Privacy Policy

The American School District Panel site, americanschooldistrictpanel.org, is operated and maintained by the RAND Corporation. RAND is a U.S.-based nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that provides objective analysis and effective solutions to public policy challenges that impact people around the world.

RAND is committed to protecting your privacy and providing a safe and rewarding online experience. This Privacy Policy describes our policies and procedures for the collection of personally identifiable information (“personal information”) by RAND, and our use and dissemination of such information on our websites including RAND.org and PRGS.edu.

Privacy principles

Because your privacy is important to us, we will operate by the following principles of Notice, Choice, Security, and Reasonable Access. Users seeking additional information regarding the principles may contact asdp@rand.org.

Notice

RAND explicitly asks when it needs any personal information from you. You can visit our site and download documents without disclosing information such as your name or address. RAND collects information in the following categories, depending upon purpose or need:

Contact information
Demographics

If necessary to achieve the purpose for which your personal information was submitted, or if you give your consent, RAND may use your personal information to operate its site and provide services, to fulfill requests, or to compile general demographic statistics.

Choice

RAND uses personal information collected on this site only for the purpose for which it was submitted by you. At the time of collection, we may ask whether you will permit RAND to use your personal information in other ways. For example, we may ask you whether you would like to receive certain information and email from RAND or its service partners, or if you wish to participate in demographic surveys. Unless you specifically consent to such use, RAND will use your information only for the purpose for which it was submitted.

If RAND decides to change this privacy policy, we will post those revisions on this page so that our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and the circumstances, if any, under which we disclose it. If at any point RAND decides to use personal information in a manner different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will notify users by email. Users will have a choice as to whether or not RAND uses their information in this different manner. RAND will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.

Security

RAND and the third-party service providers it uses have established and maintain reasonable procedures to protect the confidentiality, security, and integrity of personal information collected by our websites. RAND will disclose your personal information if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to conform with applicable laws, or to comply with legal process served on you, RAND, or the site.

For more information you may contact RAND's Data Protection Officer at randdpo@rand.org.

Reasonable access

RAND does not currently maintain a comprehensive online database of full personal information you may have provided to RAND through other channels. If you wish to access, review or update personal information that you have provided to RAND (such as a change in mailing address), please fill out our feedback form, call (310) 393-0411, or write to American School District Panel c/o RAND, 1776 Main Street, P.O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA, 90407-2138.

If you have any questions about this privacy statement, terms of use for this site, or the practices of RAND, please fill out our feedback form, call (310) 393-0411, or write to American School District Panel c/o RAND, 1776 Main Street, P.O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA, 90407-2138.

Privacy frequently asked questions

How does RAND use personal information?

Generally, RAND uses your personal information to operate the site and to deliver our services. For example, if you request a dataset, RAND will ask for personal information needed to process your request, such as your email address. RAND may use your email address to respond to incoming service requests from you.

How does RAND use the demographic data you may provide?

RAND may request demographic information or profile data when you register for an account or participate in online surveys. Your provision of this information is strictly voluntary and is used to tailor our products or services to better meet the needs of RAND.org visitors. This demographic information is not shared with third parties except as required by law. From time to time, RAND may also collect demographic data as a component of our research undertakings. However, we will not gather such data without your knowledge or consent.

RAND does not share your personal information except with partners who assist in providing services or products associated with americanschooldistrictpanel.org. Without this relationship, RAND could not provide its service to you. Under their agreements with us, these third-party partners may not share or use personal information for any secondary purposes except in limited circumstances, such as responding to a court order.

Is your information secure?

RAND, our internet service provider (ISP), and other service providers have taken every reasonable step to ensure you have a safe experience online. RAND has established and maintains reasonable procedures to protect the confidentiality, security, and integrity of personal information collected by this site.

How does this apply to links that you find on the American School District Panel site?

americanschooldistrictpanel.org occasionally includes links to other sites. RAND will take every reasonable step to ensure that links provide a pleasing online experience, but RAND is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites.

What about cookies and non-personally identifiable information?

Cookies are used by many websites to understand how the site is being used and to improve the visitor experience in various ways. Cookies are small bits of website information stored on your computer or device by your browser software. americanschooldistrictpanel.org may require you to enable cookies to fully benefit from some services. The cookie itself does not contain any personally identifiable information, and RAND does not use cookies to obtain such information. RAND does not save credit card information in cookies.

When a visitor comes to americanschooldistrictpanel.org, RAND servers will request a digital cookie(s) be placed on the visitor’s computer. If the visitor’s browser is set to accept these cookies, RAND will track, among other things, which pages were visited, the order in which they were visited, and which hyperlinks, if any, were clicked. Our analytics partners also record data including the visitor’s IP address, operating system (e.g., Windows or macOS), browser software (e.g., Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer), and internet service provider (e.g., Comcast, Verizon). Although these data are not personally identifiable information on their own, they can be used to determine the approximate geographic location of a visitor's point of connectivity to the internet.

RAND uses non-personally identifiable information and information obtained through the use of cookies to improve the site. By tracking how many people visit americanschooldistrictpanel.org and where visitors go on americanschooldistrictpanel.org, we are able to determine which parts of the site users like the best, which parts need improvement, and what changes should be made. By obtaining this information, we are able to continually improve americanschooldistrictpanel.org and bring you the best online experience possible.

How can you contact us?

If you have any questions about this privacy statement, RAND's practices, or your experience with our web presence, please fill out our feedback form, call (310) 393-0411, or write to David Grant, American School District Panel c/o RAND Corporation, 1776 Main Street, P.O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138.