1. What these terms cover

These terms govern use of SANY Orbit, the information system operated by Science Academies of New York (“SANY”, “the District”), together with every application built on it — among them the staff and student directory, staff assignment, attendance, scheduling, registration and enrolment, dismissal, hallway passes, assessments and interventions, professional development, the Congressional Award program, and District communications — and the connections it makes to other services on a user's behalf.

Using SANY Orbit means accepting these terms. The District's Data Security and Privacy Policy, Acceptable Use Policy and student handbook continue to apply alongside them; where a District policy is stricter, the District policy governs.

2. Who may use SANY Orbit

SANY Orbit is not open to the public. There is no public registration, and no part of it may be used by anyone the District has not given access to. Access comes in three forms, and one part of it is put on a screen rather than given to anybody.

Staff

Employees and authorised contractors sign in with an active SANY-issued account on the @sany.org domain. What each person can see and do follows their role; it is adjusted when the role changes and withdrawn when employment ends.

Students

Students enrolled in a SANY school hold an @sany.org account and use the parts of SANY Orbit their school assigns to them — sitting an assessment, collecting a hallway pass, or logging service hours in the Congressional Award program. These terms apply to students as they do to staff, alongside the student handbook. Access ends when enrolment ends.

Families and guardians

Parents and guardians are not given accounts. Where a part of SANY Orbit is meant for families — at present the dismissal pickup queue — the District sends a personal link that opens it directly, without signing in. Section 3 governs those links.

Screens in a building

One part of SANY Orbit is shown on a screen in a lobby or gym and needs no link and no sign-in: a building's dismissal board. It shows information about the building's day as a whole, and a safety banner when one is in force. It does not show any child's name.

3. Personal links sent to families

A personal link is a credential. It identifies your family, and anybody holding it can see what you can see.

• Do not forward, post or share it outside your household.
• Tell the District at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you believe somebody else has it, or if it reaches you and names a child who is not yours.
• The District may replace a link at any time, which stops the previous one working, and will do so on request or where a link may have been exposed.

4. Acceptable use

SANY Orbit is provided for District business and for schooling. Whichever way you reach it, you agree not to:

• share your sign-in or your personal link, or let anyone else use it;
• attempt to reach data, accounts or functions you have not been given;
• use it to publish anything that breaches District communications, acceptable use or student privacy policy;
• copy staff or student records out of SANY Orbit into any outside service the District has not approved — a personal AI assistant, translator or document tool included;
• probe, scan, bypass or test its security controls. If you notice a weakness, report it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. rather than exploring it;
• interfere with its operation, or with anyone else's use of it.

5. Connecting your own account to another service

This section applies to staff. Students are never asked to connect an account of their own, and SANY Orbit offers them no way to do so.

Some parts of SANY Orbit ask a staff member to connect an account they hold elsewhere — a design tool, for instance. That connection is yours: it authorises SANY Orbit to act on your behalf, and only for the functions named on the consent screen you are shown at the time.

• SANY Orbit stores an access token so it can carry out those functions. The token is held encrypted and is never shown to other users.
• You may disconnect at any time, in SANY Orbit or from the other service's own settings. Disconnecting stops any further access.
• Material you bring into SANY Orbit from a connected service is copied rather than linked. A copy may therefore remain in SANY Orbit, and in anything already published from it, after you disconnect or after the original is changed or deleted.
• Content published to a District account through SANY Orbit is published on the District's behalf and remains subject to District communications policy.

6. Systems the District connects on its own behalf

SANY Orbit also exchanges data with systems the District contracts for, or is required to report to. At present those include:

• the student information system;
• Google Workspace, where SANY accounts themselves are created, suspended and closed;
• the payroll and human-resources system, which is the source of employment records;
• the special-education records system, which receives a nightly roster;
• the reading and mathematics screening programs a school uses, whose results are brought back into a student's record;
• the New York State Education Department, to which the District is required to report enrolment, demographic and program data;
• the District's own social media, website and analytics accounts.

Those are District arrangements, governed by District policy and, where they apply, by data privacy agreements with each provider. They are not connections an individual makes or consents to, and disconnecting a personal account under section 5 has no effect on them.

7. Automated and AI-assisted processing

Parts of SANY Orbit use automated tools, including AI models, to help staff with specific tasks. They draft; a person reviews and decides. No automated tool makes a decision about a student, or changes a student's record, on its own.

Where such a tool runs on a service outside the District, that service is one the District has chosen and holds an agreement with, under section 6. The District does not permit student information to be used to train an outside provider's models.

8. Email from SANY Orbit

SANY Orbit sends operational email from This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. — confirmations, certificates, reminders, dismissal links, and similar messages tied to something you or your child are enrolled in or registered for. These are not marketing and are not sent on anyone else's behalf. Replies to that address are not read; write to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. instead.

9. What is recorded

SANY Orbit records activity for security, support and compliance. That includes sign-ins, changes to records together with who made them, and access to student records — opening a child's full record is logged against the person who opened it. Records are kept for as long as New York State's retention and disposition schedules require. The District follows those schedules rather than keeping a separate one of its own.

10. Content and ownership

Work created for the District in the course of District business remains the District's. Nothing in these terms transfers ownership of anything you hold in a third-party account to the District, or of District material to you.

11. Privacy and student data

SANY Orbit holds records about staff and students, and about people connected to them who never use it themselves — parents, guardians and emergency contacts, and people the District has hired who have not yet started. Their handling is governed by the District's Data Security and Privacy Policy, by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and by New York State Education Law §2-d and its implementing regulations. Nothing in these terms limits a right held under any of them.

12. Availability

SANY Orbit is provided on an “as is” basis, with no guarantee of uninterrupted availability. The District may add, change, suspend or withdraw any part of it, and will give notice through District channels where a change materially affects how people work.

13. Liability

The District looks after SANY Orbit, but cannot promise that it will always be available or always be right.

If something does go wrong, the District will put right what it can — correct the record, restore the access, and tell the people affected. It is not responsible for the knock-on losses that follow from a problem, such as time lost or an opportunity missed.

A personal link is a credential, and the District is not responsible for what happens to one once it has been forwarded, posted or passed on. Section 3 says what to do if that happens.

Nothing in this section takes away a right you hold under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, New York State Education Law §2-d, or any other law that cannot be signed away.

14. Accessibility

The District works toward conforming SANY Orbit to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA, the standard set for public entities under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

If any part of SANY Orbit is difficult or impossible for you to use, write to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The District will give you the information or carry out the task another way while the barrier itself is fixed.

15. Suspension and withdrawal of access

The District may suspend or withdraw access — an account or a personal link — where these terms or a District policy have been breached, where a credential is compromised, or where a person's role or enrolment no longer requires it.

16. Changes to these terms

These terms may be updated. The version at this address is the one in force. Material changes are announced through District channels.

17. Contact

Support for SANY Orbit and its integrations: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Data protection and privacy: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Science Academies of New York, 1409 W. Genesee St., Syracuse, NY 13204 · 315-671-5470

18. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York.