About EDC

Compliance and Terms of Use

Agreement

By using the website www.edc.org, you accept and agree to abide by the rules, guidelines, policies, terms, and conditions of the Site. The website www.edc.org includes all services, features, functionality, and content available through the edc.org domain name and subdomains (collectively, the “Site”). Education Development Center (“EDC”), reserves the right to change these terms at any time.

Use of Site and Content

This Site and the content may be used for bona fide personal, non-commercial purposes only. You may not remove, copy, alter, reproduce, modify, create derivative works of, republish, post, publicly perform, publicly display, broadcast, download, transmit, distribute, license, or commercially exploit, in whole or in part, the Site, its content, or any portion thereof, except as expressly permitted by these terms, the functionality of the Site, or, if applicable, by the respective content owner as indicated in any end-user license agreement, provided, that you include without modification all copyright and other proprietary notices contained in the content.

You may copy and download only the content designated on the Site as downloadable. You acknowledge that you do not acquire any ownership rights by downloading copyrighted material.

You may not use the Site or content in a defamatory, derogatory, or offensive manner.

EDC reserves all rights not expressly described herein.

Intellectual Property

Copyright. All rights, including copyright, in this Site and content (including but not limited to text, images, graphics, audiovisual material, software, and compilations of such material) on this Site are owned by or licensed to EDC, or otherwise used by EDC as permitted by applicable law or agreement.

©1994–2024 Education Development Center. All Rights Reserved.

Trademark. All trademarks, service marks, and trade names are proprietary to EDC unless otherwise noted, in which case they are the trademarks, service marks, and/or trade names of the respective owner as indicated by the mark. All rights are reserved by the respective owners.

User Generated Content. This Site may now or in the future permit the submission of videos, images, textual content, or other content submitted by you and other users (“User Generated Content”) and the hosting, sharing, and/or publishing of such User Generated Content. EDC does not guarantee confidentiality with respect to any such User Generated Content. You acknowledge that the Site, including its features, are for public and not private communications.

You shall be solely responsible for your own User Generated Content and the consequences of EDC posting, publishing, or otherwise distributing it. EDC does not claim ownership in User Generated Content you submit. By submitting User Generated Content to the Site, you automatically grant EDC a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, sublicense, modify, create derivative works of, publish, transfer, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, host, index, cache, tag, encode, and/or adapt the User Generated Content in any and all media formats without payment and without further consent or notice to you. You further grant EDC the right to contact you in connection with your User Generated Content and to use your name, city, and state or province and other information that you have provided in connection with the User Generated Content. You further agree that you will not upload content or distribute anything that may be harmful to minors or that violates these Terms. By uploading User Generated Content, you are consenting to its display through the Site and for related promotional purposes. EDC does not endorse any User Generated Content or any opinion, recommendation, or advice expressed therein. EDC expressly disclaims any and all liability in connection with User Generated Content.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act Compliance Policy

It is our policy to promptly respond to claims of copyright infringement. If you believe that an infringing copyrighted work is accessible on this Site, you may notify our registered copyright agent by sending the following information to the address listed below:

  • The signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright. This signature can be physical or electronic.
  • A statement that this person is authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.
  • A statement that this person has a good faith belief that the use of the material in the complained-of manner is not authorized either by the copyright owner, by the owner’s agent, or by law.
  • A description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed.
  • A description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the site.
  • Your address, telephone number, and e-mail address.

Please put “Notice of Infringement” in the subject line of all such notifications, and send the notification by mail or e-mail to Christine Filosa, General Counsel, 300 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2010, Waltham, MA 02451.

EDC will process and investigate all notices of alleged infringement as required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”).

Support Level Agreement

EDC is committed to providing 24-hour availability to our family of websites. We have implemented safeguards to notify us of server failures and other hardware problems that may interfere with your access to EDC websites. However, even with these safeguards in place, loss of connectivity can occur. As such, we cannot guarantee constant access to the EDC family of websites, and we cannot be responsible for lost or delayed requests, e-mail, or content. If you experience a loss of connectivity to the EDC server, please send an e-mail to contact@edc.org.

Photographic Content

EDC uses both original and stock photography in the preparation of our print and Web materials. Unless explicitly stated, no connection between any individual or entity pictured and any other organization or subject matter should be construed.

EDC’s Conflicts of Interest and Commitment Policy

EDC is committed to the appropriate management of conflicts, protecting our credibility and integrity as a recipient of sponsored funding, promoting objectivity, and establishing standards that provide a reasonable expectation that the design, conduct, and reporting of research and other work will be free from bias resulting from financial conflicts of interest, and establishing the integrity of EDC’s decision-making process. Our Conflicts of Interest and Commitment policy is available here.

Disclaimer of Warranties/Limitation of Damages

The Site, the Content, and other material on the Site are provided on an “As Is” basis without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including without limitation warranties of title, non-infringement, or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. EDC does not warrant that any content is complete or accurate, that the Site will be uninterrupted or error free, or that any Content or material is free of Rogue Programming.

Under no circumstance, including negligence or any other legal theory, shall EDC be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, punitive, or consequential damages that may result from the use or inability to use the Site, including without limitation use of or reliance on Content available on the Site, interruptions, errors, defects, mistakes, omissions, deletions of files, delays in operation or transmission, non-delivery of Content, disclosure of communications, or any other failure of performance.

Privacy Policy

EDC takes the protection of your personal information seriously.  We have implemented appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect personal data against unauthorized or unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction, or damage. However, no security measures are perfect, and there is always a risk of that the personal information you share through our website or in connection with our services could potentially be intercepted by an unauthorized third party, even if the protected information or communication is encrypted. For this reason, we cannot guarantee the complete security of your personal information when transmitted via our website or as part of our services.

If a data breach does occur, EDC will take all reasonable steps to investigate the incident and to mitigate the damage. We will also notify the supervisory authority as required by the applicable laws and regulations.

Due to the high-risk internet environment, EDC is not liable for any losses or damages caused by a data breach, except to the extent that such losses or damages are caused by EDC's own negligence or willful misconduct.

European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to the personal data of all individuals located in the European Economic Area (EEA).

EDC relies on the following legal bases to process the protected data subject to the GDPR, including:

  • The processing is necessary to perform our contractual obligations (for example to provide you the services governed by this Terms, or any other contracts entered by EDC);
  • You have given EDC or one of our partners an informed and transparent consent, which you may withdraw at any time (such as for project purposes or other services or website maintenance related purposes we obtained your consent for);
  • The processing is necessary to comply with a legal obligation, a court order or to exercise or defend legal claims;
  • The processing is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests, such as providing services or improving our website, or providing safety and security as described above.

If you have any questions about or would like further information concerning the legal basis on which we collect and use your personal information, please contact us at privacy@edc.org.

Individuals located in the EEA are entitled to the following rights with respect to personal information received by EDC, as prescribed under GDPR:

  • Right to access your personal data. The right to obtain access to your personal information, along with certain related information, and to receive that information in a user-friendly format and to have it transferred to another data controller;
  • Right to rectification. The right to correct your personal data if it is inaccurate or incomplete without undue delay;
  • Right to erasure. The right to delete your personal data without undue delay in certain circumstances, such as where the personal information is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was originally collected or processed;
  • Right to restriction. The right to restrict the processing if your personal data in certain circumstances, such as where the accuracy of the personal information is contested by you;
  • Right to object. The right to object to the processing of your personal data, on grounds relating to your specific situation.
  • Right to data portability. The right to allow you to obtain and reuse any personal data stored by EDC for your own purposes.
  • Right to withdraw your consent to the processing of your personal information. If you withdraw your consent, EDC will no longer be able to process the data obtained as per that original consent. Please note that EDC may still be able to process the data if it is subject to another legal ground, including but not limited to storage requirements or if necessary to fulfil the contractual obligation.

Individuals located in the EEA may also have the right to make a complaint to the relevant Supervisory Authority. A list of Supervisory Authorities is available at the following link: https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/about-edpb/members_en.

If you need further assistance regarding your rights, please contact us at privacy@edc.org.

How EDC Collects Information

Non-Personally Identifiable Information. The Site may collect non-personally identifiable information from you such as IP address and browser information. This information does not identify you personally and is only used in the aggregate. EDC may also use “cookies,” which are the informational files that your Web browser places on your computer when you visit a website. Cookies are used on this Site to track and analyze how you and other visitors use the Site. EDC uses this information to improve the value of the Site and the content and to correct any problems. The Site cannot extract any personally identifying information about you from what we receive via a cookie and your browser.

Personally Identifiable Information. Some EDC websites collect personally identifiable information (“PII”) (e.g., names, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, street addresses, and areas of interest) that users voluntarily supply upon request when you register for a website or add your name to a mailing list, for instance. EDC does not collect PII other than what you voluntarily provide to EDC.

Some of our sites have mail list archives or participant forums that you may join. While most of EDC’s lists are limited to subscribers, we cannot control the behavior of subscribers to these lists, and they may collect, copy, or distribute names of people who post messages or the contents even if the guidelines for participation in a particular list explicitly prohibits it. EDC cannot and does not warrant that information you post to any of its mail lists, message boards, online discussion services, or online course and seminar services will not be copied or distributed by other subscribers/participants. For more information, please see the section on User Generated Content above.

E-mail. If you choose to e-mail us and provide PII about yourself, we will not use the information for any purpose other than to respond to your inquiry.

Surveys, Online Forms, Questionnaires. Some EDC websites or mail lists may post, either permanently or at various intervals, surveys used to collect information for evaluation purposes. Unless otherwise stated, this information is used to look at group trends, and there is no identification of individual respondents.

E-Commerce Transactions. As a service to our Site visitors, the Site provides online order forms for various products and services. The Site collects your telephone number, e-mail address, billing address, and credit card information to enable these transactions.

Visitors’ billing information remains with EDC, except as needed to fulfill the specific order. EDC does not share credit card information with any other organization. EDC has security measures in place that are designed to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of credit card information or other personal data.

When EDC shares PII

EDC is committed to protecting your personal information. We will not sell, rent, or lease any personally identifiable information (PII) collected through the Site to non-affiliated third parties without your explicit consent. Additionally, we will not disclose PII to third parties, affiliates, or partners without obtaining your consent, except when necessary to facilitate the services you request, to comply with legal obligations, or when EDC receives your explicit consent.

To comply with specific requirements for our SMS campaigns, we have implemented the following exclusion: No mobile information, including phone numbers and opt-in consent collected from consumers, will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes unless EDC receives your explicit consent. This carve-out ensures that text messaging originator opt-in data and consent will not be shared with any third parties unless explicitly allowed.

Please note that consent granted for one purpose, such as sending text messages, cannot be reused or passed on to third parties for other purposes. EDC will only release such PII if required to do so by law or if EDC obtains your prior explicit consent.

“Opt Out”

If you do not want EDC to share your personal information, you can “opt out” by contacting us at contact@edc.org. To change your personal information in our database, please e-mail us at contact@edc.org.

Access to Your Information

Upon request, we provide Site visitors with access to all information, including proprietary information, that we maintain about them. Users can access this information by e-mailing us at contact@edc.org.

If you feel that this Site is not following its stated information policy, you may contact us at contact@edc.org.

Children’s Online Privacy

The vast majority of EDC websites are designed to reach an audience of adults—in most cases researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in the fields of health and education. EDC does not knowingly collect or store personally identifiable information about children under the age of 18.

A handful of EDC sites include pages and activities targeted at students under the age of 18. These sites comply with the provisions of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in addition to EDC’s other policies.

EDC does not:

  • Collect a child’s e-mail address or parent contact information except for the purposes of seeking parental consent and/or notifying parents of their child’s interaction with the Site.
  • Publish online postings, student work, or photographs of children under 13 without parental consent.
  • Publish online postings, student work, or photographs of children under 18 without notifying parents of their children’s involvement in one of our projects.
  • Collect or share with third parties personally identifiable offline contact information for children without parental notification.

Accessibility

EDC is committed to producing and delivering 508-compliant digital materials and services that are accessible to individuals with disabilities and special needs. EDC adheres to the highest standards for 508 compliance in accordance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. 794d), as amended in 1998.

EDC’s Anti-Trafficking Policy and Compliance Plan

EDC’s Anti-Trafficking Policy and Compliance Plan is designed to combat human trafficking. This policy serves as notification of EDC’s commitment in prohibiting trafficking in persons, and it prohibits employees, recipients, subcontractors, subawardees, and contractors at any tier from engaging in human trafficking, the use of forced labor, or the procurement of commercial sex acts. This policy outlines the consequences for violating the policy, as well as the mechanisms for reporting violations. The policy is available here.

Safeguarding Policy

EDC offices and projects regardless of location have a responsibility to establish and maintain a work environment that is safe, productive, and respectful for colleagues, partners, stakeholders, and program participants. All staff must prevent and respond to physical or sexual abuse or exploitation, harassment, or bullying of the individuals in the communities we serve and the people with whom we work or partner.

The purpose of this policy is to inform EDC staff and associated personnel employees, consultants, independent contractors, agents, and volunteers of their responsibilities in relation to safeguarding. Read the policy | Español | Français | لعربية.

The Speak Up! Integrity Reporting and Whistleblower Policy

To report a safeguarding concern, contact the IntegrityCounts hotline.

The Speak Up! Integrity Reporting and Whistleblower Policy is intended to encourage and enable EDC employees and non-employees (as defined below) to report reasonably suspected or witnessed wrongful and/or improper conduct, including safeguarding violations; fraud and financial misconduct; employee ethical complaints; and retaliation impacting such reporters.

EDC requires its employees and non-employees to observe high standards of professional and personal ethics in the conduct of their duties and responsibilities to EDC. As such, they must fulfill their responsibilities honestly and ethically.

EDC employees must comply with all of EDC’s policies and procedures as well as applicable laws and regulations. EDC’s Code of Business Conduct provides an overview of the ethics expectations EDC holds for its employees.