Terms of Service

Lightstead is a family-workspace web and mobile application operated by Lightstead, Inc. (“Lightstead,” “we,” “us”). These Terms govern your use of the Lightstead website at lightsteads.com, the web app at app.lightsteads.com, and the iOS and Android applications when published.

The Service is offered to adults age 18 or older who serve as the primary administrator of a household account. Children under 18 may use the Service only as members of a household whose primary administrator (a parent or legal guardian) has consented on their behalf and configured access through the Family Mode settings.

You are responsible for the security of your account credentials, the actions taken by any member of your household account, and the accuracy of the information you submit. You agree to keep your account information current — including email address, household state of residence, and timezone — so the Service can deliver time-sensitive features such as homeschool filing deadlines and calendar reminders.

You are responsible for any subscription charges incurred on the payment method on file. Lightstead may suspend or terminate access for non-payment, suspected fraud, or violation of these Terms.

Lightstead is offered on a 30-day free trial with no credit card required to start. After the trial, paid subscriptions are billed at the rate posted at /pricingat the time of conversion ($9.99/month or $89.99/year for the entire household at launch). Payment processing is handled by Stripe; refer to Stripe's terms for payment-network-level disputes.

Automatic renewal.Your subscription automatically renews at the end of each billing period at the then-current rate until you cancel. You will be charged the renewal amount on the day your prior billing period ends. By providing payment information at checkout, you authorize Lightstead's payment processor (Stripe) to charge that payment method on a recurring basis. The applicable billing cadence (monthly or annual) is the cadence you selected at checkout.

Cancellation.You may cancel at any time from your account settings — on the web, Settings → Subscription → Manage billing; on mobile, More → Settings → Subscription. Each of those entry points opens the Stripe billing portal where you can cancel with a single click. No phone call, email, or letter is required. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period; you will not be charged for the next period.

Refunds. Lightstead refunds an initial annual subscription in full if you request a refund within 30 days of the initial charge — contact support@lightsteads.com with your account email. For annual subscriptions cancelled after 30 days, we will refund the unused portion of the billing period on a pro-rated basis upon request. Monthly subscriptions are not refunded after the initial 30-day window. Recurring annual-renewal charges are refundable within 14 days of the renewal charge upon written request to the support address above. These refund provisions are in addition to (and do not waive) any non-waivable refund rights you have under the consumer-protection law of your state of residence.

Price changes.We may change subscription pricing on at least 30 days' notice delivered by email to the address associated with your account. Active subscribers are honored at the price in effect when they signed up until the end of their current billing period; the new price applies on the next renewal. You may cancel before the next renewal to avoid a price-change charge.

You agree not to:

• Use the Service for any unlawful purpose or to facilitate any unlawful conduct.
• Upload content that infringes another party's intellectual property or privacy rights.
• Attempt to reverse-engineer, scrape, or otherwise circumvent the technical protections of the Service.
• Use the Service to impersonate, harass, or abuse any person — including children registered as members of your own household.
• Resell, sublicense, or commercialize access to the Service without our prior written consent.

You retain ownership of all content you submit to the Service — including but not limited to homeschool records, work samples, photographs, transcripts, grades, attendance logs, journal entries, lists, calendar events, and chore configurations (“Your Content”).

You grant Lightstead a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, copy, transmit, and display Your Content solely to operate the Service for you and your household, including generating PDFs, syncing with calendar providers you authorize, and rendering shared content to authorized members of your household. We do not sell, license, or share Your Content with third parties except as you direct, as required by law, or as described in our Privacy Policy.

You are responsible for downloading or otherwise preserving Your Content as needed to meet state homeschool recordkeeping requirements. If you delete your household account, Your Content is permanently removed from our systems within a reasonable window per our deletion policy (see §11 below).

A household account is created and administered by a parent or legal guardian. The administrator may add household members, including children, and configure each member's access. Children added to a household without their own login (“child profile” mode) interact with the Service only through the administrator's device. Children with their own login operate under the parent-configured permission model documented in our help center.

By adding a child to your household, you represent that you are the parent or legal guardian of that child and consent on the child's behalf to Lightstead's collection and use of that child's data as described in our Privacy Policy. You may remove a child from your household at any time; their associated data is removed per §5 and §11 of these Terms.

The Service — including the application code, design, the brand “Lightstead,” the Lightstead marks, and the state homeschool rule summaries authored or curated by Lightstead — is the property of Lightstead, Inc. and is protected by U.S. copyright, trademark, and other intellectual-property laws. You may not reproduce, modify, or distribute Lightstead-owned content except as the Service's features expressly allow.

You may cancel your subscription and delete your household account at any time. Lightstead may suspend or terminate access for material breach of these Terms — including violations of §4 (Acceptable use) or §6 (Children and household members) — for prolonged non-payment, for credible reports of child-safety abuse, or where required by law. On termination, Your Content is removed per §5 and §11.

Where suspension or termination is for cause and not for non-payment, we will make a good-faith effort to notify you by email before access is suspended, unless doing so would compromise an active investigation, violate a legal obligation, or create a safety risk.

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. LIGHTSTEAD DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR AVAILABLE AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME.

THE HOMESCHOOL MODULE'S STATE RULE DATA AND GENERATED DOCUMENTS ARE INFORMATIONAL ONLY. SEE THE HOMESCHOOL ADDENDUM BELOW FOR THE FULL DISCLAIMER GOVERNING THAT MODULE.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, LIGHTSTEAD WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING FROM THE SERVICE IS LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT YOU PAID LIGHTSTEAD IN THE 12 MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM.

This section does not limit any non-waivable consumer-protection rights you have under the laws of your state of residence.

You may delete your household account at any time from Settings → Danger zone. On deletion we remove your household's structured data (calendars, journals, lists, homeschool records, chore history, etc.) and best-effort delete the associated files in object storage. Some data may persist briefly in encrypted backups before automatic expiration.

You are responsible for downloading or otherwise preserving any records you need to retain for legal, academic, or personal purposes prior to deleting your account. Several states impose multi-year retention requirements on homeschool records — see A7 (Records retention) in the Homeschool addendum below.

We may update these Terms as our Service or applicable law evolves. We aim to surface material changes in-app (for example, via a banner or settings notice) before they take effect. For accounts with a registered email, we will use that email to notify you of changes that materially affect your rights or obligations under these Terms. Continued use of the Service after the effective date of a change constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms. The current effective date is shown at the top of this page.

Questions about these Terms may be directed to support@lightsteads.com. Legal correspondence (DMCA notices, formal subpoenas) should be sent to legal@lightsteads.com.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service that is not resolved through informal contact with support@lightsteads.com may be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Moore County, North Carolina, and you and Lightstead each consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.

Informal resolution first. Before filing any legal proceeding, you agree to first contact us in good faith at support@lightsteads.com describing the dispute and the relief you seek. Lightstead will respond within 30 days. Many disputes are resolved at this stage.

Small-claims carve-out.Either you or Lightstead may bring an individual action in a small-claims court for any matter within that court's jurisdiction. The forum-selection clause above does not require either party to forgo small-claims relief.

Class-action waiver. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, you and Lightstead agree that any dispute will be resolved on an individual basis only, and not as part of a class action, representative action, consolidated action, or other collective proceeding. This waiver does not apply where it is prohibited by the law of your state of residence.

Lightstead's Homeschool module helps families organize attendance, hours, subjects, work samples, reading lists, standardized-test scores, and other records associated with home-based education in the United States. The module also generates document templates — Notices of Intent, affidavits, year-end reports, IHIPs, evaluator letters, inspection packets, transcripts, diplomas, and similar — that families may use as a starting point when preparing filings.

Lightstead does not practice law and does not provide legal advice. The content presented in the Homeschool module — including per-state rule summaries, deadline feeds, the compliance dashboard, and generated PDFs — is informational only. It is not a substitute for legal counsel from an attorney licensed in your jurisdiction.

The state-by-state homeschool requirement data shipped with the module is hand-curated from third-party sources, principally HSLDA state summaries, state Department of Education publications, and statute text from official legislative sites. Each state record carries a lastVerified date and a sources list visible in the in-app state requirements card.

State homeschool law changes. You are responsible for confirming the current rule set with your state DOE, school district, or attorney before relying on Lightstead's record for a filing or evaluation. Lightstead makes no warranty that the rule set on file matches the law in effect on the date you generate a document.

PDFs generated by the Homeschool module — Notices of Intent, affidavits, IHIPs, year-end reports, quarterly reports, inspection packets, evaluator letters, transcripts, college packets, diplomas, and standardized-test certificates — are parent-prepared drafts. They are not state-issued, not attorney-reviewed, and have no legal force until you sign and submit them to the appropriate recipient.

You are solely responsible for:

• Reviewing the generated content for accuracy.
• Filling in any blank fields the template leaves for you.
• Confirming the recipient address, filing deadline, and required form matches current district guidance.
• Notarizing, signing, or attaching supporting documents as the jurisdiction requires.
• Submitting the document by the applicable deadline.

Lightstead is not responsible for late, rejected, or non-compliant filings that result from your reliance on a generated document without independent verification.

The diploma generator produces a parent-issued homeschool diploma. Acceptance varies by recipient — military enlistment, scholarship eligibility, certain employer credentialing, and some post-secondary admissions require additional verification. Lightstead does not warrant that any particular institution will accept a parent-issued diploma generated by the module.

Transcript and college packet PDFs reflect the data you have entered in Lightstead. They are not authenticated transcripts and do not bear the seal or signature of a registrar or accrediting authority.

The compliance dashboard scores each child against a curated rule set for the household's configured state. Scoring is best-effort and is intended as a self-check, not a determination of legal compliance. A “green” status does notconstitute a representation by Lightstead that the household is in compliance with state law; a “red” or “amber” status does notconstitute a representation that the household is out of compliance.

The Homeschool module issues tokenized read-only links to share a student's record with an outside evaluator or to deliver an inspection packet to a district. Anyone in possession of a token can view the linked content without further authentication. You are responsible for distributing tokens only to intended recipients and for revoking them when no longer needed.

Several states require homeschool records to be retained for a period of years (NY: 7 years; FL: 2 years; GA: 3 years; PA: portfolio retained while student is enrolled plus 1 year; others vary). You are responsible for preserving records for the period your state requires. Lightstead's account-delete flow surfaces the retention warning and offers a one-click export so you can preserve records before deletion.

You agree to indemnify and hold Lightstead harmless from any claim, loss, or damages — including reasonable attorney's fees — arising from your reliance on the Homeschool module for a compliance determination, filing, or evaluation, or arising from a generated document you submitted to a third party without independent verification. This section does not limit any non-waivable consumer-protection rights you have under your state's law.

Questions about the Homeschool module addendum may be directed to support@lightsteads.com. For questions about a specific state's homeschool law, consult HSLDA, your state DOE, or an attorney licensed in your state.