IN THIS ARTICLE:
Learn the basics of creating and editing Family and Student policies, and how families are alerted when changes are made to existing policies.

You can view more information about policies and how they are handled in iClassPro below:

• About Policies
• Accessing Policies
• Default Student Photo Waiver Policy
• Deleted Policies
• Creating a New Student Policy
• Editing a Family or Student Policy
• Editing Transactions Policies

About Policies

By default, the only policies that are activated in iClassPro accounts are the example Family Policies:

• Appointments
• Billing Authorization
• Rules, Terms and Conditions
• Waiver

There are also three Transactions policies that are displayed based on certain payment activities. These are activated by default and cannot be deactivated (due to card brand rules):

• One-Time Payment - displayed when a one-time (non-recurring) payment is submitted via the Customer Portal/Mobile App.
• Recurring Payment Opt In - displayed when recurring payment information is submitted via the Customer Portal/Mobile App and the option to "Opt-In to Recurring Billing" is enabled.
• Returns, Refunds, and Cancellation Policy - displayed any time payment information is submitted via the Customer Portal.

There are no Student Policies activated in iClassPro accounts by default and businesses are not required to set up Student Policies.

Family policies are required and must be accepted to perform any tasks within the Customer Portal. (NOTE: The Appointment policy is only displayed/requires acceptance if there are active appointments with openings available AND "Show Appointments and allow visitors to register for them" is enabled under SETTINGS>CUSTOMER PORTAL>OTHER SETTINGS>GENERAL SETTINGS.)

Transactions policies are required and must be accepted depending on the type of payment task being completed.

However, if a business chooses not to use utilize any of the student policy features (by making them all inactive), customers and staff will not be required to interact with them.

Accessing Policies

To access policies after logging into iClassPro, open the User Panel at the top right of the software and click on Settings. From the settings page, click Policies on the left menu.

PRO TIP! Only staff members which have access to the Settings area of iClassPro will be able to view, edit and create Policies directly.

From this area, you will see a list of policies created in your account. There are three tabs; one for FAMILY policies, one for STUDENT policies, and one for SETTINGS.  The system will default to the FAMILY policy screen.

• Family – lists family policies and allows you to edit them.
• Student – lists student policies and allows you to create/edit them.
• Transactions – lists transactions policies and allows you to edit them.
• Settings – lists settings specific to handling of policies on the Customer Portal.
  • Prevent rejection of required student policies on Customer Portal – when enabled, the option to reject a policy will be removed if the policy is required.
  • Prevent rejection of accepted student policies on Customer Portal – when enabled, the option to reject a policy will be removed if a customer has already accepted it (regardless of whether the policy is required).

The search tool can be used to search through policy names if there is a long list.

Default Student Photo Waiver Policy

Each iClassPro account will start off with a Student Photo Waiver policy. This policy is specially designed to be tied directly into the ability for staff members to take, upload and view student photos throughout iClassPro and cannot be removed from the software.

For those businesses which may need consent to utilize student photos in any capacity due to legal reasons (even internally), this new policy should be implemented to allow this functionality.

Read our article about the special photo waiver for more information about how it works.

Deleted Policies

If a policy is deleted using the trash can icon, you can click “Show Deleted Items” to view deleted policies. If a policy is deleted by accident, clicking “Restore” next to that policy in this section will return it to the current list of policies. Clicking “Show Active Items” from the deleted items at the top of this view will return you to the current list of policies in the account.

Creating a New Student Policy

From the appropriate policies page, click “Add New Student Policy” to begin drafting a new policy agreement.

Every policy must have a Name (title for the agreement) and Content (where the agreement text will be included).

Each policy will also have checkbox settings to control how it is enforced:

• Active – If this box is checked the other boxes will appear and the policy will be incorporated into the workflow for the office portal. If unchecked, the policy will be created, but will not be implemented for use on student records. Only active policies will be enforced throughout the iClassPro application.
  • Visible to Customers - If this box is checked, the policy will be implemented during the Customer Portal registration process. If unchecked, the policy will remain only for staff use on family or student records.
    
    PRO TIP! When creating policies that will be visible to customers, keep the user experience in mind. Families must either accept or reject student policies individually for each student. This means that if you have created 3 student policies, a family that has 3 students will be required to either accept or reject a total of 9 student policies. Families will only be required to accept family policies once, so if some of your policies encompass all students, you may consider making those family policies instead.
  • Acceptance Required – If this box is checked, families will be required to accept the policy to create enrollments through the Customer Portal. Staff members will also receive a warning that the student is missing required policy acceptances when enrolling the student in the Office Portal or taking attendance. Any required policies should also have the "Show On Web" option enabled. (If you have required a policy and it is not set to "Show on Web," parents will not be able to see the policy in order to accept it.)

After entering the desired information, click Create to save the policy. It will now be displayed in the corresponding list on the Policies page with indicators showing whether it is active and/or required.

An audit log entry is recorded to track the details of when the new policy was added.

Editing a Family or Student Policy

It is important to note that making edits to a policy already in use will expire the old version of the policy and require all customers to re-submit their agreement status to the new version. If the policy is required, this will also trigger an icon for missing required policy acceptances in the attendance module and roll sheets.

If the policy is visible to customers, they will be prompted to accept or reject the policy the next time they access the Customer Portal. When a new version is released, copies of past versions and agreement statuses will be kept on file under each family or student record.

To edit a policy, click the pencil icon next to the name of the policy you would like to edit.

With the policy open, make the necessary edits and then click “Save” to keep the window open or “Save & Close” to exit.

If they system detects no changes when the staff member saves, an error message will appear and the save will not occur. This is to protect from “accidental” policy updates which could inconvenience customers.

With a successful edit, an audit log entry is made to track changes to the policies.

If a policy is successfully edited, you will be given the option to send an email to notify families that a new policy has been created and provide a link to the Customer Portal so they can log in and review/accept it.

Clicking YES at this prompt will launch an Email Blast window that automatically selects all active families to receive the email and loads the "Policy Update" email template. (This email template can be customized under SETTINGS>SETUP>GENERAL SETTINGS>COMMUNICATION TEMPLATES>ICLASSPRO>”Policy Update”.)

Editing Transactions Policies

The included Transactions policies have been carefully worded to ensure that they meet card brand requirements. If you choose to edit them, be sure that you are not adding or removing anything that would violate these rules.

In particular:

Disclosure and Agreement

Before a Merchant either stores a Payment Credential for a future Transaction or completes an  Advance Payment or Partial Payment, it must obtain the Cardholder’s express informed consent to an
agreement that contains all of the following:

• Information related to the Transaction, including:
  • Description of goods or services
  • Total purchase price
  • Cancellation and refund policies, including the date that any cancellation privileges expire without Advance Payment forfeiture
  • Where surcharging is permitted, acknowledgment of any surcharge assessed and the associated disclosures
• Information about the Merchant, including:
  • The location of the Merchant Outlet
  • Address, email address, and phone number to use to contact the Merchant in relation to the Transactions
• Terms and conditions related to the Stored Credential and future Transactions (where applicable),  including:
  • The Account Number that will be used to make payment (last four digits only), as it may be updated from time to time
  • How the Cardholder will be notified of any changes to the agreement
  • Transaction amount or a description of how the Transaction amount will be determined
  • The Transaction Currency
  • How the Stored Credential will be used
  • Timing and frequency of Transactions (does not apply if the Stored Credential will be used for  Unscheduled Credential-on-File Transactions).
  • If the Stored Credential will be used for Unscheduled Credentialon-File Transactions, the event that will prompt the Transaction (for example: if the Cardholder’s balance falls below a certain amount)
  • The expiration date of the agreement, if applicable
  • The length of any trial period, introductory offer, or promotional period

When entering into a Cardholder agreement, all requirements related to specific Transaction types must  be clearly displayed at the time that the Cardholder gives their consent and must be displayed separately from the general purchase terms and conditions.

In the Europe Region: The Merchant must provide the Cardholder with confirmation of the establishment of the Recurring Transaction agreement within 2 business days.

In the Europe Region: For Unscheduled Credential-on-File Transactions, the Merchant must provide notification to the Cardholder of any change in the Transaction amount or any other terms of the agreement at least 2 working days before the change.

The Merchant must retain this information for the duration of the agreement and provide it to the Cardholder or Issuer upon written request.

Amount

A Recurring Transaction or an Unscheduled Credential-on-File, Transaction must not include any finance charges, interest, or imputed interest.

Refund

The Merchant must refund the full amount paid if the Merchant has not adhered to the terms and conditions of the sale or service.

Recurring Transactions

The Merchant must do all of the following:

• Provide a simple cancellation procedure, and, if the Cardholder’s order was initially accepted online, at least an online cancellation procedure.
• Include the fixed dates or intervals on which the Transactions will be processed.
• At least 7 days before a Recurring Transaction, notify the Cardholder via email or other agreed method of communication if any of the following:
  • A trial period, introductory offer, or promotional period is going to end. The Merchant must include in the communication the Transaction amount and Transaction Date of subsequent Recurring Transactions and a link or other simple mechanism to enable the Cardholder to easily cancel Transactions online or via  SMS/text message.
    • In the Europe Region: Any of the following:
      • More than 6 months have elapsed since the previous Recurring Transaction.
      • The Recurring Transaction agreement has been changed, including the amount of the Recurring  Transaction, the date of the Recurring Transaction, or any other terms of the agreement.

For more information, you can reference the following sites for each card type:

Visa

https://usa.visa.com/support/consumer/visa-rules.html

MasterCard

https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/business/overview/support/rules.html

Discover

https://www.discoverglobalnetwork.com/

American Express
https://www.americanexpress.com/us/merchant/merchant-regulations.html