The following policy applies to the Paws for Reading online activity located at www.scholastic.com/paws ( "Paws for Reading"). Paws for Reading is owned and operated by Scholastic Inc. and Scholastic Book Clubs Inc., both of which are located at 557 Broadway New York, NY, 10012 ("Scholastic" or "we", "us" or "our"). Paws for Reading is also subject to the Scholastic.com Privacy Policy located at www.scholastic.com/privacy.htm and the Scholastic Terms of Use located at www.scholastic.com/terms.htm. To the extent there is a conflict between the terms of this document and those of the Scholastic.com Privacy Policy or the Scholastic.com Terms of Use, this document governs. This document only describes information and use practices with respect to the Paws for Reading and THE STACKS areas of Scholastic.com; any information collection and use practices of any other area of Scholastic.com or any other Scholastic website are subject to the applicable privacy policy(ies) posted on such areas or sites.
Paws for Reading is a free reading program dedicated to encouraging kids to read more books. Kids read for either team Cat or team Dog and contribute their reading minutes to their team's tally on the Paws for Reading area of our site. Kids can track their teams' progress to see who is coming out ahead! For every twenty (20) minutes logged by students in 2012, Scholastic Book Clubs ClassroomsCare will donate a free book to a child in need through Paws for Healing, Reach Out and Read, Save the Children and/or Lisa Libraries. To participate in Paws for Reading, a child must be registered with a user name and password. All registered Paws for Reading participants can log and track their personal minutes read on a private page on the Paws for Reading site. Only total Cat or Dog team minutes are publicly posted on Paws for Reading.
Scholastic is committed to protecting the privacy and security of its online visitors and will not condition a child's participation in an activity on the disclosure of more information than is reasonably necessary to participate. Any personally identifiable information we collect from child users in connection with Paws for Reading will be used solely by Scholastic or its agents for internal purposes (such as calculating total minutes read by the child, sweepstakes administration and services related to the operation of our sites), and will not be sold or otherwise transferred to third parties. Information collected hereunder, including personally identifiable information, may be maintained and processed in the United States or other jurisdictions.
Under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), teachers may (but are not required to) act on behalf of parents by giving permission for students under 13 to provide personally identifiable information in connection with online school activities, subject to any applicable school or school district policies. For more information, see the FTC's guide How to Protect Kids' Privacy Online, A Guide for Teachers, located at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/tech/tec10.pdf.
Teachers who are registered and verified on Scholastic.com can sign their students up for Paws for Reading by going to www.scholastic.com/paws and logging in with their Scholastic.com teacher account user name and password. Teacher account information includes school name and address. Once teachers log in, they can set up new Paws for Reading accounts for their students via a web page. Teachers can register their class(es) in bulk by using an online tool to assign a set of new, randomly-generated unique user names and passwords from Scholastic, which will result in a set of randomly-generated unique passwords being assigned to such user names. No personally identifiable information is included in any of these user names or passwords. Teachers can add individual students to the class registration at any time.
To keep track of students' reading progress by name, teachers have the option to enter their students' first names and last initials in a password-protected list that is accessible to the teacher on the teacher's logged-in classroom profile page. Those names cannot be viewed by other users of Paws for Reading site, and are not stored in individual students' user accounts. If teachers choose not to enter first names and last initials for their students, they can only track minutes read by student user names.
When registering a class, a teacher will be asked to indicate grade level. This information is used only for the teacher to track minutes read by grade, if the teacher has classes in multiple grades. Grade level information is not stored in individual students' user accounts.
When students log in to Paws for Reading for the first time with the randomly-generated password assigned by Scholastic in bulk registration, they will be required to change that password to a new unique password. The new password is not provided to the teacher. We also ask users a security question when they change their passwords on the initial log-in, which will only be used to allow a user to sign in if he or she forgets his or her password. Neither the password nor the security question asks for personally identifiable information. These students are asked to indicate gender, age and the state or province and country of residence, but that information is stored anonymously and in the aggregate, not in students' user accounts. Once registered, students will have accounts on THE STACKS on Scholastic.com. For more information about THE STACKS, click here.
As part of this initial log-in, students have the option (but are not required) to log in with an existing STACKS user name and password instead of using the user name and password assigned during bulk registration. If the student does that, the teacher will be notified of the new user name via the teacher's logged-in bulk registration page, but not of the new password. Students are prompted to pick a team affiliation, either team Cat or team Dog, and each student's logged reading minutes will be added to the total minutes read by his or her team. The student's school information is also associated with the student's account, but not publicly posted in connection with the student's user name or Paws for Reading activity.
Once students start using Paws for Reading, teachers who registered them will see the date each student first logged onto the activity and the minutes read by each student on the teacher's logged-in Paws for Reading pages.
At the end of Paws for Reading on December 18, 2012, the child will continue to have a STACKS account, including user name and password, but we will disassociate the student's school information from that account.
Teachers' personal information submitted in connection with Paws for Reading will be handled in accordance with the Scholastic.com Privacy Policy.
For more information about Registration by Teachers, see our FAQs.
Children also have the ability to register directly for Paws for Reading. Children can log in with an existing STACKS user name and password or create a new account. Click here for more information about THE STACKS. Kids are then prompted to pick a team affiliation, either team Cat or team Dog, and each child's reading minutes are added to the total minutes read by his or her team.
If a child registers directly for Paws For Reading (that is, not through bulk registration by a teacher), then his or her teacher will have no access through the site to the child's individual reading progress.
THE STACKS is Scholastic's site about books and reading for tweens, where children can create profiles and communicate with other children about books, authors and other subjects of interest.
To create a STACKS account, a user creates an anonymous user name by picking a combination of words from drop-down menus. An auto-generated random number is added at the end to complete the username. As part of this process, the user also creates a password. We ask users a security question when they register, which will only be used to allow a user to sign in if he or she forgets his or her password. Neither the password nor the security question asks for personally identifiable information. Children who create a new account must also submit country, state/province, gender and age information as part of registration, which is held in the aggregate, not in the user's account or associated with any other information about the user.
On THE STACKS, users populate their public profile pages with static artwork and pre-written, un-editable text provided by Scholastic or postings that are screened by a moderator and stripped of personally identifiable information before they are posted. Similarly, all message board and similar postings such as comments on blogs are submitted to a moderator and not posted until they have been reviewed and all personally identifiable information is deleted.
On THE STACKS, users also have the option to friend other users, take polls and quizzes, play games, indicate likes and dislikes or basic biographical information by checking off generic items on lists under categories such as "Colors", "Interests", "Talents" and "Travels", but no personally identifiable information is collected through these activities. The results of these activities are displayed in users' STACKS public profiles but not in combination with any personally identifiable information.
For more information about THE STACKS, go to www.scholastic.com/kids/stacks/misc/faqs.htm.
Child users under the age of 13 can sign up for newsletters, sweepstakes and contests by submitting their email address along with an email address for their parent or guardian. This information is not combined with a child user's registration information (if any) and is not included in or displayed on a child user's public profile (if any). Personal information collected from entrants and/or their parents/legal guardians in connection with a sweepstakes or contest entry will be retained in accordance with Scholastic's records retention policies for the promotion (for all entries: for one year following selection of the winner; for winners, up to three years) and any statutory retention periods.
In these instances, the child's email address is used only to respond more than once to that child's specific request in connection with a particular newsletter, sweepstakes or contest, and the parent/guardian email address is collected solely to provide parental notice of such use and an opportunity for the parent/guardian to let us know that he/she does not want the child to participate in such activity, to notify the parent if the child is selected as a potential winner and to coordinate fulfillment of the prize. We may also collect the child user's first name only for the purpose of providing parental notice, and if so, the first name is not retained in the user's account (except to the extent that it may have been collected separately in connection with the user's original STACKS registration, in the case of certain users who register or log in with existing STACKS user names or in connection with another feature on Scholastic.com, such as from the user's parent in connection with purchases from Scholastic Book Clubs online). In connection with certain contests that may allow child users to submit additional information about themselves (such as an essay contest), we will get consent from the child's parent or teacher before collecting that additional information, which we may do by email if the information will not be shared with third parties.
Child users can also use e-cards or "email this" or "invite a friend" features enabling users to share site features others. These features may require the user to provide his or her first name and last initial or screen name together with the first name, last initial and email address of the recipient. This information is not combined with the child user's registration information in our database and is not included in or displayed on the child user's Paws for Reading logged-in page or STACKS public profile, if applicable. Sender and recipient information is not retained after the e-card is sent (except to the extent such information was collected in connection with another activity on Scholastic.com), and child users cannot freely type a message to include with the e-card or in the subject line.
If a teacher registers a child user, we may email the teacher to request new consent for (a) any new uses of the student's personally identifiable information or (b) collection of new types of personally identifiable information from the student, in the case of both (a) and (b), if such uses or types of personally identifiable information are materially different from those described herein. These communications will be sent to the teacher at the teacher email address provided to us by the teacher in the course of general Scholastic.com teacher registration.
To revoke permission for a child's participation in Paws for Reading, or to request to review or have deleted a child's personally identifiable information from Scholastic's records, and refuse to permit further use of a child's personally identifiable information, parents or teachers may contact Customer Service at (800) 246-2986 or write to us at: e-Scholastic, 557 Broadway, New York, New York 10012, Re: 2012 Paws for Reading (to revoke permission for Paws for Reading) or Re: Parent/Teacher Request for Information (general requests). Parents can also print, complete and return this letter to the specified address; teachers can print, complete and return this letter to the specified address. We may ask for verification of identity to ensure that no personally identifiable information is provided to anyone other than the child's parent or teacher.
If you revoke permission, your child's or student's Scholastic.com account will remain active, including user name and password, but we will disassociate school information from your child's account, which means that your child will no longer be able to log minutes on Paws for Reading.
Parents can also request to have a child's Scholastic.com account deleted in its entirety by contacting us at (800) 246-2986 or by writing to us at e-Scholastic, 557 Broadway, New York, New York 10012, Re: Child Account Deletion. We may ask for verification of identity.
Scholastic reserves the right to review user accounts to ensure adherence to our community rules and safety guidelines, such as any community rules we may post from time to time in connection with message boards, chats or other features, and the Scholastic.com Terms of Use. We may subsequently ban users from the system if we determine that they are in violation of any of these rules.
For information specific to Paws for Reading:
Email: PawsforReading@scholastic.com
Call: 1-800-SCHOLASTIC For general inquiries
Scholastic Inc.
557 Broadway
New York, New York, 10012
Email: custserv@scholastic.com
Call: 1-800-SCHOLASTIC
Effective date: August 15, 2012.