Refund and Returns Policy

Welcome to The Literacy Keys. The Terms of Service detailed here govern your use of www.TheLiteracyKeys.com and your purchase of any product or service we offer. Please read them before you buy.

By placing an order, creating an account, or using any of our products or services, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not purchase any of our products or services.

1.Who We Are

The Literacy Keys, LLC is an Limited Liability Company organized under the laws of the State of New York, with a mailing address at 297 Red Mills Road, and reachable at info@theliteracykeys.com. 

Throughout these Terms, “we,” “us” and “The Literacy Keys” refer to that entity. “You” refers to the person making a purchase. “Student” refers to the child or adult learner receiving instruction.

2.What We Offer

We sell multiple categories of products and services. Different terms apply to each, so please read the section that covers what you are buying before you purchase.

Digital products. Courses, toolkits, templates, downloadable materials and recorded video instruction, delivered online.

Tutoring. One to one and small group instruction, delivered live and online, sold in fixed-length blocks.

Consulting services. Records review, documentation preparation and related parent consultation, sold as defined packages.

Free resources. Screeners, guides, the podcast and blog content, offered without charge.

3.Eligibility and Accounts

You must be 18 or older and legally able to enter a contract to purchase from us. If you are purchasing on behalf of a student under 18, you represent that you are that student’s parent or legal guardian, or that you have their written authorization.

You are responsible for keeping your account credentials confidential and for all activity under your account. Tell us promptly at shop@theliteracykeys.com if you believe your account has been compromised.

4.Orders, Pricing, and Payments

All prices are in US dollars and are listed on the product page. We may change prices at any time, but a change never applies to an order already placed.

We accept the payment methods shown at checkout, including approved education savings account and scholarship program funds where we are a registered vendor. See Section 9.

Placing an order is an offer to buy. We may decline or cancel any order, including where a product is out of stock, where a listed price was in error, or where we reasonably believe the order is fraudulent. If we cancel, you receive a full refund to the original payment source.

Where a product has limited availability, such as a tutoring seat at a specific weekly time, availability is confirmed only when your order completes. We do not reserve a seat on the basis of an abandoned cart or an email inquiry.

Promotional codes and discounts cannot be combined and may not be available on orders paid with education savings account or scholarship funds, because some funding platforms do not support them.

5.Digital Products and Courses

Access. Access is delivered to the email address on your order, usually immediately and in all cases within 24 hours. If nothing arrives, check your spam folder and then contact us.

How long access lasts. Unless the product page says otherwise, you have access for 12 months from purchase. If we retire a product, we will give you at least 30 days notice.

Your license. Purchase gives you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to use the materials for the education of the students in your own household. It does not give you the right to resell, redistribute, share login credentials, post materials publicly, use materials to instruct students outside your household, or use materials in a school, co-op, microschool, learning pod or commercial tutoring practice.

If you want to use our materials with students outside your household, we offer licensing. Write to info@theliteracykeys.com.

refunds: as per our refund policy

6.Tutoring

What a block includes. Tutoring is sold in blocks. Each block includes a stated number of sessions of a stated length, delivered one to one and online, at a fixed day and time selected at checkout. That time is reserved for your student for the duration of the block.

When sessions start. Sessions begin within two weeks following purchase unless we agree otherwise in writing. All scheduled times are US Eastern Time Zone.

Scheduled breaks. We observe Federal and NY State school holidays.  No sessions are held during those days and they do not count against your block.

Rescheduling. Each 12-week block includes ONE reschedule. To reschedule, email me at least 24 hours before the session. We will offer available alternate times in that week or the following week.

A session cancelled with less than 24 hours notice, or missed without notice, counts as one of the sessions in your block.

If we cancel a session for any reason, it is added to the end of your block at no charge and does not count against your reschedule allowance.

Students who arrive late are seen for the remainder of the scheduled time. Arrival more than 15 minutes is viewed as a no show and the session counts towards the total number of sessions purchased. Sessions are not extended to make up for a late start.

Completing the block. All sessions must be used within 30 weeks of your first session. That window accounts for scheduled breaks and your full reschedule allowance. Sessions unused after that window expire, unless we have agreed in writing to an extension for a documented illness or family emergency.

The placement session. The first session of any tutoring block is a placement assessment. If either you or we conclude after that session that this is not the right match, the tutoring block minus the first session is refunded as described in the Refund Policy.

Technology. Live sessions require a reliable internet connection, a device with a working camera and microphone, a secondary document camera, a letter-sized notebook, a working pencil and a quiet space. We are not able to refund or make up sessions lost to a family’s technology or connectivity problems. If our technology fails, the session is rescheduled at no cost.

Continued participation. We may end a block early, with a prorated refund of unused sessions, if a student’s participation makes instruction unworkable or if a parent or student behaves abusively toward our staff.

7.Consulting Services

Consulting packages have a defined scope stated on the product page. Work outside that scope is quoted separately.

What we deliver. Organized documentation, written summaries, prepared letters and parent consultation, as described in the individual package.

What we do not deliver. We do not guarantee any outcome. We cannot and do not promise that a school district will grant an evaluation, an IEP or a 504 plan, or that the College Board, ACT or any other testing body will approve a requested accommodation. Those decisions belong entirely to those organizations and depend on facts outside our control.

Your responsibility for accuracy. Our work product is built from the documents and information you provide. You are responsible for their accuracy and completeness. We will not prepare, alter or assist in altering any evaluation, diagnosis, school record or medical document, and we will not advise you on how to present symptoms to an evaluator or a reviewer.

Where we stop. If a family does not hold a qualifying evaluation from an appropriately credentialed professional, we will say so plainly and decline the engagement rather than proceed. 

8. Scope of What We Do, and What We Do Not Do

The Literacy Keys provides educational instruction and educational consultation. 

We do not diagnose. We do not provide medical, psychological or psychoeducational diagnosis, and we do not conduct psychoeducational evaluations. Nothing we provide is a diagnosis of dyslexia, dyscalculia, ADHD or any other condition. Screeners and informal assessments indicate possible at-risk and instructional need. They are not diagnostic instruments.

We do not provide medical or mental health care. Nothing we offer is medical advice, therapy or mental health treatment.

We do not provide legal advice. Nothing we provide constitutes legal advice about a school district, an IEP, a 504 plan, an evaluation request, a due process proceeding or a testing accommodation request. We are not attorneys or special education advocates and do not offer legal advice. 

We are not a substitute for services a school owes your child. Purchasing from us does not reduce, replace or waive any obligation a public school has to your child under IDEA, Section 504 or state law.

No guaranteed results. Reading and math progress depends on many factors we do not control, including attendance, effort, home practice, co-occurring conditions and the instruction a student receives elsewhere. We do not guarantee any level of improvement, any score, any grade or any outcome.

9. Education Saving Account, Scholarship and Microgrant Purchases

This section applies to any purchase funded in whole or in part by a state education savings account, scholarship, voucher or microgrant program, including but not limited to programs administered through ClassWallet, Step Up For Students, Odyssey and equivalent platforms.

Program rules control. Your purchase is governed by the rules, handbooks and vendor agreements of your funding program in addition to these Terms. Where the two conflict, the funding program’s rules control.

You confirm eligibility, not us. You are responsible for confirming, before you purchase, that the product or service you are buying is an allowable expense in your program and, where required, for obtaining pre-approval. We can describe what we sell and provide documentation. We do not, and cannot determine your eligibility or a category’s allowability on your behalf.

We will never direct your spending. We will not limit, restrict or attempt to influence how you use your student’s funds. Choosing what to buy, and whether to buy from us at all, is entirely your decision.

We will never ask for your account access. We will not request, accept or use your login credentials for ClassWallet, EMA, Odyssey or any other funding platform, and we will not log in to your account on your behalf under any circumstances. If anyone claiming to represent The Literacy Keys, LLC asks you for those credentials, it is not us. Report it to us and to your program immediately.

Refunds go back to the funding source. Any refund on a purchase made with program funds is returned to the funding account or the administering organization, never to you personally and never to any third party. We cannot issue a refund to a personal card, a bank account, a check, a gift card, store credit or a sibling’s account for program-funded purchases. This is a requirement of these programs, and accepting a refund or rebate of program funds can jeopardize your student’s eligibility.

No cash, rebates, kickbacks or barter. We do not offer cash back, rebates, referral payments, gifts or any other thing of value to families in connection with a program-funded purchase, and we will not participate in any arrangement that returns program value to a family outside the program.

Documentation and audits. We maintain invoices, receipts, service descriptions and attendance records for every program-funded purchase and provide them to you or to your program administrator on request. We retain these records for at least five years, or longer where a program requires it. We cooperate fully with any audit or compliance review by a state agency or an administering organization.

Your responsibility to report. You are responsible for submitting any and all documentation your program requires, within your program’s deadlines. We will supply documents promptly, but we cannot submit on your behalf and we are not responsible for a reimbursement denied because of a missed program deadline.

Delivery timing. Where a program requires pre-approval or processes payment on a schedule, service begins when payment is confirmed, not when an order is placed. 

Vendor status can change. Our participation in any program depends on that program’s approval, which can change. If we lose vendor status in your state mid-service, we will complete any service already paid for, or return unearned funds to your funding account.

10. Intellectual Property

All content on theliteracykeys.com and in our products, including but not limited to text, lesson materials, card decks, templates, checklists, video, audio, the podcast, images, our methods as expressed in our materials, and our trademarks, is owned by us or licensed to us and is protected by copyright and trademark law.

Aside from the limited license in Section 5, nothing on the site transfers any ownership or license to you. You may not copy, reproduce, republish, upload, post, transmit, distribute, sell, create derivative works from, or use our materials commercially without our prior written permission.

You may share links to our free public content freely. We would appreciate that.

11. Acceptable Use

You agree not to use the site or our products to break any law, infringe anyone’s rights, transmit malicious code, attempt to gain unauthorized access to our systems, scrape or harvest data, resell access, or harass our staff or other customers.

We may suspend or terminate access immediately, without explanation, or without refund, for a material breach of this section.

12. Student Information and Privacy

To provide instruction we collect information about the student, which may include name, age, grade, school, evaluation results, prior instruction and progress data.

We use this information only to deliver and improve the service you purchased. We do not sell it. We do not share it with third parties except service providers who help us operate (such as our scheduling, video and payment platforms), or where a funding program or law requires disclosure, or with your written consent.

Our full Privacy Policy is a separate page available at Privacy Policy and is incorporated into these Terms.

You may request a copy of your student’s records, or request deletion, by writing to info@theliteracykeys.com. Deletion requests are honored except where we must retain records for program audit purposes under Section 9.

13. Recording

We do not record live sessions, and you may not record them, without the written consent of both parties. Where a session is recorded by agreement, the recording is provided for the family’s own use only and is subject to the license in Section 5.

14. Communication

Email between sessions is welcome and answered within two business days. Email is for coordination and brief questions. It is not a channel for additional instruction. Substantive consultation is scheduled and billed separately.

By purchasing, you agree to receive transactional email about your order. You may opt out of marketing email at any time using the link in any message, without affecting your service.

15. Disclaimer of Warranties

Our products and services are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

We do not warrant that the site will be uninterrupted or error free.

16. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total liability arising out of or relating to these Terms, the site, or any product or service, will not exceed the amount you paid us for the product or service giving rise to the claim in the twelve months before the claim arose.

We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost opportunities, or educational, academic or admissions outcomes, even if we have been advised of the possibility.

Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.

17. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless The Literacy Keys LLC, its owner, employees and contractors from any claim, loss, liability or expense, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising from your breach of these Terms, your misuse of our materials, or your submission of inaccurate information to a funding program or a reviewing body.

18. Chargebacks

If you believe there is a problem with your order, please contact us first at shop@theliteracykeys.com so that we may work with you.

Initiating a chargeback or payment dispute without first contacting us is a breach of these Terms. We may suspend access pending resolution and may recover our costs of responding, including any fees charged by the payment processor.

Chargebacks are not available on purchases made with education savings account or scholarship funds. Those disputes are resolved through the funding program.

19. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York, without regard to its conflict of laws rules.

Talk to us. Before filing any claim, you agree to contact us at info@theliteracykeys.com and give us 30 days to resolve the issue.

Any controversy or claim arising out a dispute relating to these terms, or the validity, inducement, or breach thereof, shall be settled by arbitration before a single arbitrator in accordance with the Commercial Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Association (“AAA” available at www.adr.org), except where those rules conflict with this provision, in which case this provision controls.  Any court with jurisdiction shall enforce this clause and enter judgment on any award.  The arbitrator shall be an attorney who has at least 15 years of experience with a law firm or corporate law department of over 25 lawyers or who was a judge of a court of general jurisdiction. They shall be selected within ten days of commencement of the arbitration from the AAA’s National Roster of Arbitrators pursuant to agreement or through selection procedures administered by the AAA. The arbitration shall be held in Albany, New York and in rendering the award the arbitrator must apply the substantive law of the State of New York  (except where that law conflicts with this clause), except that the interpretation and enforcement of this arbitration provision shall be governed by the Federal Arbitration Act.

Within 45 days of initiation of arbitration, the parties shall reach agreement upon and thereafter follow procedures assuring that the arbitration will be concluded and the award rendered within no more than eight months from selection of the arbitrator.  Failing such agreement, the AAA will design and the parties will follow procedures that meet such a time schedule.  Each party has the right before or, if the arbitrator cannot hear the matter within an acceptable period, during the arbitration to seek and obtain from the appropriate court provisional remedies such as attachment, preliminary injunction, replevin, etc., to avoid irreparable harm, maintain the status quo or preserve the subject matter of the arbitration.  THE ARBITRATOR SHALL NOT AWARD ANY PARTY PUNITIVE, EXEMPLARY, MULTIPLIED OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, AND EACH PARTY HEREBY IRREVOCABLY WAIVES ANY RIGHT TO SEEK SUCH DAMAGES.  NO PARTY MAY SEEK OR OBTAIN PREJUDGMENT INTEREST OR ATTORNEYS’ FEES OR COSTS. 

20. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms and material changes will be posted here with an update date. The version in effect on the date of your purchase governs that purchase. Changes do not apply retroactively to a tutoring block, course enrollment or consulting engagement already underway.

21. Severability and Entire Agreement

If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest stays in effect. These Terms, together with the Refund Policy and Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between us regarding our products and services.

22. Contact

The Literacy Keys, LLC

297 Red Mills Road

Freehold, NY 12431

info@theliteracykeys.com