School Buddy

Terms of Service

Effective: May 19, 2026

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of School Buddy, a service operated by Julie McLelland, a sole proprietor in Houston, Texas ("we," "us," or "the Service"). Please read them carefully.

By creating an account, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

Plain-English summary (not a substitute for the Terms below): You're at least 18, you'll pay $3.99/month after a free trial, you can cancel anytime, we make our best effort to extract things from your email but we don't promise perfection, and if there's a dispute we'll handle it in Texas under Texas law. The detailed version follows.

1. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account. The Service is designed for parents and legal guardians of school-age children. You agree that you will only connect a Gmail account that you personally own and control.

2. The Service

School Buddy connects to your Gmail account with your permission, identifies school-related emails, and delivers a weekly digest by SMS or WhatsApp. With your additional permission, it also creates Google Calendar events. The Service is described in more detail at theschoolbuddy.ai and in our Privacy Policy.

3. Your account

You are responsible for keeping your account credentials secure and for everything that happens under your account. Notify us immediately at julie@theschoolbuddy.ai if you suspect unauthorized access.

You will provide accurate information when signing up. You will not impersonate anyone else.

4. Acceptable use

You will not:

  • Use the Service for any illegal purpose.
  • Attempt to access another user's account.
  • Reverse-engineer, scrape, or attempt to disrupt the Service.
  • Use the Service to send spam, harassment, or other unwanted communications.
  • Connect a Gmail account that you do not own and control.

We may suspend or terminate your account for any violation of this section.

5. Subscriptions and billing

Free trial. New accounts receive a 14-day free trial of the Pro plan. We collect your payment method at signup; you will not be charged until the trial ends.

Pricing. The Pro plan is $3.99 per month, billed monthly, or $39 per year if you choose annual billing. Prices are in US dollars. We may change pricing for future billing periods with at least 30 days' notice.

Payment processor. All payments are processed by Stripe. We never see or store your full card number.

Failed payments. If a payment fails, we will retry up to three times and notify you by email. If we cannot collect after 14 days, your account will be downgraded to the Free tier.

Cancellation. You may cancel at any time from your account dashboard or via the Stripe Customer Portal. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period; you retain access to the Pro features until then.

Refunds. We offer a full refund within 30 days of your first charge if you are not satisfied — no questions asked. After 30 days, refunds are at our discretion. Email us at julie@theschoolbuddy.ai to request one.

6. Intellectual property

The Service, including all software, design, and content we create, is owned by us. We grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Service for your personal, non-commercial purposes for as long as you have an active account.

The contents of your emails belong to you. Nothing in these Terms grants us ownership of your email content. We process it solely to deliver the Service, as described in the Privacy Policy.

The summaries and digests we generate are produced for your personal use; you are free to share them with members of your household.

7. AI extraction — important disclaimer

The Service uses artificial intelligence to extract events, deadlines, and announcements from your emails. AI is not perfect. The Service may:

  • Miss events that were mentioned in your inbox.
  • Extract dates or details incorrectly.
  • Misinterpret school emails in ways that produce inaccurate summaries.
  • Fail to send a digest on rare occasions due to technical issues.

You are responsible for verifying any important date, deadline, or commitment yourself. Do not rely solely on School Buddy for time-sensitive school information. The Service is a helpful summary tool, not a system of record.

8. Disclaimers

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied. We disclaim, to the maximum extent permitted by law, all warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and any warranty arising from course of dealing or usage of trade.

We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or completely secure.

9. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law:

  • We will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost data, or business interruption.
  • Our total liability to you for any claim arising out of or relating to the Service is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you have paid us in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) $100.

Some jurisdictions do not allow these limitations. If you live in one of them, the limitations above apply only to the extent permitted by law.

10. Indemnification

You will indemnify and hold us harmless from any claim, loss, or damages arising from your violation of these Terms, your misuse of the Service, or your violation of any applicable law.

11. Third-party services

The Service uses third-party providers including Google, Anthropic, Twilio, Stripe, Vercel, Supabase, and Cloudflare. Your use of features that depend on those providers is also subject to their respective terms. We are not responsible for the acts or omissions of these providers, but we will work in good faith to resolve any issue that affects you.

12. Termination

You may terminate your account at any time by clicking "Delete account" in your dashboard.

We may terminate your account for violation of these Terms, fraud, abuse, or non-payment, with notice where reasonable.

On termination, your access to the Service ends. We will delete your data as described in the Privacy Policy.

13. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will email you at least 14 days before they take effect. Continued use of the Service after the effective date means you accept the new Terms.

14. Governing law and dispute resolution

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles.

Informal resolution first. If you have a dispute, email us at julie@theschoolbuddy.ai with the subject line "Dispute." We will try in good faith to resolve it informally within 30 days.

Arbitration. Any unresolved dispute will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, in Harris County, Texas. You and we both waive the right to a jury trial and to participate in a class action. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by emailing julie@theschoolbuddy.ai with the subject "Opt out of arbitration" within 30 days of creating your account.

Small-claims court actions are not subject to this arbitration provision.

15. Miscellaneous

These Terms are the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Service. If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest will remain in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision does not waive our right to enforce it later. You may not assign these Terms; we may assign them in connection with a sale or merger of the Service.

16. Contact

For any question about these Terms:

This document was last reviewed on May 19, 2026.