Privacy Policy

1. Overview

Find Parent Advocates is operated by Team-Based, LLC ("we," "our," or "us"). We run a directory that helps parents and caregivers find and contact independent special education advocates. Advocates who subscribe can list a public profile, receive parent inquiries, receive Intro Leads from parent tools when a family opts in, collect reviews, and use advocate portal tools, including a peer Community forum and Market trends analytics.

This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and what choices you have. By using findparentadvocates.com or related services, you agree to the practices described here.

2. Who This Applies To

This policy covers:

• Parents and caregivers who search the directory, send inquiries, submit reviews, book consultations, use a public parent tool, or create an account
• Advocates who subscribe, maintain a listing, use the advocate portal (including Community and Market trends), or communicate with families through the platform
• Visitors who browse public pages, blogs, or knowledge base content without signing in

3. Information We Collect

Information you provide

Depending on how you use the platform, you may provide:

• Account information: name, email address, phone number, and password (handled through Firebase Authentication)
• Parent inquiries: contact details, city and state or zip code, message content, urgency, upcoming meeting dates, and other details you include when reaching out to an advocate
• Parent tool use: email and the answers you enter so you can finish later. If you opt in to be contacted, we also collect your name and optional phone
• Reviews: rating, written feedback, and verification information tied to a contact with an advocate
• Booking details: name, email, phone, and consultation notes when scheduling through an advocate's booking page on our platform
• Advocate application and listing data: photo, bio, business name, title, entity type, location, service area, hourly rate, plan selection, and terms acceptance when you apply at /advocate-apply
• Advocate profile and listing data: photo, bio, location, specialties, rates, credentials, services, social links, and availability settings (including updates after you are listed)
• Community content: posts, replies, topic tags, likes, and reports you submit in the advocate Community forum, along with your display name and public profile link shown with your posts
• Billing information for advocates: subscription plan, payment status, Stripe customer and subscription identifiers, and payment details processed by Stripe. We do not store full card numbers on our servers.
• Support correspondence: information you send when you contact support@findparentadvocates.com

Information collected automatically

When you use our site or app, we may collect:

• Device type, browser, and operating system
• IP address and approximate location derived from IP
• Pages viewed, links clicked, and referral source
• Date and time of visits and interactions
• Directory search events used for Market trends, such as city or state searched, specialty filters, page source, and whether a listing appeared or was clicked (see Section 7)
• Cookie and similar technology data (see Section 14)

Information from third parties

We may receive:

• Fraud-prevention signals from Google reCAPTCHA when you submit public forms
• Payment and subscription status from Stripe for advocate accounts, including checkout and webhook events tied to your account
• Authentication tokens and profile basics from sign-in providers when you use them

4. How We Use Information

We use collected information to:

• Operate the directory, profiles, inquiry portal, booking tools, and public parent tools
• Deliver parent inquiries and booking requests to the advocate you selected
• If you opt in on a parent tool, introduce you to one listed advocate by providing the name and email you submitted
• Display public advocate listings, reviews, and search results
• Operate the advocate Community forum and moderate posts
• Aggregate directory search and profile-click data into Market trends insights for subscribed advocates
• Create and manage user accounts
• Process advocate applications, subscriptions, listing activation, and billing-related notices
• Send transactional emails, such as application confirmations, payment and activation notices, inquiry notifications, and account messages
• Moderate reviews, prevent spam, and enforce our Terms of Service
• Measure site performance and improve our products
• Comply with law and respond to lawful requests

5. How We Share Information

We share information only as described below.

With advocates you contact

When you send an inquiry or book a consultation, we share the information you submit with that advocate so they can respond. After that, your relationship and any further sharing are between you and the advocate.

With an advocate after you opt in on a tool

Some pages are public parent tools, such as the Florida FES-UA calculator. You can use those tools without asking to be contacted. If you opt in, we provide your name and email to one listed independent advocate so they can email you. Phone is included only if you provide it. We assign that advocate. You do not pick them from the directory at that step.

Opting in is optional. You can decline or uncheck the contact option on the tool. If you do not opt in, we do not provide your name or email to an advocate from that tool. Using the tool still works.

Public profile information

Advocate listing information you choose to publish (such as name, photo, location, specialties, and rates) is visible to the public and search engines.

Advocate Community

Posts and replies you publish in Community are visible to other approved advocates with forum access. They are not shown on public parent-facing pages. See Section 6.

Market trends

Subscribed advocates can view aggregated search demand and listing presence metrics. We do not share raw parent inquiry messages or parent account details through Market trends. See Section 7.

Payment processing

When you subscribe as an advocate, Stripe processes payment and subscription data. Checkout is linked to your account identifier so payment can be matched to your application. Stripe's privacy policy applies to information you provide during checkout.

Service providers

We use vendors who process data on our behalf, including hosting, authentication, file storage for profile photos, email delivery, payments, analytics, and security tools. They may access information only to perform services for us and are contractually required to protect it.

Legal and safety

We may disclose information if required by law, to protect users and the public, to investigate fraud or abuse, or in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

We do not sell personal information to data brokers or advertisers.

6. Advocate Community

Community is a peer forum inside the advocate portal for approved, listed advocates. Parents and the general public do not have access.

When you use Community, we process:

• Post and reply text, topic tags, and timestamps
• Your display name, photo, and public profile link shown with posts
• Likes and reports submitted by community members
• Moderation actions we take on reported or prohibited content

Community rules prohibit posting personally identifiable information about students, parents, or families, and prohibit discussing specific cases. We may block or remove posts that include emails, phone numbers, or other identifiers, or that appear to describe a specific client matter. We may review content for safety and enforcement. We are not responsible for other members' posts.

Community posts are not confidential or privileged. Do not treat the forum as a substitute for private case notes or legal counsel.

7. Market Trends

Market trends is an advocate portal feature available to subscribed advocates. It summarizes directory search and profile-click activity so advocates can see where parents search and how a listing appears in results.

To produce these insights, we use:

• Location search events (for example, city or state searched, specialty filters, and where on the site the search started)
• Whether listings appeared in results and whether a profile was opened from a listing
• Profile and listing fields needed to place an advocate in a market (such as practice city and state)

Insights are shown as aggregated shares, ranks, and bands. Market trends does not expose other advocates' names in competitive rankings, and it does not display parent names, emails, inquiry messages, or booking notes. Basic and Professional plans may unlock different levels of detail.

Map views may use Mapbox. Mapbox's privacy policy applies to map tiles and related map requests.

8. Third-Party Services

Our platform relies on third-party services, including:

• Google Firebase and Google Cloud for authentication, database, file storage, and hosting
• Stripe for advocate subscription checkout and recurring billing
• Resend for transactional email
• Google Analytics for usage measurement
• Google reCAPTCHA for spam and abuse prevention on public forms
• Mapbox for map tiles on location features and Market trends map views

Advocates may link external scheduling tools (such as Calendly or Acuity) on their profiles. If you use a third-party scheduler, that provider's privacy policy applies to information you submit there.

Our site may link to external websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of sites we do not operate.

9. Data Security

We use administrative, technical, and organizational measures to protect information, including encryption in transit, access controls, and secure cloud infrastructure. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure. You are responsible for keeping your account credentials confidential.

10. Data Retention

We retain information for as long as needed to:

• Provide the service and maintain your account
• Keep inquiry, review, booking, and tool-introduction records for advocates
• Retain Community posts and moderation records as needed to operate the forum
• Retain directory search analytics used for Market trends
• Meet legal, tax, and accounting obligations
• Resolve disputes and enforce our agreements

When information is no longer required, we delete or anonymize it where feasible. You may request deletion as described in Section 11.

11. Your Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you
• Correct inaccurate information
• Request deletion of your information
• Object to or restrict certain processing
• Receive a portable copy of your data
• Withdraw consent where processing is consent-based

On public parent tools, you can opt out of an advocate introduction by declining or unchecking the contact option before you continue. If you do not opt in, we do not provide your name or email to an advocate from that tool.

To make a request, email support@findparentadvocates.com. We may need to verify your identity before responding. California residents may have additional rights under the CCPA. We do not sell personal information.

Advocates may delete or edit their own Community posts where the product allows. Removing a post from the feed does not always erase all backend copies immediately (for example, moderation logs).

12. Children's Privacy

Our service is intended for parents, caregivers, and advocates who are at least 18 years old. We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13.

Parents may include information about their child in messages to advocates or when they opt in on a parent tool. That information is shared with the advocate you contact or, if you opted in on a tool, the one listed advocate we introduce you to. It is handled under this policy and the advocate's own professional obligations.

Community rules prohibit posting personally identifiable information about children. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us personal information directly, or that child PII was posted in Community, contact us and we will take steps to delete it.

13. Sensitive Information

Messages, reviews, and booking notes may include details about a child's disability, education records, or health. Please share only what is needed for an advocate to respond. We use this information to operate the platform, not for unrelated marketing.

Do not post case-specific or personally identifiable student or family information in Community. Independent advocates are responsible for how they store and use client information after you contact them. Find Parent Advocates does not provide legal representation and is not a school or government agency.

14. Cookies and Analytics

We use cookies and similar technologies to:

• Keep you signed in
• Remember preferences
• Measure traffic and site performance through Google Analytics
• Record directory search and profile-click events used for Market trends
• Help prevent spam and abuse

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Disabling cookies may limit some features, such as staying signed in.

15. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post the revised policy on this page and update the "Last updated" date. If changes are material, we may provide additional notice by email or on the platform.

Continued use after an update means you accept the revised policy.

16. Contact Us

Questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices: