Policies & Procedures

This privacy notice discloses the privacy practices for (www.isacs.org). This privacy notice applies solely to information collected by this website. It will notify you of the following:

1. What personally identifiable information is collected from you through the website, how it is used and with whom it may be shared.
2. What choices are available to you regarding the use of your data.
3. The security procedures in place to protect the misuse of your information.
4. How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information.

Information Collection, Use, and Sharing 
We are the sole owners of the information collected on this site. We only have access to/collect information that you voluntarily give us via email or other direct contact from you. We will not sell or rent this information to anyone.

We will use your information to respond to you, regarding the reason you contacted us. We will not share your information with any third party outside of our organization, other than as necessary to fulfill your request, e.g. to ship an order.

Unless you ask us not to, we may contact you via email in the future to tell you about specials, new products or services, or changes to this privacy policy.

Your Access to and Control Over Information 
You may opt out of any future contacts from us at any time. You can do the following at any time by contacting us via the email address or phone number given on our website:

• See what data we have about you, if any.
• Change/correct any data we have about you.
• Have us delete any data we have about you.
• Express any concern you have about our use of your data.

Security 
We take precautions to protect your information. When you submit sensitive information via the website, your information is protected both online and offline.

Wherever we collect sensitive information (such as credit card data), that information is encrypted and transmitted to us in a secure way. You can verify this by looking for a lock icon in the address bar and looking for "https" at the beginning of the address of the Web page.

While we use encryption to protect sensitive information transmitted online, we also protect your information offline. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, billing or customer service) are granted access to personally identifiable information. The computers/servers in which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment.

If you feel that we are not abiding by this privacy policy, you should contact us immediately via telephone at (312) 750-1190 or via email at info@isacs.org.

Procedures for Handling Complaints 
Independent Schools Association of the Central States
Updated January, 2021

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.

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 and we will work to resolve the problem.