Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using CherryChat ("the Service"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If you do not agree, do not use the Service. The Service is provided to schools and educational institutions for use by teachers, staff, and students.

2. Description of Service

CherryChat is an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) platform that enables picture-based, two-way communication for nonverbal individuals in classroom settings. The Service includes board building, session management, progress reporting, and compliance tools.

3. Eligibility

The Service is designed for educational use. Students under 13 must use the Service under the direction of a teacher or school administrator who has obtained appropriate parental consent. Staff accounts are created by invitation from a school administrator or primary teacher.

4. Acceptable Use

• • Use the Service only for legitimate educational purposes.
• • Do not attempt to access data from classrooms you are not authorized to view.
• • Do not share login credentials or student passwords.
• • Do not upload offensive, copyrighted, or otherwise inappropriate content to boards or symbols.
• • Do not attempt to reverse-engineer, scrape, or disrupt the Service.

5. Privacy & Compliance

Your use of the Service is also governed by our Privacy Policy and our Acceptable Use Policy. The Service provides tools to support COPPA and FERPA compliance, but schools are ultimately responsible for ensuring their use of the Service complies with applicable laws and regulations. We will sign a school's standard data privacy agreement on request. Required vendor agreements and terms must be confirmed before a school or clinic uses regulated data. A plain-language Student Privacy Notice is also available.

6. Data Security

CherryChat's security controls are documented and tested internally. This is not a third-party certification. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest by our hosting provider. Access is enforced server-side with Row-Level Security and rate limiting. Student authentication uses HMAC-signed session tokens with mid-session revocation. We record views and exports of student data, edits to student data, consent changes, student deletions, message views, session launches, board pushes, data retention purges, clinical data access, and security events. CherryChat is working toward offering a business associate agreement (BAA) for clinicians. Contact us to ask about availability. CherryChat does not claim HIPAA compliance. Full security documentation is available in our Evidence Package.

7. AI-Assisted Features

CherryChat uses AI for the features below. AI outputs are suggestions only — users must review and verify all AI-generated content before relying on it. CherryChat is not responsible for clinical decisions made based on unreviewed AI output.

Student and guardian names are removed before student records are sent to AI.

CherryChat uses AI providers (OpenAI, Anthropic and Google) for the features listed above. Student and guardian names are removed before student records are sent. We are confirming with our platform provider that these providers do not keep prompts or use them to train models. We will update this page when that is confirmed.

8. Data Ownership

Schools retain ownership of student data created within their classrooms. CherryChat acts as a service provider processing data on behalf of the school. We do not claim ownership of student content or communication data. Student data is never used for marketing, advertising, or AI model training.

9. Service Availability

We strive to maintain high availability but do not guarantee uninterrupted access. The Service may be temporarily unavailable due to maintenance, updates, or circumstances beyond our control. Critical features such as student communication may not function during outages.

10. Limitation of Liability

CherryChat is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from the use or inability to use the Service. Our total liability shall not exceed the amount paid for the Service in the preceding twelve months.

11. Account Termination & Data Deletion

Schools and guardians can ask to see, correct or delete student information. Send a message from the Help page and choose the topic Privacy request, or contact your school. We respond within 30 days. Deletion covers all of the student's records, including SOAP notes. Clinicians can export their notes first. Keeping clinical records for as long as their state or license requires is the clinician's responsibility. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate access for violations of these Terms or applicable law.

12. Plans, billing and cancellation

• • Free trial. Every plan starts with a free 30-day trial. No credit card is needed to start. We email reminders as the trial ends. If you don't choose a plan, you have 14 more days, then your account and access are permanently deleted. We warn you before that happens.
• • Automatic renewal. By starting a paid plan, you agree that it renews automatically at the end of each billing period until you cancel.
• • Cancel any time from the Billing page. Your plan stays active until the end of the period you paid for.
• • Refunds. Because CherryChat is a digital service, we can't refund time you've already paid for. If you cancel a monthly plan before your billing date, you won't be charged for the next month. For annual plans paid in full, contact CherryChat.
• • Annual renewals. We email you before an annual plan renews.
• • Failed payments. We retry a failed card payment for 7 days.
• • Switching plans. Monthly to yearly takes effect right away, and we credit the unused part of your month. Yearly to monthly takes effect when your yearly term ends.
• • When a plan ends. Your boards and data are saved for 60 days. After 60 days, any account or board that no one has taken over is permanently deleted. We email a warning first. When a guardian chooses "Keep this board," that board moves to the guardian's account and isn't deleted.
• • Prices and taxes. Current prices are on the Pricing page. Sales tax is added where required.

13. Access, codes and chat

Access at home

• • When a school or clinic sets up a student, the guardian's account is free. The guardian sees progress and the boards the teacher or SLP sends, and can create one board to share. At home, the student uses those boards, the guardian's board and any assigned books. Dynamic boards, PDF and PNG upload, unassigned books, and family and friends chat need a family plan.
• • A family or adult plan unlocks unlimited boards, dynamic boards, upload, the full Literacy Library, and family and friends chat. A guardian can upgrade at any time.
• • A student without a guardian account keeps the limited access.

Codes and chat

• • A classroom code connects people to a classroom. Guardians and adult AAC users enter it (Link Class) to connect with their teacher. Co-teachers, TAs and SLPs enter it (join classroom) to connect with their students.
• • A chat code lets a friend or family member chat with an AAC user. They message on the user's own board. Chat is by invitation code only. Enter it in the Chat code box at the top of the site.
• • On a school plan, students can chat directly with their classroom staff. Class chat and peer chat are off unless the teacher turns them on.

Who can see information

Only people with an approved connection to a student can see that student's information. A connection comes from a classroom code, a guardian link or a chat code. What each person sees depends on their role.

14. Classroom transfer

A classroom's primary teacher, or an admin, can move the classroom to another teacher. The plan and billing stay with the original teacher, who is responsible for cancelling their own plan.

15. Questions

Questions? Send a message from the Help page. Please don't include private student information in general support messages.

16. Changes to Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be reflected in the "Last updated" date above. Continued use of the Service after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.