School Verification: Protecting Educational Technology

American Digital Education is committed to creating a safe, secure learning environment for students and educators. To protect our educational community, we verify all schools and districts before granting full platform access.

Our Verification Process Ensures:

• ✅ Only legitimate educational institutions can create organizations
• ✅ Student data remains protected within verified schools
• ✅ Teachers can confidently invite colleagues knowing their school is authentic
• ✅ Parents trust that their children’s learning environment is secure
• ✅ Bad actors cannot impersonate schools or districts

Step 1: Organization Registration

When you create your school or district organization:

1. Select Your School from our database of 130,000+ U.S. schools
• We maintain an up-to-date directory of all K-12 institutions
• Simply search for your school by name, district, or location
• Your school details auto-fill for accuracy
2. If Your School Isn’t Listed
• Click “My school isn’t listed”
• Provide your school details manually
• This triggers a manual verification review
3. Automatic Verification Check
• Our system instantly analyzes your school email domain
• Matches your organization against official school records
• Assigns a confidence score for verification

Step 2: Verification Decision

Based on our analysis, one of three things happens:

✅ Instant Approval (70-80% of cases)

• Your school email domain matches verified educational patterns (.edu, .k12.us, official district domains)
• Your school information matches our database
• You receive immediate access to all platform features
• Welcome email sent with quick start guide

⏳ Quick Review (15-20% of cases)

• Your school is legitimate but requires brief manual confirmation
• Typical review time: 4-24 hours during business days
• You can complete your profile while waiting
• Email notification when approved

📋 Manual Verification (5-10% of cases)

• Additional documentation needed to confirm your school affiliation
• Common for private schools, charter networks, or new institutions
• Typical review time: 1-2 business days
• Clear instructions provided on what we need

Step 3: While You Wait

During verification, you can:

• ✓ Complete your administrator profile
• ✓ Explore our course catalog
• ✓ Review platform features and capabilities
• ✓ Prepare your teacher roster for invitations
• ✓ Plan your curriculum implementation

You cannot (until verified):

• ✗ Invite teachers or students
• ✗ Create or modify courses
• ✗ Access student data or analytics
• ✗ Enroll students in classes

Why these restrictions? We protect student data by ensuring only verified school officials can access sensitive features.

For Public Schools:

• ✅ School email domain matches official district domain
• ✅ School name matches National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) database
• ✅ School location and district information is accurate
• ✅ Administrator email is from official school domain

For Private Schools:

• ✅ School is accredited or licensed by state education authority
• ✅ Administrator can provide employment verification
• ✅ School domain or email system is legitimate
• ✅ School physical address and contact information verified

For Charter Schools:

• ✅ Charter authorization confirmed
• ✅ School appears in state charter school directory
• ✅ Administrator email domain matches charter network or school
• ✅ Authorizing district or entity confirmed

For District Offices:

• ✅ District email domain matches official records
• ✅ District appears in state/federal education databases
• ✅ Administrator role within district confirmed
• ✅ District encompasses accurate school list

Automatically Approved Domains:

Generic Educational Domains:

• .edu – All accredited educational institutions
• .k12.us – National K-12 school pattern

State K-12 Patterns: (All 50 states)

• .k12.al.us through .k12.wy.us
• Example: principal@lincolnhigh.k12.ca.us

Major District Domains: (Top 25 largest districts)

• Los Angeles USD: *.lausd.k12.ca.us
• NYC Department of Education: *.nyc.gov, *.schools.nyc.gov
• Chicago Public Schools: *.cps.edu
• Miami-Dade County: *.dadeschools.net
• And 20+ more major districts

If your email domain is automatically approved: You’ll likely receive instant verification.

Domains Requiring Verification:

• Private school domains (.org, .net, custom domains)
• Charter network domains
• New or recently changed district domains
• Schools using generic email providers (Gmail, Outlook, etc.)

Note for IT Teams: If your school uses a non-standard domain but is legitimate, our manual review process is quick and straightforward.

If your school requires manual verification, we may request:

Acceptable Documentation:

Option 1: Employment Verification (Preferred)

• Official employment letter on school letterhead
• School ID badge photo (with visible name and school)
• District authorization letter for platform use

Option 2: School Directory Verification

• Link to school website staff directory showing your name/position
• District employee directory listing
• State department of education administrator registry

Option 3: Official School Documentation

• School accreditation certificate
• State department of education license
• Recent correspondence on school letterhead

How to Submit Documentation:

Primary Method (Recommended):

• Email documents to: support@americandigitaledu.com
• Subject line: Include your reference ID (provided during signup)
• We’ll review within 1-2 business days

Alternative Method:

• Paste secure links to documents (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.)
• Ensure links are accessible or shared with support@americandigitaledu.com
• Add context in “Additional Information” field

What We DO NOT Need:

• ❌ Social Security Numbers
• ❌ Student information
• ❌ Financial documents
• ❌ Password or login credentials
• ❌ Unnecessary personal information

Email Whitelisting

To ensure verification emails reach administrators, please whitelist:

Sender Address:

• support@americandigitaledu.com

SPF Record: Add to your DNS whitelist if using strict SPF policies

Firewall and Network Considerations

Our platform requires access to:

• *.americandigitaledu.com – Main application
• *.supabase.co – Secure database services
• SendGrid mail servers – Email delivery

No special ports or protocols required – Standard HTTPS (port 443) only.

Single Sign-On (SSO) Integration

Currently evaluating:

• Google Workspace for Education integration
• Microsoft 365 for Education integration
• Clever SSO compatibility

Timeline: Expected Q2 2026 rollout

If your district requires SSO before adoption, please contact us at support@americandigitaledu.com to discuss early access.

Data Privacy and Security

Our verification system:

• ✅ FERPA compliant
• ✅ COPPA compliant
• ✅ State student privacy law compliant
• ✅ Encrypted data transmission (TLS 1.3)
• ✅ Regular security audits
• ✅ No data sharing with third parties
• ✅ Role-based access controls

Student data is never accessed during verification – we only verify school/district authenticity.

Expected Review Times:

Business Days: Monday-Friday, excluding federal holidays

Need Expedited Review?

Contact support@americandigitaledu.com with:

• Your reference ID
• Reason for urgency (upcoming school year start, grant deadline, etc.)
• Direct phone number for quick callback

We prioritize urgent requests when possible.

Q: “Why can’t I just enter my school name and get started?”

A: Without verification, bad actors could:

• Impersonate your school and invite teachers/students
• Gain unauthorized access to educational content
• Create fake schools to abuse the platform
• Compromise student data security

Verification protects YOUR school’s reputation and student safety.

Q: “My email is from Gmail because our school uses Google Workspace. Will this work?”

A: Yes, but with additional verification. Many schools use Google Workspace for Education with custom domains (e.g., principal@myschool.org). If your custom domain is your school’s official domain, you may still receive instant approval. If using a generic Gmail address, we’ll need employment verification documentation.

IT Team Tip: Encourage administrators to use official school domain emails for fastest verification.

Q: “I’m a teacher but also the IT admin. Can I verify the school?”

A: Yes! We verify schools, not just administrators. If you have:

• Official school email address
• Authority to set up educational technology
• Ability to provide school verification documents

You can complete the verification process.

Q: “Our district has 50 schools. Do we verify once or 50 times?”

A: Best Practice: Create ONE district-level organization, verify once, then create school sub-organizations within it.

Process:

1. District admin creates district organization → Verified once
2. District admin invites school administrators
3. School admins create school-level organizations (inherit verification)
4. Much faster onboarding for all schools

Alternative: Each school can verify independently, but district-level setup is more efficient.

Q: “What happens after we’re verified?”

A: Full platform access unlocked:

• ✅ Invite unlimited teachers
• ✅ Enroll students in courses
• ✅ Create custom lessons and curricula
• ✅ Access analytics and progress reports
• ✅ Manage classrooms and assignments
• ✅ Configure school settings
• ✅ Export data for compliance reporting

Q: “Do we need to re-verify every year?”

A: Yes, annually for security. 30 days before your verification anniversary:

• Receive renewal reminder email
• Simple re-confirmation process (usually just clicking a link)
• No disruption to platform access during renewal
• Only if not renewed after 30 days do features become restricted

Q: Why annual renewal?

A: Staff changes, domain changes, and security best practices require periodic re-confirmation.

Q: “What if we’re rejected or need to appeal?”

A: Rejection is rare (under 1% of legitimate schools). Common reasons:

• Information mismatch (typo in school name)
• Unverifiable school domain
• Missing documentation
• School appears inactive/closed

Appeal Process:

1. Receive rejection email with specific reason
2. Reply with corrected information or additional documentation
3. Manual review by senior verification team
4. Response within 2-3 business days

We want to verify every legitimate school – appeals are thoroughly reviewed.

Questions About Verification?

Email: support@americandigitaledu.com

• Response time: Within 24 hours (business days)
• Include your reference ID for faster assistance

What to Include:

• School name and location
• Your role at the school
• Verification reference ID (if you have one)
• Specific question or issue

Technical Issues?

Email: support@americandigitaledu.com

• Network/firewall questions
• SSO integration inquiries
• Bulk user import assistance
• API access requests

Partnership and Volume Licensing

For district-wide deployments or state-level implementations:

Email: support@americandigitaledu.com Subject: “District Partnership Inquiry”

Include:

• District size (number of schools and students)
• Deployment timeline
• Budget and procurement questions

Your verification information is:

• ✅ Used solely for authentication purposes
• ✅ Never sold or shared with third parties
• ✅ Stored securely with encryption
• ✅ Accessible only to verification staff
• ✅ Deleted upon request after verification (documentation only, not verification status)
• ✅ FERPA and COPPA compliant

Student data is never accessed or requested during verification.

Security Transparency

We believe in transparency about our security practices:

Our Verification System:

• Automated scoring based on public education databases
• Manual review by trained verification specialists
• Multi-factor validation of school authenticity
• Continuous monitoring for suspicious activity
• Regular security audits by third-party experts

We actively prevent:

• Fake school creation
• Unauthorized access to student data
• Impersonation of legitimate schools
• Abuse of trial or free-tier access
• Automated bot signups

Your data security is our top priority.