Security at Qadras

Encryption

• Every connection uses HTTPS.
• Health information is encrypted in the database with its own key: allergies, medications, medical notes, doctors and accommodations. So are students' addresses and birthdates, and every parent and emergency contact's name, address, email and phone.
• IEP and 504 plan text is encrypted the same way.
• Authenticator-app secrets are encrypted. Passwords and sign-in codes are never stored, only one-way hashes.
• Database backups are encrypted with a separate key and kept 30 days.

Signing in

• Two-step sign-in is required for school admins, principals, special education staff and the nurse, on the website and the Qadras Staff app. Any staff member can turn it on. Codes come by email or an authenticator app.
• Staff passwords need 12 or more characters and are checked for strength. Repeated wrong passwords are slowed down and locked out.
• Sessions sign out after inactivity. A password reset signs out every other browser and phone.
• A new browser or phone signing in gets a "New sign-in" email.
• Schools can require staff to use the school's email address (and keep student emails from opening staff accounts). Joining a school needs approval from someone there.

Who sees what

• Teachers see the students in their own classes. Health information is limited to the people who need it: the nurse, school admins, special education staff for their grades, and a student's own teachers.
• Aides, office, library, cafeteria and transportation staff see only what their job needs.
• A teacher using Qadras on their own (not under a school plan) never sees the school's roster, sees students as first name and last initial, and sees no addresses, contacts or health information.
• Parents see only their own children. Students see only their own work.

Watching access

• Opening, changing, downloading or printing a student record is logged: who, what and when.
• School admins can see who opened any student's record.
• Someone opening an unusual number of records, or downloading many files, in an hour sets off an alert to the school's admins.
• Student-record PDFs are marked "Confidential student record" with the name of the person who printed them.

Keeping and deleting

• A student's record is kept 5 years after it was last opened. After that, school admins are reminded once a year to review it, and can wipe the personal information while keeping anonymous scores. Nothing is removed without their approval.
• Bus check-ins are kept 1 month and returned library checkouts 6 months, unless the school chooses longer.
• When a school stops using Qadras, its admins can download all of its data and then delete all of it — students, work, staff accounts and the school itself. The deletion waits 7 days so it can be canceled, and the school receives a signed Notice of Verified Disposition.
• Families can ask to see, correct or delete their information with the Data Request form. We answer within 45 days.

AI features

• Qadras uses Claude, by Anthropic, to help grade written answers, translate messages and answer staff questions about Qadras.
• Grading sends the question and the answer with every student name replaced by "Student 1", "Student 2" and so on. The help assistant gets no student information at all.
• An answer Claude isn't sure about goes to the teacher instead, and the teacher can change any grade.

Companies that handle data for us

Where data is stored: our database and servers are in the United States. Uploaded files and encrypted backups are stored with Cloudflare in North America.

Security program and incidents

• Our security program follows the NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0, with a risk assessment at least once a year.
• Security coordinator: Jason Amburgey, support@qadras.com.
• Found a security problem? Email support@qadras.com (also listed in security.txt). Please don't open, change or keep other people's information while testing. We reply within 3 business days.
• If student data is accessed by someone not allowed to have it, we notify the school within 72 hours of confirming it. The school decides how families are told.

Contracts and contact

Schools can ask us to sign a student data privacy agreement, including the Student Data Privacy Consortium's National Data Privacy Agreement. Read our Privacy Policy.

Questions, or a security concern to report: support@qadras.com.