

When directories are made available to sponsors or exhibitors, they are provided solely for use in connection with ISACS events or initiatives and may not be used for general marketing or solicitation outside of those contexts.

4. Your Privacy Choices and Rights

You have the right to:

• Access the personal information we maintain about you.
• Make corrections to inaccurate or outdated information.
• Request Deletion of your information, subject to retention requirements.
• Express any concern you have about our use of your data.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at info@isacs.org or call (312) 750-1190.

You may also opt out of marketing or newsletter communications by using the “unsubscribe” link included in ISACS emails.

5. Data Security

We use industry-standard administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect your information from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction.

Sensitive data, such as payment information, is encrypted during transmission using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology. Access to personal data is restricted to staff who need it to perform specific responsibilities, such as membership, event management, or billing.

6. Data Retention

ISACS retains your personal information only as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and maintain appropriate records for operational and historical purposes.

7. Third-Party Links

Our website may include links to third-party websites or platforms (such as payment processors or event registration systems). ISACS is not responsible for the content or privacy practices of those sites. We encourage you to review their privacy policies before providing any personal information.

8. Updates to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect changes in our practices or applicable laws. Updates will be posted on this page with a revised “Effective Date.” Significant changes may also be communicated via email or website notice.

9. Contact Us

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

Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS)
55 West Wacker Drive, Suite 701
Chicago, IL 60601
Email: info@isacs.org
Phone: (312) 750-1190

Complaint Policy

Independent schools are structured in such a way that there are many levels at which to resolve a concern or complaint. It is likely, therefore, that a person or persons with complaints about a school will be able to resolve any concerns with a school at one level or another at the school itself. Accordingly, ISACS will not file or investigate complaints unless all means of appeal have been exhausted at any given school.

A person or persons who believe they were seriously wronged by a school may file litigation against a school or ask the police to investigate. ISACS will take no action on any complaint while the matter is under police investigation, litigation, or judicial consideration.

In the event that a complainant may have exhausted all avenues of communication at a school, and the matter is not under police investigation, litigation, or judicial consideration, the person may approach ISACS to review the issue by lodging a formal complaint. As an accrediting association, ISACS is concerned that each of its schools is acting in the best interests of its students and families as defined by the mission of the school and the standards of the association. Therefore, the association will hear complaints that contain substantially supported allegations of practices that could seriously violate the school’s mission, procedures, student life, and/or the association’s standards.

ACTIONS:

1.  ISACS is an accrediting body; thus, the only actions that ISACS can take resulting from a complaint are those pertaining to the school’s accreditation status. ISACS cannot redress a grievance resulting from a decision at a school or an action, or inaction.
2. When ISACS does take action on accreditation status, it usually does so as a result of a pattern of behavior, not an individual incident or series of incidents with one individual or family. Accordingly, in many cases the immediate action taken as a result of a complaint will be to put it on file and the school informed that a complaint has been filed. Further action may be taken at a later date if a pattern emerges. If previous complaints of a similar nature have been filed, action regarding accreditation may be taken right away. 
3. When ISACS does take action on accreditation status, it usually does so in incremental stages, first giving the school time to correct the procedures and practices or to meet the standards that are in question. The school is asked for a written course of action. ISACS then reviews the school’s response and determines whether it is sufficient to remedy the issue. If not, the school can be put on conditional accreditation, delayed accreditation, or, if no remedy is forthcoming, disaccredited.

PROCEDURES:

1. Oral complaints may be discussed with the ISACS director of accreditation at any time. ISACS will explain the policies and procedures outlined herein.
2. An official complaint must be made in writing and signed by the complainant. The complaint:

• Offers a detailed description of the situation giving rise to the complaint
• Identifies which standards for membership are implicated, with supporting explanation and/or documentation
• Verifies how the complainant pursued all avenues of communication at the school to achieve resolution
• Certifies that the matter is not under police investigation, litigation, or judicial consideration

3. To be considered, the signed complaint must be submitted to ISACS and a copy sent with delivery verification to the head of the school the complaint is against. ISACS will acknowledge all such complaints and an initial review will be made by the director of accreditation and executive director of ISACS.
4. If ISACS finds a complaint to be outside its policies and procedures for complaints, the complainant will be so informed. The decision may be appealed, in writing, to the executive committee of the ISACS board of trustees.
5. If the complaint appears to fall within ISACS policies and procedures for complaints, the head of the school at issue will be asked to respond to the complaint to ISACS.
6. On review of the response from the head of school, the ISACS executive director and director of accreditation will recommend to the Accreditation Review Committee (ARC) that (a) the matter be dropped, or (b) the complaint should be filed at the ISACS office and the school informed, or (c) (usually in cases where there is a pattern emerging at the school in question) the complaint will be referred to a special ARC committee for consideration.
7. If either step (b) or (c) is taken, a report will be made to the ARC at its next regular meeting after the consideration is completed. The complainant will be informed of any action taken by the ARC once it has been approved by the ISACS Board of Trustees. Any decisions may be appealed, in writing, to the executive committee of the ISACS board of trustees, whose word is final.

Updated January 2021

Principles of Good Practice in Admissions & Employment

Full membership and accreditation by ISACS of any member school shall imply the school’s observance, in spirit as well as in deed, of high professional and ethical standards in its relations with its students, faculty, and employees and with other schools, particularly when there may be overlapping interests between schools with respect to faculty employment, student enrollment, and the recruitment of both faculty and students. The following guidelines are based on the concept that our strength as independent schools is derived both from the diversity that exists among us and from the support and cooperation that we can give each other.

Admissions 
A school should not initiate contact with a student or family under contract with another independent school unless the student is at the highest grade level offered by the current school and would be seeking placement at a school at the next level. Schools should recognize the right of their students and their families to visit and consider other schools at any time and to hold preliminary discussions regarding admission without notifying the present school. No penalties on families considering other schools, such as withholding of enrollment contracts, shall be levied on families unless the family is already under contract.

In the process of filing application for admissions, the student’s family should authorize, preferably in writing, the release of a transcript and other pertinent data at the request of the school considering the applicant. Upon request, and as promptly as possible, a school should send such records to another school to which a student has applied.

A school should not offer a place to a student without first receiving an official transcript (or its equivalent) from the student’s present school. 

A school should make clear to admission candidates all dates pertaining to application procedures. A school should allow each accepted candidate a reasonable time to accept or reject an offer of a place.

If financial assistance is sought, the school should make clear to applicants all procedures and dates involved in financial aid determination.

The parents of an accepted applicant should be informed of the full costs of the forthcoming school year before being required to sign an enrollment agreement.

Employment 
A school should recognize the right of its employees to consider other professional opportunities that may be available after the expiration of a current contract period and to conduct preliminary discussions regarding employment without notifying the present school. It should also recognize the right of another school to advertise its forthcoming vacancies. A school may respond to contact initiated by the employee seeking a change in employment. An employee seeking employment elsewhere should have the right to expect a reference from the current employer that is thorough, honest, and fair.

Before a contract is tendered, the head of the school considering the candidate should inquire as to whether the prospective employee has made a contractual commitment to his/her current school and consult with the head of the candidate’s present school to secure a reference.

No head or other school representative should induce an individual to breach a contractual commitment to another school.

If it develops that, to secure employment with another school, an employee wishes release from a contract currently in effect, the employee should request the present head to grant such release, and the two heads should confer in the hope of reaching an agreement that will serve the best interests of both schools and the employee. In cases where such agreement is not achieved, the pre-existing contract should be honored.

These guidelines apply to ISACS schools’ treatment of all schools—public and parochial, as well as independent schools.

Implementation of these Principles 
The head of each school bears ultimate responsibility for fulfilling these principles of good practice.

Complaints between member schools concerning the implementation of these guidelines should be directed to the appropriate authorities of the school concerned and processed internally. As a last resort, advice and counsel may be sought from the ISACS Executive Director.

Revised November 2021

Web Accessibility Statement

The Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS) is committed to making its website accessible to visitors with disabilities and is continually working to increase its accessibility & usability.

ISACS.org strives to conform to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1. These recommendations outline how to make website content accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities.

We are on a regular basis seeking opportunities to bring all areas of the site up to the same level of overall web accessibility. If for any reason you cannot access any of the material on our website, please contact us at info@isacs.org and we will work to resolve the problem.

ISACS Biometric Information Privacy Act Policy

Independent Schools Association of the Central States (“ISACS”) collects certain biometric data from employees. This policy explains what information ISACS collects, how this information is used, how it is stored, safeguarded, retained, and disposed of.

Biometric Data Collected by ISACS 
“Biometric identifier” means a retina or iris scan, fingerprint, voiceprint, or scan of hand or face geometry. Biometric identifiers do not include writing samples, written signatures, photographs, human biological samples used for valid scientific testing or screening, demographic data, tattoo descriptions, or physical descriptions such as height, weight, hair color, or eye color. Biometric identifiers do not include information captured from a patient in a health care setting or information collected, used, or stored for health care treatment, payment, or operations under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.

“Biometric information” means any information, regardless of how it is captured, converted, stored, or shared, based on an individual’s biometric identifier used to identify an individual. Biometric information does not include information derived from items or procedures excluded under the definition of biometric identifiers.

ISACS is providing such biometric data to Association Technologies, Inc., a third-party technology provider that allows employees to utilize Windows Hello for Business as part of their assigned Windows computer. Such biometric data may be collected by face, eye, and/or finger or thumb print scanners for security verification purposes on Windows computers.

Consent to Collection 
An individual’s biometric data will not be collected or otherwise obtained by ISACS without prior written consent of the individual. ISACS will inform the individual of the reason for collecting any biometric information, and of the length of time the data will be stored. ISACS employees may be required to use ISACS’s scanners, which require use of a face, eye, and/or finger or thumb scan. Employees who elect to continue employment with ISACS consent to the collection, storage, and use of their biometric information for purposes of identification and security verification through Windows Hello for Business.

Privacy of Biometric Data 
ISACS stores all biometric data in accordance with applicable standards and laws. ISACS will not sell, lease, trade, or otherwise profit from an employee’s biometric data.

An employee’s biometric data will not be disclosed, redisclosed or disseminated unless the employee (or the employee’s legally authorized representative) consents, the disclosure or redisclosure is necessary to complete a financial transaction requested or authorized by the employee or their legal representative, the disclosure is required by law, or the disclosure is required by a valid warrant or subpoena. Biometric data associated with security verification on employee Window’s computers may be transmitted and stored via systems operated, maintained, and controlled by a third-party vendor.

Biometric data will be stored, transmitted, and protected using a reasonable standard of care for ISACS’s industry, in a manner that is the same as or that exceeds the standards of care used to protect other confidential information held by ISACS. This includes, among other things, restricting access to biometric data to authorized ISACS employees or vendors who have a business need to access the information, and using reasonable technological means to prevent unauthorized access to the information.

Retention and Destruction of Biometric Data 
ISACS will retain employee biometric data, and shall ensure that Association Technologies, Inc. permanently destroy such data either at the termination of the employee’s employment, or within 3 years of the employee's last interaction with ISACS.

Distribution and Updates
ISACS will update this policy if it begins collecting biometric data for any other purposes. ISACS reserves the right to amend this policy at any time.