Terms of Service

1. Who these terms apply to

These Terms of Service (the "Terms") govern the use of the School Saathi platform, including the school-admin, staff, teacher, student, guardian and driver panels, the school-branded mobile applications, the school website module and all related services (together, the "Platform"). The Platform is developed, operated and hosted by School Saathi ("School Saathi", "we", "us"). The registered legal entity, address and GST details are stated in your school's quotation and Partner School Agreement.

The Terms apply to (a) every school, college or institution that engages us to set up and host the Platform (a "Partner School" or "School"), and (b) every person who uses the Platform under a Partner School's account — administrators, staff, teachers, students, parents and guardians, and transport staff ("Users"). By using the Platform you agree to these Terms. If you use the Platform on behalf of a School, you confirm that you are authorised to bind it.

Where a signed Partner School Agreement or quotation exists between us and a School, that document prevails over these Terms in case of conflict for that School.

2. What we provide

We study how a Partner School runs, agree a set of modules with it, configure and brand the Platform in the School's name (its name, logo, colours, domain or sub-domain, signatures and stamps), migrate its existing records, train its staff and then host, secure, maintain and improve the Platform for the School on an ongoing basis.

Modules may be switched on or off for a School under the commercial terms agreed with it. We may add, improve, or retire features over time; where a change materially reduces functionality a School relies on, we will give reasonable advance notice.

3. Accounts and acceptable use

Schools are responsible for the accounts they create, for keeping credentials confidential, for the accuracy of the data they and their Users enter, and for ensuring their Users comply with these Terms. Login credentials, OTPs and PINs must not be shared beyond the person they were issued to.

Users must not: use the Platform for any purpose other than the School's legitimate operations; upload unlawful, abusive or infringing content; attempt to access another school's data or another User's account; interfere with the Platform's security or availability; use automated tools to scrape or bulk-extract data outside the export features we provide; or send messages through the SMS / WhatsApp features that violate TRAI, DLT or Meta rules or the recipients' consent.

We may suspend an account or a School's access where we reasonably believe these rules are being broken, and will notify the School's administrator as soon as practical.

4. Licence to use the Platform

For the duration of its engagement with us and subject to payment of the applicable fees, each Partner School receives a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable licence to access and use the Platform, as hosted and operated by us, for the School's own administrative, academic and communication operations and for the use of its Users.

The licence covers the School's configured instance of the Platform — its branding, its domain, its data and the modules enabled for it. It does not include the Platform's software, source code, database schema, infrastructure or documentation, which remain with us so that one engineering team can keep the Platform secure and improving for every Partner School. The Platform is provided as a hosted service and is not delivered for installation, self-hosting or transfer to any other provider.

A School may not copy, modify, translate, reverse-engineer, decompile or create derivative works of the Platform; resell, sublicense, lease or otherwise make the Platform available to any third party or other institution; or remove or alter any proprietary notice. Branches or sister institutions of a Partner School are onboarded as their own Partner Schools under their own commercial terms.

5. Intellectual property

The Platform, including its software, design, workflows, templates, documentation and all improvements — including improvements made in the course of serving a particular School or suggested by a School or its Users — are and remain the intellectual property of School Saathi. Nothing in these Terms transfers any ownership in the Platform to a School or User.

Each School retains all rights in its own name, logo, crest, photographs, documents and content that it provides to us or uploads to the Platform (the "School Materials"), and grants us a licence to use the School Materials only to provide the Platform to that School — for example, to place its logo on its receipts, ID cards and apps. School Saathi branding does not appear in a School's day-to-day panels, receipts or messages; the Platform is presented in the School's name.

Suggestions and feedback from Schools and Users are welcome; we may use them to improve the Platform without any obligation, and any resulting improvement belongs to us and becomes available to Partner Schools generally.

6. Fees and payment

Our commercial terms have four parts, each set out in the School's quotation: (a) a one-time development fee, (b) monthly hosting charges calculated per enrolled student, (c) usage-based charges for SMS, WhatsApp and payment-gateway transactions, and (d) an annual maintenance charge that begins after the first eleven months.

The one-time development fee is the School's onboarding contribution towards the research and development, configuration, branding, data migration and training through which its instance of the Platform is built and kept current. It is not a purchase price for software and does not confer any ownership of the Platform. Because the underlying work is performed on engagement, the development fee and any module build fees are non-refundable once work has begun, except as expressly stated in the School's agreement.

Hosting and maintenance charges are invoiced in advance and are payable within fifteen days of invoice unless the quotation states otherwise. Usage-based charges are billed as consumed or by prepaid credits. Prices exclude applicable taxes. Where an invoice remains unpaid thirty days after its due date, we may, after written reminder, suspend access to the Platform until payment is received; the School's data is preserved during any such suspension.

7. School data — ownership, privacy and export

All student, guardian, staff, attendance, academic and financial records that a School and its Users enter into or generate through the Platform ("School Data") belong to the School. We act as a service provider processing School Data on the School's instructions to provide the Platform, and we do not sell School Data or use it for advertising.

A School may export its School Data in full, in standard formats such as CSV or Excel, at any time during the engagement using the Platform's export features or on request, and for sixty days after the engagement ends. After that period we may delete the School's data from live systems and, in due course, from backups.

We protect School Data using industry-standard controls, including encryption in transit and at rest, role-based access, daily automated backups and hosting on ISO 27001-certified infrastructure. Our handling of personal data is described in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these Terms. Schools are responsible for the lawfulness of the data they collect, for obtaining any consents required from parents and guardians, and for the accuracy of records and notices they issue through the Platform.

8. Third-party services and messaging

Some features depend on third-party providers — for example SMS gateways, WhatsApp Business (Meta), payment gateways, cloud hosting and map services. Their availability and pricing are outside our control; pass-through charges are stated in the School's quotation. SMS content is governed by TRAI DLT registration, which we facilitate in the School's name; template approval timelines are set by the operators.

9. Availability and support

We aim for 99.9% monthly availability of the Platform, excluding scheduled maintenance (announced in advance and placed outside school hours where possible) and events beyond our reasonable control. Support is provided by phone, WhatsApp and e-mail during school working hours, with the response commitments stated in the School's agreement. Teachers can continue marking attendance and entering marks offline; data syncs when connectivity returns.

10. Term, termination and exit

A School's engagement begins on the date stated in its quotation or agreement and continues for as long as the applicable hosting and maintenance charges are paid. Either party may end the engagement by giving sixty days' written notice to the other; we may also end it immediately if a School materially breaches these Terms and does not cure the breach within thirty days of written notice.

On termination the School's licence under Section 4 ends and access to the Platform ceases. We will provide a full export of School Data as described in Section 7, and will reasonably assist the School with its transition for the sixty-day export period. Fees already paid are not refunded except as stated in the School's agreement, and fees accrued to the termination date remain payable.

11. Warranties and limitation of liability

We warrant that we will provide the Platform with reasonable skill and care and substantially as described in the School's agreed module set. Except as expressly stated, the Platform is provided without other warranties, whether express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose.

To the extent permitted by law, neither party is liable to the other for indirect or consequential loss, including loss of profit or goodwill. Our total aggregate liability to a School arising out of or in connection with the Platform in any twelve-month period is limited to the fees paid by that School to us in that period. These limits do not apply to liability that cannot be limited by law, to either party's wilful misconduct, or to our breach of Section 7 (School Data) or a School's breach of Sections 4 and 5 (licence and intellectual property).

12. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be notified to Partner Schools by e-mail or in-app notice at least thirty days before they take effect; continued use of the Platform after that date constitutes acceptance. The "last updated" date at the top of this page shows the current version.

13. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of India. The parties will first try in good faith to resolve any dispute through discussion between the School's head and our management within thirty days. Failing that, disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts at Gautam Buddha Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, unless the School's agreement provides for arbitration.