Policy Statement — Suzuki School of Newton

SSN’s Policy and Privacy Statement

The following is SSN’s Policy and Privacy Statement, which you must agree to when you enroll in the Suzuki School of Newton. Please read it carefully.

1. Enrollment and Tuition. Enrollment includes individual lessons, group classes, and musicianship classes. Enrollment for individual lessons only is available in rare circumstances. Deviations from the core program must be approved by the director. We accept students who study privately outside SSN to enroll in our group and musicianship classes by audition. A payment plan must be initiated, or full payment must be made, by the official start of the semester (see current calendar for exact dates). Instruction will be suspended if the office does not receive confirmation of payment by this date. Make-ups will not be allowed for instruction suspended due to non-payment. Checks, Visa and MasterCard are accepted for full payment. If you wish to set up a payment plan please submit 6 postdated checks (contact office for specific dates), or provide a credit card number. New enrollments after the fourth week of classes are only eligible for a plan of two (2) payments.

2. All extra lessons, including summer lessons, must be prepaid through the school office.

3. Finance Fees. A late fee of $20 will be added to the tuition bill for payments not made on or before the official start of the semester, as will a $20 fee if your checks are returned from the bank for any reason. Payment in arrears of two lessons will result in the suspension of all lessons and classes until accounts are in good standing.

4. Refund Policy. Refunds will depend on the date that the office receives written notice of withdrawal.

Tuition is non-refundable for “Early Beginners,” “Group only,” and “Musicianship only” registrants.

In all cases, the $45 annual registration fee is non-refundable.

If the written notice of withdrawal is received before:

Fall semester: BEFORE First class ---> Full refund
Fall semester: BEFORE Second class ---> 75% refund of fall semester plus 100% refund of spring semester
Fall semester: BEFORE Third class ---> 50% refund of fall semester plus 100% refund of spring semester
Fall semester: BEFORE Fourth class ---> 25% refund of fall semester plus 100% refund of spring semester
Spring Semester: BEFORE January 2 ---> 100% refund of spring semester
Spring Semester: BEFORE January 9 ---> 75% refund of spring semester
Spring Semester: BEFORE January 16 ---> 50% refund of spring semester
Spring Semester: BEFORE January 23 ---> 25% refund of spring semester

5. Student Absences. We maintain a no make-up policy for lessons missed due to any circumstances other than teacher absence. In anticipation of a lesson being missed, parents are encouraged to switch lessons within the teacher's schedule using “swap lists.” It is recommended that a “swap partner” be arranged before the need occurs. Extended student absences due to illness or injury will be handled by the Director. Students who documented health conditions that may result in regular absence may be given permission to reschedule up to four lessons per school year at the discretion of the Teacher and the Director.

6. Teacher Absences. Parents should expect that teachers will request rescheduling for professional commitments, and teachers are required to offer a make-up for lessons missed due to those professional commitments.

7. Changing teachers. Within the school, parents may initiate a change in individual teacher by contacting their current teacher. Parents who wish to terminate their enrollment at SSN may not study with an SSN teacher within a 12 month period. Teachers are under contract that they may not take students from SSN into their private studios for a period of 12 months following the student's enrollment at SSN or risk termination of their employment as SSN faculty. This includes all students registered in the school, parents of students or other persons who have had an SSN relationship.

8. Holidays and Snow Days. The school will close officially on all Newton Public School Holidays. A copy of the school calendar listing official holidays is made available in the SSN office and online. SSN will also follow Newton Public School decisions concerning closings due to snow. SSN maintains no liability for lessons on a snow day. If your teacher decides to teach on a snow day, you will be called directly. There is one potential snow make up day per day of the week in each semester. Group and Musicianship classes will meet on these days only if there has been a snow day cancellation. If you withdraw from SSN mid-year, you are not eligible for snow make ups.

9. Safety. All children must be accompanied by a responsible adult at all times. We ask that you respect the school and the surrounding grounds. Repeated warnings for misconduct may result in dismissal from the school.

10. Parking. The parking lot at the school is available to Suzuki families and may be accessed from Beacon Street or Windsor Road. If the parking lot is full, there is two-hour street parking on Windsor Road.

11. Telephone. There is a phone located inside of the school office for emergencies only.

12. Performance Dress. We ask that the children wear white tops, black bottoms and black shoes for their group performances. This will help the audience focus on your child's musical ability rather than their attire. This type of dress will also help your child identify with his or her peer musicians and provide a sense of unity and professional pride when performing in public venues. For solo recitals, appropriate “dressed-up” attire is fine.

13. Image Release. The Suzuki School of Newton sometimes uses photographs and video images taken from its concerts and programs to market the school in emails, on the web, and in other print and electronic media. By signing the registration form, you hereby grant permission to the Suzuki School of Newton to use your child[ren]’s image on its web site, in news features, in short video clips on YouTube and Facebook, or in other printed publications without further consideration for the purpose of advertising and promotions. You acknowledge the Suzuki School of Newton may choose to not use your child’s image at this time, but the school may do so at its own discretion at a later date. If you wish to opt out of this photo release, you may do so by indicating as such on the registration form.

14. Privacy Policy. Suzuki School of Newton has created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to privacy. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for this website: suzukinewton.org. If at any time you find this privacy policy unacceptable, you must immediately leave this website.

We respect your privacy. Any information we collect from you, including your email address, will simply be used to send you the information you have requested. We will not give or sell your personal information to any unaffiliated third party. If you give us your email and permission to send more information, you may opt out of receiving any additional email messages at any time, by unsubscribing from our email list.

Information Gathering

We use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server and to administer our website by (1) identifying which parts of our site are most heavily used (2) to tailor site content to user needs and (3) to generate aggregate statistical reports. We do not link IP addresses to anything personally identifiable. This means that user sessions will be tracked, but the users will remain anonymous.

You need not provide Suzuki School of Newton with personally identifying information (e.g., name, telephone number, email address, city and/or state of residence) as a condition of using our site. However, your failure to provide certain personally identifying information when asked will prevent certain features of the website from functioning or will prevent Suzuki School of Newton from effectively responding to certain of your requests. The website will collect only that personally identifying information that you affirmatively provide in response to a direct request.

We use a tool called "Google Analytics" to collect information about use of this site. Google Analytics collects information such as how often users visit this site, what pages they visit when they do so, and what other sites they used prior to coming to this site. We use the information we get from Google Analytics only to improve our website. Google Analytics collects only the IP address assigned to your browser on the date of your visit, instead of your name or other identifying information. We do not combine the information collected through the use of Google Analytics with any personally identifiable information. Although Google Analytics plants a "cookie" on your web browser to identify you as a unique user the cookie cannot be used by anyone but Google. Google's ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to this site is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy. You can prevent Google Analytics from recognizing your return visits to this site by disabling cookies on your browser. Please refer to your browser settings for additional information on disabling cookies or visit Google Analytics' currently available opt-outs for the web.

Third Party Sites

Links within our site may connect to external sites outside of our domain as a convenience to you. If you use these links, you will leave Suzuki School of Newton g site. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites, and do not make any representations about them. Before visiting or providing personally identifying information to any third-party website, you should review its privacy policy and practices, and should take those steps necessary to, in your discretion, protect your privacy.

Security

Suzuki School of Newton has implemented and maintains reasonable security procedures and practices to protect against the unauthorized access, use, modification, destruction or disclosure of your personally-identifying information.

Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action

Suzuki School of Newton is committed to a policy of equal treatment and opportunity in every aspect of its relations with its faculty, students, and staff members, without regard to age, citizenship status, color, disability, marital or parental status, national origin, race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation.

Contacting the Homepage

If you have any questions about this privacy statement, the practices of this site, or your dealings with this website, you can contact Suzuki School of Newton

1615 Beacon St

Phone: 617-964-4522

E-mail: email@suzukinewton.org