Why we need a parent’s email
Short version: you’re under 18, so a parent has to say yes. Here’s everything that means, with nothing left out.
A parent has to approve your account
Everyone using Pennavo for schoolwork is a kid, and we’re not willing to set up an account for you behind your parent’s back. So we email them, they click a link, and they set their own password. Until that happens nothing exists — no account, no way to sign in, nothing saved about you.
What your parent can see
When they open Pennavo, the page they land on shows progress:
- which classes you’re working on
- how much time you spent
- which steps you got stuck on and needed handed to you
- your grades, if they uploaded a report card
That’s the default view. It’s a summary, not a copy of everything you typed.
What they can see if they go looking
They can open a full conversation. It’s one click from the progress page, on purpose — we’re not going to tell you it’s locked when it isn’t.
So the honest way to think about it: your tutoring conversations aren’t on display, and they aren’t secret either. Assume a parent who wants to read one, can.
You can see the same progress page they see, any time, from your own account. Nothing about their view is hidden from you.
If you say something that worries us
If it sounds like you might be in danger, Pennavo stops doing homework and puts a real crisis line on the screen. It won’t try to counsel you, because it’s software and you deserve an actual person.
In some of those cases your parent is told, including what you wrote. If that happens, we tell you we did it, in the same conversation. You won’t find out at dinner.
One exception, and it matters: if what you say is about someone at home hurting you, your parent is not told and nothing about it is saved. You get a number for someone outside your house instead.
What we do with your parent’s email
Approve your account, and send them updates about how you’re doing. That’s it. We don’t sell it, and we don’t send them anything else.
What Pennavo isn’t
It’s not a monitoring app, and it isn’t watching out for you. It’s a tutor that tries not to be oblivious if you say something serious. Don’t rely on it to notice — if something’s wrong, tell a person.