Who we are and this agreement
RYSE is a school discovery tool for families in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area, operated by RYSE Kids (we call ourselves RYSE throughout these terms). RYSE helps you understand school options, see which schools your address is zoned for, compare choices, and organize your search.
These terms are a binding agreement between you and RYSE. You accept them when you agree to them in RYSE, which we ask you to do the first time you sign in to your account. Each version of these terms has a version number and date at the top of this page, and we keep a record of which version you accepted and when, so we both know which terms apply to you. When we make a meaningful change, we’ll ask you to accept the updated version before you keep using the parts of RYSE that require an account.
Who can use RYSE
RYSE is built for adults: parents, guardians, and families relocating to the area. You must be at least 18 years old to create an account.
RYSE is not a service for children and is not directed to them. You may not create an account for a child or on a child’s behalf. When you tell us about your family, such as the grade levels you are shopping for, you are sharing your own information as a parent or guardian. We never ask for a child’s name, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has provided us information, please contact us and we’ll remove it.
Your account
Please give us accurate information when you sign up, and keep it current. You are responsible for what happens under your account, so keep your login details safe and let us know if you think someone else has access.
An account is meant for one household. You are welcome to share what you learn with your own family. What you may not do is reproduce, resell, or redistribute your paid results — such as comparison PDFs, lists, and analyses — for any other family or household without RYSE’s written permission (see using RYSE fairly, below).
You can delete your account at any time from your account settings. We can also suspend or close an account if it is used in a way that breaks these terms or puts other families, our team, or the service at risk. If we close your account, we will tell you why where we reasonably can.
We may send you emails about your account, your billing, your bookings, and important changes to these terms or the service. These service messages are part of using RYSE, so you can’t opt out of them while you have an account. Any purely promotional emails are separate, and you can unsubscribe from those at any time.
Plans, payments, and renewals
RYSE has a free plan and several paid plans. You can see exactly what each plan includes, and its current price, on our pricing page. We keep the details there so there is a single, up-to-date source rather than a list buried in these terms.
No auto-renewal
Our annual plans do not auto-renew. When your year is up, your plan simply drops back to the free plan, and we do not charge you again unless you choose to renew. Your account, saved schools, notes, ratings, and addresses stay with you either way. Paid features lock until you resubscribe, and nothing you saved is deleted just because a plan ended.
Payments and cancellation
Payments are processed by Stripe, our payment provider. We never see or store your card number. You can manage your billing, update your payment method, or cancel through the billing portal linked in your account settings. Because annual plans do not auto-renew, cancelling mainly means telling us you will not be renewing. You keep your paid features through the end of the year you paid for, and after that your plan returns to the free plan. Your saved work stays put either way.
One-time services and Concierge
Some things you can buy are one-time services rather than subscriptions, such as a mini consult or a one-on-one session. Concierge is a one-time purchase that includes a set of support sessions available to you for twelve months from the date you buy it. One-time purchases do not renew.
Refunds
We offer a 30-day, no-questions-asked full refund. If something you bought isn’t helpful for your family, email support@rysekids.com within 30 days of your purchase and we’ll refund your full payment. We honor every request and aim to process refunds within three business days.
That covers our plans and our one-time live services alike, including a mini consult, a one-on-one session, and Concierge. Whatever you decide, everything you’ve saved — your account, schools, notes, ratings, and addresses — stays with you.
Price changes
We may change our prices over time. Any price change applies to future purchases and renewals, never to a plan you have already paid for.
About our school data and your decisions
This is the most important section to read carefully. RYSE brings together public data from sources such as the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, and Mecklenburg County GIS. We work hard to keep it accurate and to explain it in plain language, and we refresh it periodically. Even so, this data can change and can contain errors, and we cannot guarantee that it is complete or current.
Attendance zones, feeder patterns, and transportation change from year to year, and the district’s own tools are the authoritative source. Before you make an enrollment decision, and especially before you make a housing or moving decision based on where a home is zoned, confirm the school assignment directly with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools using their official boundary and enrollment tools.
RYSE gives you information and decision support. We are not a school, a government agency, a law firm, or a real estate broker, and RYSE is not educational, legal, financial, or real estate advice. School Performance Grades and similar state metrics have real limitations, which we try to explain, and they are not a promise about how a school will fit your child.
Lottery, magnet, and choice outcomes are decided by the district and by chance, not by RYSE. Nothing in RYSE guarantees admission, placement, transportation eligibility, or any particular result.
RYSE supports fair housing. Our school information is meant to help you make your own choices, not to steer you toward or away from any neighborhood based on race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law. We do not participate in or condone discriminatory housing practices, and nothing in RYSE should be treated as advice to favor or avoid an area on any such basis.
The RYSE Guide and other AI features
The RYSE Guide is an AI assistant. It is software, not a person, even though it chats in a friendly, human way, and it can help you explore options and update your preferences as you go.
Like all AI, the Guide can be wrong or incomplete. Please treat what it says as a helpful starting point, not the final word, and confirm anything important, especially zone assignments and deadlines, with the district. Do not rely on the Guide as the only basis for an enrollment, housing, or financial decision.
We review conversations with the Guide to improve the product and to keep it accurate and safe. Our privacy policy explains how we handle that content and which providers help us run these features.
Workshops, sessions, and consultations
Some plans and add-ons include live support, such as workshops, question-and-answer sessions, and one-on-one consultations with a member of the RYSE team. These are informational and supportive. They do not create a professional, fiduciary, or advisory relationship, and they are not legal, financial, or real estate advice.
Using RYSE fairly
RYSE is a lot of careful work, and we ask you to use it in good faith. Please do not:
- scrape, copy in bulk, or resell the school data or the lists and comparisons RYSE builds;
- reproduce, share, or redistribute your paid results, such as downloaded comparison PDFs, for anyone outside your household, or use them for a commercial purpose, without RYSE’s written permission;
- try to reverse engineer, break, or work around how RYSE is built, including any limits on your plan;
- upload anything unlawful, or use RYSE to harass, abuse, or mislead other people or our team.
If you are a real estate professional or another business and want to use RYSE with clients, please reach out; we have separate tools and terms for that.
Who owns what
RYSE owns the platform: the site, the design, the software, and the lists, comparisons, analyses, and written content we create. When you use a paid plan, we give you a personal, non-transferable license to use your results for your own family’s school decisions. That license is for your household only; it does not let you reproduce, resell, or redistribute your results for another family or household without RYSE’s written permission.
The information you enter — your addresses, priorities, and notes — stays yours. You give us a limited license to use it to operate RYSE for you and provide the features you’ve asked for, as described in our privacy policy. If you send us feedback or ideas, we may use them to improve RYSE, with no obligation to you.
Disclaimers and limits on our liability
RYSE is provided on an "as-is" and "as-available" basis. We do not promise that it will be error-free or uninterrupted, or that the data will be complete or current.
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, RYSE DISCLAIMS ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, RYSE IS NOT LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL LOSSES. Our total liability to you for any claim is limited to the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the claim. Some of these limits may not apply to you depending on where you live.
If your use causes a problem
If someone brings a claim against us because you used RYSE in a way that breaks these terms or the law, you agree to cover the reasonable costs, including sensible attorneys’ fees, that directly result. We’ll tell you promptly about any such claim and work with you in good faith to handle it.
A few general terms
Severability. If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest stays in full effect.
No waiver. If we don’t enforce a part of these terms right away, that doesn’t mean we give up the right to enforce it later.
Assignment. You may not transfer your account or these terms to someone else without our permission. We may transfer our rights and obligations — for example, if RYSE is acquired or reorganized — and we’ll let you know if that happens.
Entire agreement. These terms, together with our privacy policy and the plan details on our pricing page, are the whole agreement between you and RYSE.
Events outside our control. We aren’t responsible for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control, such as outages, natural events, or disruptions to services we rely on.
Other sites we link to. RYSE links to outside sites, such as the district’s boundary and enrollment tools, our scheduling and payment providers, and other resources. We don’t control those sites and aren’t responsible for their content, accuracy, or practices; your use of them is between you and them.
Surviving terms. If your account ends or these terms stop applying to you, the sections that by their nature should continue — including the disclaimers, the limits on our liability, indemnification, and who owns what — remain in effect.
Where RYSE is offered. RYSE is operated from the United States and intended for use by families in the United States. We don’t represent that it’s appropriate or available elsewhere.
Resolving disputes
Let’s try to sort it out directly first. If you have a concern, email support@rysekids.com and give us 30 days to make it right. Most issues can be resolved this way, and we’d always rather fix a problem directly.
Governing law. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules.
Where disputes are heard. If a dispute can’t be resolved informally, you and RYSE agree it will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, and we each consent to the jurisdiction of those courts.
Changes to these terms
We will update these terms as RYSE grows. When a change is meaningful, we will ask you to accept the new version before you keep using the parts of RYSE that require an account, and we keep a record of your acceptance. Minor wording updates may be posted with a new date and version at the top of this page without asking you to accept again.
How to reach us
We would love to hear from you. For general questions, email hello@rysekids.com. For a refund, email support@rysekids.com.