Privacy policy
Template. Review by a licensed attorney before production use. Bracketed items must be completed by the center.
Who this covers
This policy describes how [CENTER LEGAL NAME], a licensed child-care center regulated by Texas Health and Human Services Child Care Regulation, handles personal information in the OpsCore Childcare Management portal. The center is the custodian of every record in this system. The portal is the tool the center uses to keep them. TDS E Solutions provides the software and acts only on the center's instructions.
What the portal holds
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Children's records | Name, date of birth, classroom, admission information, immunizations, allergies, medication and administration records, and incident reports. |
| Families and pick-up | Parents, guardians and other people authorized to pick a child up, with their contact details. |
| Attendance | Each sign-in and sign-out: the child, the date and time, and the initials or unique identifier of the person who signed, as §746.631 requires. |
| Staff records | Name, position, dates of employment, shifts, training history, and background-check information. |
| Center records | Policies and staff acknowledgments, inspections, and compliance deadlines. |
| Account and activity data | User name, email, a hashed password, role, and an audit entry for record changes made in the portal. |
Why the center holds it
- To care for and supervise the children enrolled, and to know at every moment who is in the building.
- To meet the recordkeeping requirements of 26 TAC Chapter 746, Subchapter C, and Texas Human Resources Code Chapter 42.
- To make records available to Licensing on request during hours of operation, as §746.801 requires.
- To manage staff qualifications, training and background-check compliance.
Records in this portal are never sold, rented, used for advertising, or used to train external systems.
Who can see a record
- Caregivers, who must be able to reach children's records immediately during hours of operation for use in an emergency (§746.601(a)).
- A parent, for their own child's record (§746.601(b)).
- Licensing, which may review or reproduce any child's record on request during hours of operation (§746.601(c)).
- Background-check information is confidential and is shown only to the people the center authorizes, as §746.201(6) and Human Resources Code §40.005 require.
Access inside the center is set by role: director, owner or permit holder, caregiver, food service, parent, and licensing inspector. Only owner, director and caregiver accounts can change records; parent and inspector accounts can view but not change them, and that is checked on the server for every change. Outside the center, records are released only to people the law authorizes, and the center confirms that authority before it releases anything.
How it is protected
- Passwords are stored only as bcrypt hashes. No one, including the center's administrators, can read them.
- The sign-in session is kept in a cookie that page scripts cannot read, and it expires after 12 hours.
- Record changes made in the portal write an audit entry naming who made the change, what changed, and when.
- Hosting, encryption, backup and device arrangements are set out in the [RECORDS POLICY] and completed by the center.
Children's information
The portal is used by the center's staff and by parents. It is not directed to children, and children do not have accounts. Information about a child is entered by the center or by the child's parent.
How long records are kept
Records are kept at least as long as Chapter 746 requires: three months from the date a record was created unless a rule says otherwise, and training records for the current and last full training year (§746.803). The center's longer retention schedule and its method of destruction are set out at [RETENTION SCHEDULE LOCATION].
Service providers
The center uses [HOSTING PROVIDER] to host the application and database. Providers act only on the center's instructions under a written agreement and may not use records for their own purposes. A current list is available on request.
Requests and complaints
A parent may review their own child's record, ask that an error be corrected, or ask who has changed it. Send requests to [PRIVACY CONTACT NAME, EMAIL, PHONE]. The center responds within [NUMBER] days. Concerns about a child-care center may also be reported to Texas HHS Child Care Regulation.
If records are exposed
If sensitive personal information is acquired by an unauthorized person, the center notifies the people affected as Texas Business and Commerce Code §521.053 requires, and notifies any other authority the circumstances require.
Changes to this policy
Material changes are announced in the portal before they take effect, and prior versions are kept on file.