Privacy Policy for BEST School Behavior

Last updated: 12 August 2026

1. Who this app is for

BEST School Behavior ("BEST") is a professional tool for educators, school psychologists, behavior analysts, and related practitioners conducting structured behavioral observations and functional behavior assessments (FBA). It is intended for use by adult professionals in the course of their work. It is not designed for, marketed to, or intended to be used by children.

2. What the app stores

All of the following is information you enter or generate while using the app. It is stored so the app can function; none of it is transmitted to the developer.

Student case records

• A short student code of up to four characters, which you choose
• Gender and grade level
• The lists of prosocial behaviors, challenging behaviors, and classroom activities you have configured
• The antecedent and consequence lists used when recording ABC data for that case, and the evidence weightings used for that case's analysis

The app deliberately does not ask for student names, dates of birth, addresses, student ID numbers, photographs, or any other direct identifier. Records are pseudonymous by design.

Observation sessions

• Start and end times, and the duration of each session
• Timestamped behavior events recorded during the session
• Activity segments (for example, "Math", "Recess") and when they occurred
• Antecedent–Behavior–Consequence (ABC) entries
• Free-text observation notes that you write
• The name and title of the observer, if you enter them

Interview responses

• The name and professional title of the person interviewed (for example, a classroom teacher)
• The date of the interview
• Free-text descriptions of the student's strengths and preferences
• Numeric behavior ratings
• The name and title of the interviewer, if you enter them

Your own profile

• Your name, professional title, and email address, if you choose to enter them, so they can be filled into reports automatically

Your profile is stored only on the device where you entered it; it is not synced to iCloud and is never included in a shared case. The antecedent and consequence lists and the evidence weightings in the app's side menu are the defaults that newly created cases start from, and they likewise stay on your device. Each case, however, carries its own copies of those lists and weightings as part of the case record — they sync through iCloud with the rest of the case and are included if you share it.

3. Where the data is stored, and who can reach it

Your records are saved locally on your device and synchronized through Apple's CloudKit service to the private database of your own iCloud account (container iCloud.com.shaunwilkinson.BEST). This is the same mechanism Apple uses for your Notes and Reminders.

A private CloudKit database is accessible only to the Apple ID that owns it. The developer of BEST has no administrative access to it and cannot read, export, or recover its contents. Data in transit and at rest is handled by Apple under Apple's Privacy Policy.

If you are signed out of iCloud, or you turn off iCloud for BEST, the app continues to work and your records simply stay on that one device.

4. What the app does not do

• There is no developer-operated server. Your data is never sent to the developer.
• There is no analytics or telemetry SDK of any kind. Usage is not measured or reported.
• There is no advertising, and no advertising identifier is read or used.
• There is no tracking, and no data is shared with data brokers or any third party for marketing.
• There are no third-party software development kits embedded in the app.
• The app makes no network requests to any server of its own. Its only network activity is with Apple: iCloud synchronization, iCloud sharing if you use it, and the App Store when it checks subscription status or processes a purchase.
• There are no user accounts to create, and no password is ever collected.

5. Sharing a case with another user

BEST lets you share an individual student's case with a colleague, using Apple's standard iCloud sharing interface. This is an optional feature. No case is ever shared automatically, and nothing is shared until you choose a specific student, invite specific people, and confirm.

What the other person receives

Sharing a case shares the whole case, not just the student's summary. When you invite someone to a student, they gain access to:

• The student record itself — code, gender, grade, the configured behavior and activity lists, the case's antecedent and consequence lists, and its evidence weightings
• Every observation session recorded for that student, including all timestamped behavior events, ABC entries, activity segments, the observer's name and title, and any free-text observation notes
• Every interview response for that student, including the respondent's name and title, the free-text strengths and preferences, and all behavior ratings

Please consider this before inviting someone. Observation notes and interview text are the fields most likely to contain sensitive or identifying detail, and they travel with the case.

The analysis page is not part of what a participant sees: it is shown only on the device of the case's owner.

How sharing works and how to stop it

• The person you invite needs their own iCloud account, and the case appears in their copy of BEST once they accept.
• You choose, in Apple's sharing screen, whether participants may only view the case or may also make changes, and whether access is limited to people you specifically invite.
• If you grant edit access, changes that participant makes are synced back to you.
• You can remove an individual participant, or stop sharing the case entirely, at any time from the same sharing screen in the app. Once you stop sharing, the case is removed from their device.

A shared case moves into a shared iCloud zone so that invited participants can reach it. It remains within Apple's iCloud infrastructure, governed by Apple's Privacy Policy, and the developer still has no access to it at any point. Content that a participant separately copies, screenshots, or exports on their own device is outside the app's control and yours.

6. Exporting reports and data

You can export a session summary, a student's data as a CSV file, and a blank teacher rating scale at no cost. Exporting a generated FBA report as a PDF is part of the optional subscription described in section 7. In each case, exporting opens the standard iOS share sheet, and the file goes wherever you send it — email, Files, AirDrop, or another app.

Once a file leaves BEST, this policy no longer governs it, and the privacy practices of the destination apply. Exported reports and CSV files may contain observation notes and interview text, so review them before sending, and prefer channels your institution has approved for student data.

7. Subscriptions and payments

Recording observations, conducting interviews, reviewing history, and exporting your data as CSV are free. The functional behavior analysis — the weighted scoring, the antecedent and consequence pathways, and the exportable FBA report — is unlocked by an optional annual subscription.

The app never sees your payment details. Purchases are handled entirely by Apple through the App Store. BEST does not ask for, receive, or store your card number, billing address, or Apple Account password, and there is no payment form anywhere in the app.

What the app does with subscription information is limited to a single question put to Apple: does this Apple Account currently have an active subscription? The answer unlocks or locks the analysis page. The app does not store your purchase history, and it never links a subscription to any student record or observation.

Apple provides the developer with aggregate sales and subscription reporting — totals, countries, renewal counts. Those reports do not identify individual subscribers and contain nothing about the records you keep in the app. Apple's handling of your purchase is governed by Apple's Privacy Policy.

If a subscription lapses or is cancelled, nothing is deleted. Every case, observation, interview, and note stays on your device and in your iCloud account, and CSV export remains available. Only the analysis page locks.

You can manage or cancel a subscription at any time in Settings → Apple Account → Subscriptions. Cancellations and refunds are handled by Apple, not by the developer.

8. Apple Watch

If you use the companion Apple Watch app, your student roster is sent to the watch so you can record observations away from your phone, and completed sessions are sent back. This transfer happens directly between your paired devices over Apple's encrypted Watch Connectivity link. The watch keeps a local cached copy of the roster so it can work independently. Students can only be created on the iPhone, not on the watch.

9. Your responsibilities as a professional

Behavioral observation records about students may qualify as education records or protected health information under laws including FERPA, IDEA, HIPAA, and state or local equivalents, depending on your setting and role. BEST is a tool that helps you record and organize this information; it does not make you compliant with those laws on its own.

You remain responsible for obtaining any consent your institution requires, for following your employer's data handling policies, for securing the device with a passcode and biometric lock, for deciding who is appropriate to share a case with, and for deciding what is appropriate to type into free-text fields or to include in an exported report. If your organization requires a signed data processing agreement before software may be used with student data, note that BEST does not process your data at all — there is no third party in the chain other than Apple.

10. Keeping and deleting your data

Your records are kept for as long as you choose to keep them. You are in control of deletion:

• Delete a student inside the app. This also removes every observation session and interview recorded for that student, and the deletion syncs to your other devices.
• Delete an individual observation session, by touching and holding its card on the case's Observations page or from the bottom of the session's own detail screen. Its timestamped events, activity segments, and notes are removed with it.
• Delete an individual interview response.
• Archive a student to hide them from the active list while keeping their history.
• Stop sharing a case to remove it from the devices of everyone you invited.
• Delete the app from your device to remove all locally stored data, including your profile and settings.
• Remove the synced copy entirely in Settings → [your name] → iCloud → Manage Account Storage, then delete the BEST data.

Because the developer never holds a copy of your data, there is no separate deletion request to submit — and equally, the developer cannot restore data you have deleted.

11. Children's privacy

BEST is intended for use by adult professionals and is not directed to children. The app does not knowingly collect personal information directly from children, and it does not present any interface to a child. Records held in the app describe students but are entered by the practitioner and are pseudonymous by design.

12. Security

Data stored on your device is protected by iOS file-level encryption and by the device's own passcode, Face ID, or Touch ID. Data synced or shared through iCloud is encrypted in transit and at rest by Apple. Transfers between your iPhone and Apple Watch use Apple's encrypted device-to-device link.

The most important safeguard is the one you control: use a strong device passcode, keep iOS up to date, share cases only with colleagues who are entitled to the information, and do not leave the device unlocked and unattended.

13. Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the revised version will be posted at this address with an updated date at the top. Material changes affecting how data is handled will also be noted in the app's release notes.

14. Contact

Questions about this policy or about privacy in BEST School Behavior can be sent to shaunwilkinson.dev@gmail.com.