The Division for Early Childhood (DEC) is a division of the Council for Exceptional Children, a leading association for special educators. The Division for Early Childhood (DEC) promotes policies and advances evidence-based practices that support families and enhance the optimal development of young children (0-8) who have or are at risk for developmental delays and disabilities. DEC is an international membership organization for those who work with or on behalf of young children (0-8) with disabilities and other special needs and their families.

 

DEC is committed to protecting your privacy and providing a safe online experience for all of our users and members while offering them the highest quality services. Because we gather certain types of information about and from users and members so we can fulfill your requests and better serve your needs, we feel you should fully understand the terms and conditions surrounding the collection and use of this information. This privacy statement discloses what information we gather, how we use it, how to correct or change it, and what steps we take to safeguard personal information provided to us both online and offline. Please read the complete Privacy Policy below and contact us if you have any questions.

 

NOTICE: Important information about privacy and safe surfing from the Federal Trade Commission.

 

YOUR CONSENT

By using our Web site, you consent to the collection and use of information by DEC as set forth in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to be bound by this policy, please click the back button of your Web browser until you have left this site.

 

IMPORTANT: DEC will protect all information that you transmit to DEC consistent with applicable law.

 

In gathering information through our Web site, DEC does NOT provide or sell email addresses to outside agencies or third parties.

 

SECURITY

DEC exercises great care in providing secure transmission of your information. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100 percent secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, DEC cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us. However, once we receive your transmission, DEC makes every effort to ensure its security.

 

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU?

You can visit our Web site (http://www.dec-sped.org), read articles and other materials, and check on offerings without giving us any Personally Identifiable Information. So that we can provide our users and members with the most efficient and enhanced, personalized service, we request information about you in certain circumstances and also automatically collect certain information for statistical purposes.

 

“Personally Identifiable Information” refers to any information that identifies or can be used to identify, contact, or locate the person to whom such information pertains. This includes information that is used in a way that is personally identifiable, including linking it with identifiable information from other sources or from which other Personally Identifiable Information can be easily derived, including, but not limited to, name, address, phone number, fax number, email address, and credit card information. To the extent unique information (which by itself is not Personally Identifiable Information) such as personal profile, unique identifier, biometric information, and IP address is associated with Personally Identifiable Information, then such unique information will also be considered Personally Identifiable Information. Personally Identifiable Information does not include information that is collected anonymously (i.e. without identification of the individual user) or demographic information not connected to an identified individual.

 

“Third Party Personally Identifiable Information” includes Personally Identifiable Information that is collected by DEC through the site from a person other than the person to whom it pertains or whom it identifies.

 

We collect Personally Identifiable Information when we request certain information to fill out a registration form at our Web site or join or renew DEC membership online. We may also request demographic information, such as age, gender, title, or interests. Often this additional information is optional or requested anonymously in connection with a survey. Registration may also be required to participate in message boards, bulletin boards, or chat rooms at our Web site. We use this Personally Identifiable Information for three general purposes: to customize the content you see and responses that are requested by you from us in emails or notifications, to fulfill your requests for certain products and services, and to contact you about our products and services.

 

For example, you have the opportunity to take advantage of our convenient online registration for our annual conference, register online for one of our Webinars for professional development, purchase publications in the DEC bookstore, or participate in one of our online communities.

 

OUR SECURITY PROCEDURES

DEC considers the protection of all Personally Identifiable Information it receives from Web site visitors and subscribers as critical to its mission. The Council has security measures in place to guard against the loss, misuse, and alteration of any Personally Identifiable Information received. As with any transmission over the Internet, however, there is always some element of risk involved in sending Personally Identifiable Information. To minimize this risk, DEC uses the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol to encrypt all information submitted when ordering our products or services. To allow DEC to protect your Personally Identifiable Information in the most secure manner, you should add the DEC SSL to your list of trusted Secure Certificates.

 

SHARING AND DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION

Periodically, DEC will inform its members and constituents of beneficial services directly or will allow selected other entities to provide pertinent messages that have been carefully screened by DEC. We may, however, disclose Personally Identifiable Information if such disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) fulfill your requests to us; (b) comply with the law or legal process; (c) protect or defend the rights or property of DEC or others; (d) enforce the Terms of Service or this Privacy Policy; or (e) respond to the claims that the contents of any communications violate the rights of others.

 

DEC partners with MultiView to deliver a weekly email newsletter to DEC members and contacts. In order to send this newsletter or other email communications, DEC shares the following information with MultiView: contacts' names, emails, physical addresses, phone numbers, role and organization, and membership details, if applicable (date joined, date of expiration, ID, membership type).

 

DEC will provide a monthly update of member information to subdivision officers within each members’ state. Subdivision officers receive access to members’ names, emails, physical addresses, phone numbers, role and organization (if available) and membership details (date joined, date of expiration, ID, membership type). Subdivision officers only receive the member information specific to their state subdivision. Subdivision officers use this information to contact DEC members within their state.

 

DEC may, from time to time, share information in the aggregate form with others. This information would not contain any Personally Identifiable Information. It would typically be of a demographic nature. Some examples are as follows: (1) How many members reside in any given zip code; or (2) How many members reside within any particular area code.

 

INFORMATION USERS VOLUNTEER

When you send us email, you may deliberately or inadvertently send us personal information, such as your name, address, and/or email address. We may store your name and address in order to respond to your request or otherwise resolve the issue mentioned in your email.

 

INFORMATION COLLECTED AUTOMATICALLY

We also may collect your IP address, browser type, domain name, access times, and referring Web site address. This helps facilitate your online experience at our Web site. In addition, we use cookies to track usage patterns at our site. This information is not linked to Personally Identifiable Information.

 

IP ADDRESSES

An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer when you access the Internet. When visitors request pages from our site, the visitor's IP address does not link to any Personally Identifiable Information. Although the visitor's session is logged, the visitor remains anonymous. DEC can and will use IP addresses to identify the visitor when it is felt necessary to enforce compliance with site Terms of Service or to protect the site and other visitors. At no time is an individual IP address associated with site usage.

 

 

COOKIES

Your Web browser offers so-called "cookies," which, if you allow their use, store data on your computer when you visit a Web site. Without them, the user would have to log into each password-protected page. Cookies do not contain any Personally Identifiable Information about you and therefore cannot be used to identify you personally. We use cookies only as a user convenience. 

 

Our websites are hosted on the Wix.com platform. Your data may be stored through Wix.com’s data storage, databases and the general Wix.com applications. They store your data on secure servers behind a firewall.

 

Types of cookies used include strictly necessary cookies (those used for functionality of the website, such as those that allow you to maintain items added to your shopping cart while shopping in the DEC bookstore) and analytical/performance cookies (those which provide information about your use of the website and your IP address via Google Analytics and Wix analytics features to help us analyze/improve DEC websites). 

 

Thirds party advertisers and marketing companies may place analytical/performance cookies on your browser for targeted advertising purposes when you visit our site. Our site may collect IP addresses, cookie identifiers, or website activity.

 

You can opt out of receiving personalized ads by clicking on the blue icon that typically appears in the corner of the ads and following the instructions provided or by completing Adroll’s opt-out notice here .

 

You can learn more at: www.aboutads.info , networkadvertising.org/choices , or youronlinechoices.eu.

 

SPECIAL NOTE TO PARENTS

Pursuant to the Federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), we are not permitted, and therefore do not, collect Personally Identifiable Information from children we actually know to be under the age of 13 without the consent of that child’s parent or legal guardian. In fact, we require that all persons who register be at least 21 years of age and all persons who review the site be at least 18 years of age or accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.

 

We encourage parents and guardians to spend time online with their children, to participate in the interactive activities offered online, and for children to consult with their parents before submitting any information to this or any other Web site. 

 

INTERNET ENVIRONMENT

Please keep in mind that the Internet environment is never failsafe. DEC will strive to maintain personal information with modern security methods.  But, computer systems do fail from time to time, and devious individuals are always becoming more sophisticated. We will strive always to do the best we can, but nothing in this world is absolutely foolproof.

 

To ensure the highest level of security available today, DEC suggests that you select the highest-bit encryption level. When you submit information to us (or to any other Web site) over the Internet, the information may travel over many systems and networks that are not under the control of DEC. The Internet is not completely secure and others may intercept the information that you are sending. Further, anything you voluntarily provide in any public area of the Internet, including on DEC’s Web site, will be publicly available to others on that Web site and potentially to other third parties, and you should always use caution when deciding to publicly disclose any of your personal information.

 

EMAIL

The Internet is a public medium, and electronic mail communication between user and DEC via this site is subject to the risk of being viewed by other parties. Any transmission of confidential or proprietary information to DEC via electronic mail is at your own risk.

 

OPT IN/OPT OUT

We provide the opportunity to opt in and opt out of direct email communications from us and from other DEC members at your convenience. Simply follow the link to unsubscribe or opt-out located at the bottom of all DEC direct email.

 

RESPONDING TO MESSAGES

Please remember that whenever you respond to messages, you are giving that sender the opportunity to obtain your name and email address. Correspondingly, when you reply to someone else’s email, they also have the opportunity to obtain your name and email address.

 

DISCLAIMERS

This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by DEC. This Web site may contain hyperlinks to Web sites operated by third parties other than DEC. DEC does not control such third party Web sites ("Third Party Sites") and is not responsible for their content or the products and services offered on the Third Party Sites. DEC's inclusion of the hyperlinks to such Third Party Sites does not imply any endorsement of the material on such Third Party Sites, or any association with their operators. Please be aware that even if these Third Party Sites are listed as affiliated or as those with whom we have a “partner” relationship, DEC has no control over these linked Web sites. These Third Party Sites each have their separate privacy and data collection policies independent of DEC. Information collected by these Third Party Sites including those affiliated and “partner” Web sites, is not received, stored or used in any way by DEC. As such, DEC is not responsible or liable for the privacy practices or actions of any such other sites. These links are only provided for your convenience and you therefore access them at your own risk. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every site that collects Personally Identifiable Information. DEC reserves the right to prohibit Third Party Sites from linking to this Web site.

 

When you link to another site, you are no longer on our site and are subject to the privacy policy of the new site.

 

Links will be provided to external servers that are managed in a professional manner (i.e., they are fully operational, are available most of the time, does not serve inaccurate information or obscene graphics, etc.).

 

This server will not link to external servers if such a link would appear to provide an official endorsement of fundraising efforts or lobbying for a political agenda.

 

At certain places in this site, links to other Web sites can be accessed. These sites contain information created, published, and maintained by organizations independent of DEC. Unless specified, DEC does not endorse, approve, certify, or control these external sites, nor any commercial product or service referenced therein, and does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, efficacy, or timeliness of information located therein.

 

GOVERNING LAW

The laws in effect in the State of Montana shall govern this agreement and any dispute or claim based on your use of the site or information. You agree that any action or proceeding relating to this agreement or your access to the site shall only be brought in the courts of the State of Montana. 

 

VISITORS AND SUBSCRIBERS OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES

Our Web sites and the servers that make these sites available worldwide are located in the United States. The laws of the State of Montana in the United States govern all matters relating to these sites. Any information you provide in subscribing to one of our publications or registering or ordering at one of our Web sites will be transferred to the United States. By visiting our sites and submitting information, you authorize this transfer, processing, and use.

 

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

We will occasionally update this Privacy Policy as necessary to protect our users and comply with a changing environment. We may not inform you at the time these changes are made. We recommend that you check the policy when you visit our site to be sure you are aware of and understand our current policy. If we make material changes to this policy or in how we will use or collect your Personally Identifiable Information, we will post such changes prior to implementing the change. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of the policy that is in force at that time.

 

ENTIRE AGREEMENT

By viewing, visiting, or otherwise using this site, you agree to all of the terms and conditions set forth in this policy. Except as expressly provided in the Terms of Service, this Privacy Policy, a Copyright Statement, or any particular "legal notice" on this site, this policy constitutes the entire agreement between user and DEC with respect to the use of this site and its content.

 

Notwithstanding the foregoing, DEC reserves the right to modify the site at any time and users are deemed to be apprised of and bound by any such modifications. If any provision of this policy shall be held to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable for any reason, the validity, legality, and enforceability of the remaining provisions shall not in any way be affected or impaired thereby.

 

INFORMATION STATEMENT REQUIRED PURSUANT TO SECTION 1798.83 OF THE CALIFORNIA CIVIL CODE

DEC and its subsidiaries maintain a common database of customer information. The end result of maintaining such a database is that customer information obtained by one subsidiary may be shared with the other DEC units related to DEC as disclosed in our privacy policy as found at www.DEC-sped.org or to third parties.

 

California law requires that businesses provide to requesting customers who are California residents, no more than once per calendar year, the following information:

 

The names and addresses of all of the third parties that received personal information from the business for the third parties' direct marketing purposes during the preceding calendar year.

 

The type of personal information disclosed by the business to third parties for the third parties' direct marketing purposes (with certain exceptions).

 

You may request this information from us by sending a request to dec@DEC-sped.org

 

Or you can reach us by posted mail at:

Division for Early Childhood

Attn: California Privacy Statement

PO Box 662089          

Los Angeles, CA 90066

 

CONTACT INFORMATION

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, please email us at dec@dec-sped.org Please include the URL of the website and/or name of the publication involved in your request.

 

Or you can contact us by mail at:

Division for Early Childhood

Attn: Privacy Policy

PO Box 662089          

Los Angeles, CA 90066