At Outschool, we are committed to maintaining trust and safety standards for our learning community. Occasionally, it may be necessary to restrict a teacher's activity on the platform or remove them entirely. Such decisions are not made lightly, and are taken to preserve the trust and integrity of our community. Teachers removed for violating our Terms of Service, Teacher Addendum, Privacy Policy, and/or Community Standards (collectively, “Outschool Terms”) are not eligible to reapply to the platform.
Three-Point System
We have implemented a three-strike system for professional concerns and Trust & Safety violations to maintain clarity and fairness. While Trust & Safety STRIKES and Teacher Policy Incidents are tracked separately, both are considered risks to user trust and the overall experience on the platform.
Trust & Safety “3 STRIKE SYSTEM” These are issued for violations that compromise our learners' and community's safety, privacy, or well-being. Non-removable STRIKES are issued after an initial educational warning. Accumulating three Trust & Safety STRIKES will result in removal from the platform. Trust & Safety also immediately removes teachers for egregious violations of Safety & Security policies.
Teacher Policy Incidents: These are issued for incidents not meeting the requirements you agree to when signing up to teach on Outschool. After two incidents, an educator will fall out of good standing, which may affect their visibility and access to certain platform features such as badging. The educator will be removed from the platform upon receiving a third quality incident. Incidents fall off within one calendar year. Incidents may coincide with class unlisting when relevant.
In severe or repeated violations, immediate removal without prior events may occur.
Reasons for Restriction or Removal:
Trust & Safety Strikes include, but are not limited to:
Financial Disintermediation
Teacher Policy Incidents include, but are not limited to:
Excessive missed classes or late arrivals
Regular failure to respond to parent or learner messages
Teaching content outside of our guidelines or lacking expertise in the topic
Violations of our unique content policies
Breaches of our copyright policies
Class listings:
Repeat violations of our class listing policies:
Significantly straying from the class listing
Lack of timely updates or failure to provide compliant lessons in self-paced classes
Excessive Learner Experience Pledge refunds:
Outschool provides courtesy refunds when a class isn’t the right fit for a learner. However, a high percentage of these refunds compared to total bookings is qualifying as an experience issue, indicating concerns that may impact trust.
Unprofessional behavior, inappropriate teaching environments, or poor-quality class experiences:
Teachers should communicate respectfully with learners, and only engage in age-appropriate topics relevant to the class content.
Live classes should be held in a professional setting, free from excessive noise or distractions (e.g., avoid teaching from a couch or other informal spaces).
Teachers are expected to be prepared for class and cover all content as outlined in the class listing.
Inactive Classes and Educator Activity
A class will be unlisted if no new sections have been created in the past six months. If a teacher has no active sections of any classes in the last six months, all classes may be unlisted. Classes unlisted due to inactivity may be resubmitted for approval. Accounts that do not complete and clear their annual background checks will be suspended.
We understand that even the best educators might receive a poor review, miss an occasional class, or receive a complaint from a parent. When these instances occur in isolation and are addressed promptly, they do not raise significant concerns. However, repeated or severe unprofessional conduct may lead us to take action.
Outschool retains the right to remove teachers or classes from the platform without prior for a teacher’s acts or omissions that violate Outschool’s Terms and policies. Our policies are designed to maintain a safe, and trustworthy learning environment for all community members. We appreciate your cooperation and dedication to providing exceptional educational experiences. Together, we can ensure that Outschool remains a platform where learners thrive and educators excel.