Last updated: November 7, 2026
Information about children deserves particular care. Children cannot always judge what happens to information about them, and what is recorded about a child can follow them for a long time. This page explains how Hikmah Education handles information about children today, through this website, and the commitments we are making for our centre and for the learning platform we are building. It adds to our privacy policy, which applies as well.
Our principles
Everything we do with information about children follows six principles. We collect as little as we can, and only what a child’s learning needs. Parents and persons responsible stay in control and can see, correct and delete what we hold. We never use children’s information for advertising, never sell it and never build marketing profiles from it. People make the decisions that matter: a mentor reviews any suggestion made by software before it affects a child’s learning. We keep information only as long as we need it. And we design for children first, with the most protective settings on by default.
What we collect about children today
Today, this website is for adults. The only information about a child that we ask for is on the waitlist form and the AI-readiness check (below): on the waitlist form, a parent or person responsible may choose to tell us their child’s first name and grade, and the programs that interest them. These fields are optional. To open the full report of the AI-readiness check, you tell us your child’s grade and, if you choose, their first name; the report and its summary describe your child’s habits in general terms, based only on your answers.
What we do not ask for today
We do not ask for a child’s surname, date of birth, school, photograph, health information, report cards, assessments or any information that would identify the child on its own. Please do not include these in the message box of any form. If you do, we will use them only to answer you, and we may delete them.
If a child contacts us
We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13, and our forms ask that only adults fill them in. If we learn that a child has sent us personal information through this website, we will delete it. If we have a way to reach the child’s parent or person responsible, we may let them know.
Who can see it today
Information about a child sent through our waitlist form can be seen only by the people at Hikmah Education who need it to reply to the family and to plan our opening, and it is kept in our client records system, whose database is in Canada. We do not share it with anyone else.
How long we keep it today
Waitlist information, including a child’s first name and grade, is removed within 12 months after our last contact with the family, unless the family enrols or asks us to delete it sooner.
Consent of the parent or person responsible
We ask a parent or person responsible for consent before we collect information about a child under 13, and we explain why we need it and how we will use it. For families in Quebec, we ask for the consent of the parent or person responsible for a child under 14, as Quebec law requires. A parent or person responsible may withdraw consent at any time, and we will explain what that means for the child’s learning before acting on it.
Teenagers
Teenagers deserve a growing say in how information about them is used. For learners aged 13 to 17, we plan to ask for the consent of the parent or person responsible at enrolment, and to explain to the teenager, in plain words, what we record and why. As learners get older, we plan to involve them more in decisions about their own information, for example by letting them see their own progress record and ask questions about it. Where the law gives a teenager rights of their own, we will respect them.
When the centre opens
To enrol a child, we will need more information, such as the child’s full name, grade, school, learning needs, any accommodations, any health information needed to keep them safe (such as allergies) and emergency contacts. We will collect it from the parent or person responsible, with their consent, and we will explain each use before we ask. We will not ask for health or learning-needs information unless it is needed to teach or care for the child, and families may choose what to share.
Our future learning platform
We are building a learning platform for use at the centre and at home. It is still in development and no child uses it yet. When it launches, it will hold information such as diagnostic results (what a child already knows and where they need help), mastery data (which skills a child has shown they really understand), the work a child completes, and notes written by the child’s mentor. This information exists to help the child learn, to help the mentor teach and to show the family clearly where their child stands.
Software suggestions and the mentor
The platform may use software, including artificial intelligence, to suggest the next activity, point to a skill that needs more practice or draft a progress summary. These are suggestions only. A mentor will review them before they shape a child’s plan, and a person, not software, will make any decision that significantly affects a child, such as their program or level. Families will be able to ask how a suggestion was made and to have a mentor review it. We will not allow the companies that provide our software to use children’s information to train their own products.
No advertising, no selling, no marketing profiles
We will never show advertising to children, on the website, on the platform or at the centre. We will never sell or rent information about children, or share it for advertising. We will never use a child’s learning information to build a profile for marketing to the child or the family. If we write to families about new programs, we will do so only with the consent of the parent or person responsible, and never based on a child’s individual results.
Designed for children
We are designing the platform around children’s best interests. The most protective privacy settings will be on by default. There will be no public profiles, no chat with strangers and no sharing between families. We will not use design tricks to keep children online longer or to push them to share more. Children will see short, plain explanations of what is recorded and why, written for their age. Location tracking, cameras and microphones will be off unless a learning activity needs them and the parent or person responsible has agreed.
Who will be able to see what
A child’s parent or person responsible will be able to see their own child’s information. The child will be able to see their own work and progress. The child’s mentor, and the small number of staff who support that child, will see what they need to teach and care for them. Our service providers will handle information only to run the platform for us, under written agreements that limit what they may do with it. Other families, advertisers and data brokers will never see it. If a court order or the law requires us to disclose information, we will disclose only what is required and, where allowed, tell the family.
Keeping it secure
We will protect children’s information with safeguards suited to its sensitivity, including encryption, access limited by role, strong sign-in for staff, records of who accessed what, regular reviews and staff training. Every staff member who works with children will complete a police vulnerable sector check and privacy training before starting. If a breach ever creates a real risk of significant harm, we will tell affected families and the privacy regulators as the law requires.
How long we will keep it
We will keep a child’s learning information while the child learns with us. Within 12 months after the family stops working with Hikmah, we remove the child’s and the family’s personal information, except basic records the law requires us to keep, such as payment and tax records, which we keep only as long as required. What remains is anonymous: information that can’t identify a child or family (for example a grade band, a program and the skills mastered), which we use to measure and improve our teaching. A family may ask us to delete their child’s information at any time, sooner than the 12 months; we will do so unless the law requires us to keep part of it, and we will tell you if that is the case. When we remove it, the personal information is gone; the anonymous information described above, which can’t identify your child or family, stays for reporting.
Seeing, correcting and deleting
A parent or person responsible may ask at any time to see, correct or delete information about their child, or to receive a copy of it. Send your request through our contact page, choosing “Privacy request”. We may ask you to confirm your identity and your relationship to the child before we act, to protect the child. We will respond within 30 days, at no cost.
Before the platform launches
Before any child uses the platform, we will publish a detailed notice explaining exactly what it collects, how its software features handle children’s information, where data is stored, which service providers we use, and how long information is kept. We plan to complete a privacy impact assessment. We will ask for the consent of the parent or person responsible, and we will update this page.
Questions
If you have a question about how we handle information about children, please write to us through our contact page, choosing “Privacy request”. Our privacy officer will reply.
