Safeguarding and Code of Conduct

Our commitment

Every child has the right to learn safely. At SII, the welfare of a child comes before the reputation of the school, the convenience of staff, and the wishes of any adult. Anyone who works for SII who has a concern about a child must act on it, following our Mandated Reporting Policy.

Safeguarding roles

• Safeguarding Lead and deputy. A named Safeguarding Lead and a deputy are in place before any child is enrolled. Neither may be the only person with administrator rights.
• Independent safeguarding adviser. An adviser outside SII, under contract before any child is enrolled, receives every concern about the Principal, the Safeguarding Lead, a director, or any administrator.
• Every adult. Every staff member, contractor, and reviewer is responsible for safeguarding.

Clearance for every adult

No adult may view a child's record, join a live class, or message a child until they are cleared. Clearance requires:

• a fingerprint-based criminal background check;
• state criminal checks for every state lived in over the past 5 years;
• a search of the national sex-offender registry;
• child abuse registry checks in each state that keeps one;
• police certificates from each other country lived in over the past 5 years;
• two references, including one from someone who supervised the person's work with children;
• a signed copy of this code of conduct;
• safeguarding and mandated-reporter training, repeated every year.

Background checks follow the Fair Credit Reporting Act: a separate written disclosure and permission before any report is ordered, and, before any decision based on a report, a copy of the report and a chance to respond. Checks expire after 3 years and training after 1 year. When any part lapses, our software removes that person's access to children automatically. This applies to every account that can open a student record, administrators and Ameen Systems maintenance accounts included.

Live video

• Live classes are created by our platform through the school's own video account, with a personal link for each participant that works only for that session. Staff may never use a personal meeting room or link with students.
• No staff member is ever alone on video with a child. A student enters a live session only when the teacher is in and another student or a second cleared adult is too; a student who arrives first waits on a "waiting for your classmates" screen, and a student left alone with one adult is moved back to it at once. Who is in the room is taken from the video service itself, not from who opened a link.
• A group session whose active roster falls below two students follows the one-to-one rules below (a second adult and a recording), and the host and the Principal are told.
• A session with a single student requires a second adult who is not from the host's household: a second cleared adult, or the child's own parent or guardian signed in with their own account and confirmed present at the start. A learning coach never counts as that parent. In a girls' session from grade 5 the second adult is always a woman, whether a member of staff or a parent, so a father or other male guardian cannot be the second adult there. Every such session is recorded. If its second adult leaves, the session pauses and the student waits on the waiting screen until both adults are back.
• The Principal may join any session unannounced.
• Breakout rooms, private chat, and participant recording are turned off. Every AI feature of the video service is turned off and locked.
• Recordings are staff-only safeguarding records, deleted after 30 days unless a concern requires them to be kept. Our Safeguarding Lead reviews a sample of one-to-one recordings each month.
• Staff dress modestly and professionally on camera, with a plain background.

Our software holds these rules, and it learns who is in the room from the video service itself, not from who opened a link. The school's video account is not connected yet, so no class room opens. Until it is connected and tested, these rules are also required by school policy, and we will say here when that testing is done. Our scheduling software already refuses to book a one-to-one session without a second cleared adult or the child's own parent or guardian (never a learning coach).

Messages and contact

• There are three kinds of message on our platform, and no others: private conversations (staff, one student, and that student's parents), class discussions (the teacher and students, with each parent able to read their own child's posts and the teacher's), and one-way announcements.
• Staff never start a private conversation with a child without the child's parents in it.
• There are no private messages between students at any grade.
• SII staff will never contact a child outside the SII platform: no texts, calls, social media, gaming chats, or personal email. Staff do not connect with students on social media, and do not give students their personal contact details.
• Messages are kept as a record for 3 years and are never deleted early. Staff messages to students that contain phone numbers, social media handles, or the names of outside apps are flagged by a simple pattern check (not AI) for a person on our safeguarding team to review.

A child's private route to help

Once a child has their own sign-in, every Learning Hub screen and their account page have a "Talk to someone" button. It opens a conversation with our safeguarding team only, and it always reaches two people: our Safeguarding Lead and the deputy. If fewer than two cleared members of the team can receive it (for example, one or both of them is the child's parent, or is named in a concern), our independent safeguarding adviser is told too, with a reference number only. The child's message is always accepted and kept, even when no member of the team can receive it: a safeguarding concern is opened, the adviser and our safeguarding mailbox are told, and a Lead or deputy who can receive it later is added to the conversation. It is never shown to a parent and never appears in a family's view, email summary, or data download. Staff may reply, but may never start such a conversation. The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline and the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline (1-800-422-4453) are shown on every student page. Children in grades 1 and 2, and any child without their own sign-in, learn beside a parent in the locked "Learn with" view, which shows 988, Childhelp, and 911 on every screen. This is the only exception to the rule that parents are included in conversations with their child.

Emergencies during a live class

At enrollment, each family gives the address where their child attends class and the number for their county's emergency dispatch. The address is encrypted; the county's public dispatch number is stored with it. During a live class, the teacher and any second adult can open an Emergency card with those details, guardians' phone numbers, and these steps:

1. First, if a child is in danger, call the child's local emergency dispatch number (not 911 from the teacher's own location, which reaches the wrong area) and give the address on the card.
2. Then call the child's parent or guardian, unless the danger may come from them.
3. Tell the Safeguarding Lead, and record what happened.

The card lists the steps in this order, with the address and the dispatch number above the guardians' phone numbers.

Opening the Emergency card is logged and alerts the Safeguarding Lead. Because the danger may come from home, the opening is held back from the family's list of who opened the child's record until the safeguarding team decides it is safe to show.

Attendance and welfare

A missed live class is reported to the family the same day. If a child has no activity for five school days and the family does not respond to their advisor, the Safeguarding Lead makes a welfare check.

Code of conduct for staff

• Treat every child with respect, patience, and fairness. Never use humiliation, threats, or harsh language.
• Keep every contact with a child on the SII platform, within the rules above.
• Never give a child gifts, favors, or special attention that could single them out, and never ask a child to keep a secret.
• Never photograph, record, or screenshot a child, except the recordings our platform makes itself.
• Never share a child's information outside the people whose work requires it.
• Never ask a child to reveal family conflict, abuse, or their own mental-health struggles in schoolwork. If a child discloses something, listen, do not promise secrecy, and report.
• Teach the way your family-facing role requires: respect each family's madhhab, never mark a child wrong for following a recognized position of the four Sunni schools, and never grade a child's faith.
• Refer personal religious rulings to the family's own imam or scholar. SII does not issue fatwas.
• Report any breach of this code by anyone, including a colleague or a leader.

Code of conduct for students

• Speak to teachers and classmates with adab: kindly, honestly, and respectfully, in class and in writing.
• No bullying, name-calling, or mocking anyone's background, family, madhhab, or ability.
• Do your own work. See our Academic Integrity and Grading Policy.
• Keep your password to yourself, and never join a class as someone else or share a class link.
• Do not record, photograph, or screenshot classes or classmates.
• If anything online makes you feel unsafe, press "Talk to someone," or tell a parent or teacher.

When a student breaks these rules, a teacher talks with the student and the family first. The aim is to repair harm and help the student do better. More serious or repeated breaches are decided by the Principal, who hears from the family before deciding. A person always decides; no penalty is applied automatically.

Adults at home

• Parents and learning coaches who sit with a child during a live class may be seen by other families. Dress and speak as you would in a classroom, and keep other household members out of view.
• Do not record, photograph, or screenshot live classes.
• Do not contact other families' children. Speak to staff about any concern with another child.
• Treat staff with courtesy. Staff are asked to treat you the same way.

Adult learners and new Muslims

Adult learners are never placed in a class, group, or conversation with anyone under 18. Staff and learners may not propose, arrange, or broker marriage in any SII class or channel, and no one may use SII to approach a new Muslim about marriage.

Concerns and allegations

Anyone can raise a concern by following Reporting a Concern. When a concern names a member of staff, that person loses access to children at once while it is looked into, administrators included. A concern about a leader goes to the independent safeguarding adviser as well as the agency. We cooperate fully with the authorities and do not conduct our own investigation of suspected abuse. No one who raises a concern in good faith will suffer for it.