Privacy Policy

Happy Little Scholars Academy operates a licensed home-based child care program in Garner, NC. Our website at hlsacademy.com helps families request tours, register for enrollment, and complete required childcare forms.

Questions about this policy: admin@hlsacademy.com or (919) 578-3404.

We collect information you choose to submit through our website, including:

• Parent or guardian name, email, phone number, and address
• Information about children you are enrolling (such as name and date of birth)
• Enrollment and program preferences from tour and registration forms
• Information you enter on required enrollment and policy forms, including electronic signatures
• Job application details and resumes submitted through Join Our Team
• Payment-related status when you pay an enrollment application fee through our QuickBooks Online invoice link (we do not store full bank or card numbers on our website)

We use this information to operate our childcare business, including:

• Responding to tour requests and enrollment inquiries
• Managing enrollment paperwork and compliance records
• Communicating with families about enrollment status and required forms
• Processing the one-time enrollment application fee (currently $80 per family) through Intuit QuickBooks Online
• Reviewing employment applications

Form submissions are processed through our website and backend systems. Enrollment records, form progress, and family contact information are stored in a Google Workspace spreadsheet used by HLS staff. Signed PDFs are stored in Google Drive folders associated with each family.

When an application fee is required, we create or update a customer and invoice in our QuickBooks Online company to collect payment. Payment services on the invoice payment page are provided by Intuit Payments Inc. Payment methods on the Intuit QuickBooks invoice page (for example ACH bank transfer and PayPal) follow our QuickBooks Online invoice payment settings. A family reference number may be stored on the QuickBooks customer record to match payment to enrollment.

We use reputable service providers (such as Google and Intuit) under their own privacy and security terms. We do not sell your personal information.

Our QuickBooks Online integration is used only for our own licensed childcare business. We create customer and invoice records for enrolling families and read payment status so enrollment forms can unlock after a fee is paid.

We do not share one family's enrollment or payment information with other families or with unrelated third parties. Data is used only to operate enrollment, billing, and childcare records for HLS.

Only the business owner connects QuickBooks to our backend. Parents pay through Intuit-hosted invoice links and do not authorize QuickBooks access on our website.

Each enrolling family receives a private reference number used with email to access forms. Treat your reference number like a password. We do not display reference numbers publicly when someone registers with an email or phone number that is already on file.

We retain enrollment and childcare records as needed to operate our program and meet applicable childcare record-keeping requirements. If you have questions about retention for a specific situation, contact us at admin@hlsacademy.com.

Our website is intended for parents and guardians, not for children to use directly. Information about children is provided by parents or guardians for enrollment and care purposes only.

We use automated tools to reduce spam and abuse on public enrollment forms. This includes rate limiting and Google reCAPTCHA v3, which analyzes interaction patterns to help distinguish legitimate visitors from bots. reCAPTCHA is subject to Google's Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. We do not use reCAPTCHA to advertise to you.

You may contact us to update or correct contact information we have on file. If you do not wish to submit information through our online forms, contact us to discuss alternative ways to complete enrollment paperwork.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page will change when we do. Continued use of the website after changes means you accept the updated policy.