Terms of Service
Last updated 2026-07-25
1. Acceptance
By creating a tenant or using the hosted Chalk service ("Service"), you agree to these Terms on behalf of the school or district you represent ("District"). If you lack authority to bind the District, do not use the Service.
Sections marked as draft are not binding commitments. Chalk is pre-general-availability, and the sections below carrying a "DRAFT — pending legal review" banner — currently Section 3.1 (fees, invoicing, and renewal), Section 7 (service levels), and Section 11 (limitation of liability) — are published for transparency about what is not yet settled. They state no commitment by either party, and accepting these Terms does not accept a service level, a fee schedule, or a liability allocation that is not written in them. Those commitments are made only in a District's signed order form or purchase agreement, which controls over these Terms where the two differ. The remainder of these Terms applies as written.
2. The Service
Chalk is a K-12 IT platform covering asset tracking, help desk, rostering, identity, and provisioning. It connects systems such as PowerSchool, Skyward, and Infinite Campus to downstream applications via OneRoster, SAML 2.0, OIDC, Google Workspace, and Active Directory. Not every module is generally available; the pricing page states which ship today. Features may change over time.
3. Plans — free tier and paid tiers
The hosted Service is offered to accredited K-12 public, private, charter, and parochial schools and districts on two kinds of plan:
- Free tier. Provided at no charge, limited to Chromebook assets. Within that limit there is no cap on the number of devices or administrator accounts, no operation or throughput cap, and no redaction of your data. Tracking any other asset type requires a paid plan.
- Paid tiers. Purchased annually in advance at the list prices published on our pricing page, invoiced against a District purchase order. Fees are stated exclusive of taxes. Unless a separate written agreement says otherwise, these Terms govern paid tiers as modified by Sections 3.1, 7, and 11 below.
Chalk reserves the right to verify eligibility and to discontinue free-tier access for entities that do not qualify (for example, ed-tech vendors using the platform for resale without a commercial agreement). Self-hosting Chalk is governed by the AGPL-3.0, not by these Terms — see Section 9.
3.1 Fees, invoicing, and renewal
There is no self-serve checkout for a paid tier. A District obtains a paid tier by requesting a quote, which Chalk issues as a written order form. A paid tier begins only when that order form is executed by both parties — no District is charged, and no paid-tier obligation arises on either side, by using the free tier or by accepting these Terms alone.
The commercial terms of a paid tier are not stated here and are not yet settled. This section is a structural placeholder pending legal review. The following are the terms that belong here and are deliberately left blank rather than guessed at: invoicing and payment timing (when an invoice issues and how long the District has to pay); consequences of late payment (interest, if any, and any right to suspend); subscription term, renewal, and whether renewal is automatic, with any notice period for non-renewal; how list-price changes apply at renewal, and any notice owed before one takes effect; taxes beyond the statement above that fees are exclusive of them; and mid-term changes such as adding devices or crossing a fleet-size rung. Until this section is completed and reviewed by counsel, each of these is governed solely by the District's executed order form or purchase agreement, which controls. Do not rely on this section for any payment, renewal, or pricing commitment.
4. Account security
You are responsible for safeguarding administrator credentials, API tokens, and SSO secrets issued under your tenant, and for all activity under your account. Notify us promptly of any suspected compromise.
5. Acceptable use
You agree not to:
- process data you lack a lawful basis to process;
- attempt unauthorized access to other tenants or to Chalk infrastructure;
- reverse-engineer the hosting environment (source code is openly available under AGPL-3.0);
- use the Service to send unsolicited bulk email, malware, or unlawful content;
- resell, sublicense, or repackage the hosted Service without a written agreement.
6. District responsibilities
The District is responsible for the accuracy of data it submits, for managing accounts and access within its tenant, for maintaining a lawful basis (including FERPA school-authorization or equivalent) for the data sources it connects, and for any required parental or staff notices.
7. Chalk responsibilities & service levels
Chalk will use commercially reasonable efforts to keep the Service available and secure. Security commitments are described in our Privacy Policy, DPA, and Security page.
Free tier. Provided without a contractual SLA, and without a published availability target. Chalk does not currently operate a public status page; incidents affecting a tenant are communicated to that tenant's administrators by email.
Paid tiers. The service-level commitment for paid tiers — availability target, measurement window, exclusions, support response times, and any service credit — is not yet settled and is not stated here. This section is a structural placeholder pending legal review and states no service level of its own. Because a paid tier begins only on an executed order form (Section 3.1), the binding service levels for any paid tier are those written into that order form or purchase agreement, and no District can be on a paid tier without one. Do not rely on this section as a service-level commitment.
8. Intellectual property & feedback
Chalk and its licensors retain all rights in the Service not expressly granted. The District retains all rights in its data. If you provide feedback or suggestions about the Service, you grant Chalk a perpetual, royalty-free license to use that feedback to improve the Service.
9. Open-source license
The Chalk source code is published under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0) at https://github.com/usechalk/chalk. Self-hosting is governed by the AGPL-3.0. Use of the hosted Service is governed by these Terms in addition to (not in lieu of) the AGPL-3.0 where both apply.
10. Disclaimer of warranties
THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE." TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, CHALK DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. CHALK DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE.
11. Limitation of liability
TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, CHALK WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, REVENUE, OR DATA.
Free tier. CHALK'S AGGREGATE LIABILITY FOR CLAIMS ARISING FROM FREE-TIER USE WILL NOT EXCEED US $0.
Paid tiers. A US $0 liability cap is not the cap for a paying District. The liability cap for a paid tier, and any carve-outs from it (for example for data-protection breaches, confidentiality, or indemnification obligations), are set in the District's order form or purchase agreement. This section is a structural placeholder pending legal review and states no cap of its own; it should not be read as a waiver of any cap, and nothing in it is an agreement by Chalk to accept unlimited liability.
Because a paid tier begins only on an order form executed by both parties (Section 3.1), and because that order form is where the limitation of liability is set, there is no paid-tier use of the Service that is not governed by a negotiated limitation of liability. A District that requires the cap settled before it will contract should raise it with its quote request; it will be addressed in the order form.
12. Indemnification
The District will defend and indemnify Chalk against third-party claims arising from (a) data the District submits in breach of these Terms or applicable law, or (b) the District's use of the Service in violation of Section 5 (Acceptable use). Chalk will promptly notify the District of any such claim and reasonably cooperate in the defense.
13. Termination
Either party may terminate use of the Service at any time. Chalk may suspend or terminate a tenant for material breach, for activity that endangers other tenants or the platform, or where required by law. On termination, the District may export its data; Chalk will delete tenant data within 30 days, subject to the retention windows in the Privacy Policy. For a paid tier, termination does not by itself entitle the District to a refund of prepaid annual fees; refund and cancellation rights are those stated in the District's order form or purchase agreement, obtained as described in Section 3.1.
14. Force majeure
Neither party will be liable for delay or failure to perform due to causes beyond reasonable control, including acts of God, war, civil unrest, labor disputes, internet or utility outages, or governmental action.
15. Governing law
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. The parties consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located there.
16. Changes
We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be announced to District administrators at least 30 days before they take effect. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance.
17. Contact
Questions about these Terms: support@usechalk.xyz.