Privacy Policy

Last updated October 16, 2026

LastBell helps schools know where their students are during the school day and at dismissal. Schools own their data. We use it only to run LastBell for the school. We never sell it, never show ads, and never track you across other apps or websites.

1. Who this covers

This policy covers the LastBell web app, the LastBell staff app, the LastBell Parent app and this website. It applies to school staff, parents and other adults a school lists for a student, and visitors who check in at a school.

LastBell is used by schools. The school decides what information goes into LastBell and who can see it. We process that information on the school's behalf and under our agreement with the school. Where the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) applies, we act as a "school official" with a legitimate educational interest, under the school's direct control, and we use student records only for the purposes the school allows.

2. What we collect

About students, from the school

Name, grade, class or homeroom, and the student number from the school's own system.
How the student goes home on each weekday, and same-day changes.
What happens during the day: attendance, arrivals, early pickups, absences and the reason given, hall passes, bus boarding, pickups, aftercare check in and out. Each mark records which staff member made it, when, and on which device.
Bus route and the name and location of the student's bus stop.
Pickup adults, and restrictions on who may pick a student up, entered by the school office.
Emergency roll call and who a student was released to.
If the school uses student cards, a coded version of the card number, not the card text itself.

We do not hold students' dates of birth, home addresses, photos, health records or grades.

About parents

Name, email address and phone number, as the school has them, and your relationship to each student.
Your family number for the car line.
What you send through the app: absences, late arrivals, pickup changes, notes and messages to the office, and requests such as adding a pickup adult (their name and phone number).
Your app settings: language and which notices you want.
The phones you are signed in on: device name, type, app version, when last used, and a push notification token.

About staff

Name, work email, role and language.
If you sign in with Google or Microsoft, the account identifier those services return.
The devices you are signed in on, when they were last used and last unlocked, and a push notification token.
A record of administrative actions and of who viewed pickup restrictions.

About visitors

Name, company, purpose of the visit, who you are visiting, and check in and check out times. We do not take photos or scan identity documents.

About buses

The location of a bus while it is running a route, from a phone or tablet on the bus. See section 5.

3. Students and children

Students do not use LastBell. They have no accounts and no student devices, and we collect nothing directly from children. Information about students comes from their school, which is responsible for any notice or consent the law requires. The parent app is for adults.

We do not use student information to build profiles, to target advertising, or for any purpose other than providing LastBell to the school.

4. How we use it

To show the right people where each student is and where they go next.
To send sign-in codes and the notices a school or parent has turned on.
To keep LastBell secure, to investigate problems, and to keep the records schools need, such as who confirmed a pickup.
To give support when a school or a parent asks for it.

We do not sell personal information. We do not show advertising. We do not use analytics or advertising tools in the apps, and we do not track anyone across other companies' apps or websites.

5. Your phone: sign-in, notices, location, camera

Sign-in

There are no passwords. Staff sign in with a one-time code sent by email, or with their school's Google or Microsoft account if the school allows it. Parents sign in with a one-time code sent to the email address the school has on file. Codes expire after 10 minutes.

Notices

Push notices are delivered through Apple's and Google's own notification services. A parent notice shows the school's name, the child's first name and a short event, such as a bus leaving. It never includes a last name, address, or pickup restriction. Parents can hide names on the lock screen in Settings. If a notice cannot reach the phone, it may be sent by email instead.

Location

LastBell never tracks a child, a parent or a parent's phone. The parent app does not ask for your location.

If a school uses bus tracking, the staff app on a phone or tablet on the bus shares the bus's location only between the start and the end of a route. It stops on its own when the route is over. The office sees the bus, and a parent sees only their own child's bus while that child is planned to be on it or is on it. Each view of a bus's location is recorded.

The bus map in the parent app uses Apple Maps on iPhone and Google Maps on Android to draw the map.

Camera, Bluetooth and other permissions

The staff app uses the camera only to scan family tags and student cards. It does not take or keep photos. If a school turns on nearby sharing, staff phones use Bluetooth to pass marks to each other when there is no internet. The parent app does not ask for your camera, microphone, contacts, photos or location.

Your school. School staff see what their role allows. Pickup restrictions are shown only to the office, school leaders and the staff member at the point of pickup.
Parents. A parent sees only their own children: first name, where the child is, how they go home, and the school's notices. Parents never see other families, staff names, or pickup restrictions.
Service providers that run parts of LastBell for us: Amazon Web Services (hosting and email), Apple and Google (push notices and maps), and Google or Microsoft when a school uses them for staff sign-in. They may use the information only to provide their service.
When the law requires it, for example a valid court order. Where allowed, we tell the school first.

Our own staff reach a school's data only to provide support or keep LastBell running, and that access is recorded.

7. Where it is kept and how it is protected

Data is stored in the United States, with Amazon Web Services.
Each school's data is kept in its own database with its own login. One school's data is never stored in another school's tables.
Data is encrypted in transit and at rest.
What the apps keep on a phone is encrypted and locked to that phone. A staff phone removes it at sign-out. The parent app deletes today's information when the school day is over and everything when you sign out.

No system is perfectly secure. If we learn of a breach affecting a school's data, we will tell the school without undue delay so it can meet its own duties.

8. How long we keep it

A school's records are kept while the school uses LastBell, so it has an accurate history of who was where. Some things are removed sooner:

A bus's route history is deleted after the period the school sets, 30 days unless the school changes it. Its live position is deleted within 15 minutes.
The text of notes parents send is removed after 90 days, and the text of parent requests 90 days after the office answers.
A parent's sign-in on a phone ends after 90 days without use.
Sign-in codes are deleted within a day of expiring.

When a school stops using LastBell, it can ask for a copy of its data, and we then delete the school's database as agreed with the school. Backups expire on their own within a few weeks.

9. Deleting a parent account

In LastBell Parent, open Settings, then Delete my account. This deletes your app account: your sign-in, the phones signed in, their notification tokens, your app settings and your app access to each school. It cannot be undone.

Your school keeps its own records of your family, such as your contact details and who may pick up your child. To change or remove those, ask the school office. You can also email privacy@uselastbell.com.

10. Your choices and rights

Parents can see, correct or ask to delete student and family information through the school, which controls it. Under FERPA, parents' rights to review and correct education records are exercised with the school. If you contact us, we will pass your request to the school.
Staff can ask their school's administrator, or contact us.
You can turn notices off in the app's Settings or in your phone's settings, except emergency notices.
Depending on where you live, you may have other rights under state law. Contact us and we will help, working with your school where the information belongs to it.

11. This website

uselastbell.com sets no cookies, runs no analytics and loads nothing from other companies. Our hosting provider handles the technical information any website receives, such as your IP address, to deliver the page.

12. Changes and contact

If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top. If a change is significant, we will tell schools before it takes effect.

Questions or requests: privacy@uselastbell.com.