Terms of Service

Odysseus Lyceum is a nonprofit organization. It is not a school: it does not enroll students in a course of study, award diplomas, or hold accreditation, and it does not replace a family’s school or homeschool. It offers live online classes and educational resources that families choose one at a time.

These Terms of Service are the agreement between Odysseus Lyceum ("the Lyceum", "we") and each adult who holds an account. They cover accounts, enrollment, payment, conduct, intellectual property, recordings, and the allocation of responsibility between the Lyceum, the families who use it, and the instructors who teach on it.

Two further documents are part of this agreement for the people they apply to. The Parent Agreement governs account holders who enroll children. The Instructor Agreement governs instructors. Where one of those conflicts with these Terms, the more specific document controls for that relationship.

By creating an account, checking the box that says you agree, or using the platform, you accept these Terms. If you do not accept them, do not create an account.

You must be at least eighteen years old to hold an account. Children never hold accounts; they have profiles that sit beneath a parent or guardian’s account, with a sign-in the account holder creates and can change at any time.

You are responsible for keeping your credentials private and for everything done under your account and the child profiles beneath it. Tell us immediately if you believe an account has been used without permission.

You agree to give us accurate information and to keep it current. We verify the identity of guardians before granting them access to a child profile, and we may ask you to re-verify.

Instructors who teach on the Lyceum are independent contractors. They are not employees, partners, or agents of the Lyceum, and nothing in these Terms creates an employment, agency, or joint-venture relationship between the Lyceum and any instructor.

The Lyceum verifies each instructor’s identity, runs a background check, requires child-safety training, reviews every course before it is listed, records every class, and removes instructors who break our standards. We do not, however, direct the moment-to-moment conduct of a class, and we do not guarantee any instructor’s performance, qualifications beyond those we have verified, or conduct.

Each instructor is responsible for their own acts and omissions. The Lyceum is not an insurer of any instructor, and it does not assume liability for an instructor’s acts or omissions beyond what the law requires of it. If an instructor’s conduct concerns you, report it under the Safety & Reporting policy; we will act on every report.

Enrollment is in individual classes, one at a time. Prices are shown before you confirm. Some classes are free. Need-based assistance is available under the Scholarship Policy.

Your Lyceum balance is prepaid credit held by the Lyceum for your family. Money you add to it, gift cards you redeem into it, and refunds returned to it can be spent only on the Lyceum, are shared by every child on your account, do not expire while the account is open, carry no fees, and are not refundable or withdrawable as cash except where the law requires. Cancellation and refund terms for enrollments are set out in the Refund Policy, which is part of these Terms.

Lyceum Points are different: they are earned by students for attending and finishing classes, matched into the family’s points for tuition, and governed by the Rewards pages. Points are never money and are never redeemable for cash.

A Lyceum gift card is prepaid credit you buy for another family. You give us an amount and the recipient’s email address; we charge your payment method and email the recipient a code, with your name, that they redeem into their own Lyceum balance. Once a gift card is sent it cannot be refunded to you or re-sent to a different address, and it is not a charitable contribution. Gift cards do not expire and carry no purchase, dormancy, service or inactivity fees. A code is like cash: whoever redeems it first receives the value, we cannot reverse a redemption, and we do not replace codes that are lost, shared or stolen after delivery, so keep the confirmation private and ask the recipient to redeem promptly. Gift cards may not be resold, used for contributions, or bought in bulk without our written agreement. If the payment for a gift card is reversed, disputed or found to be fraudulent, we may void the card and remove its value from any balance it was redeemed into.

Charitable contributions to the Lyceum are irrevocable gifts and are not refundable. Contributions are not tax-deductible unless and until the Lyceum receives recognition as a tax-exempt public charity.

Everyone on the platform agrees to the Community Standards. Students also agree to the Student Standards and instructors to the Instructor Standards.

There is no private, disappearing, or guardian-invisible channel between an adult instructor and a minor anywhere in this product. Attempting to move contact with a student off the platform is grounds for immediate removal.

Candidate campaigning, electioneering, campaign fundraising, and political organizing are prohibited in all Lyceum classes, clubs, boards and messages. The Lyceum teaches ideas; it does not run campaigns.

Content screening. Because children read and see what is posted here, everything written to another person on the platform (messages, board posts and replies, reviews, notes on assignments, wishes and thank-you notes) and every picture or file uploaded that another person could see passes through automated screening before it is delivered or shown, and may also be reviewed by a person. Screening looks for threats, sexual content, harassment, hate, self-harm, attempts to move a child off the platform, malware, and material unsuitable for the youngest student who could see it. Text that is flagged is not delivered and the writer is told at once; a picture or file that is flagged is held and shown to no one until a person has looked at it. You consent to this screening as a condition of using the platform. Screening is automated and imperfect: it will sometimes stop something harmless and sometimes miss something harmful, and the Lyceum does not represent that every piece of inappropriate content will be caught. A person decides before any consequence beyond non-delivery follows, and before any family is told.

The Lyceum’s name, marks, site, software, and the course materials it publishes belong to the Lyceum or its licensors. Enrolled families receive a personal, non-transferable license to use course materials and recordings for the enrolled student’s own learning. You may not redistribute, republish, or sell them.

Instructors keep ownership of the materials they create and grant the Lyceum the license described in the Instructor Agreement.

Work a student produces in a class belongs to the student’s family. We may display it inside the platform to the class and to the student’s guardians, and we will not publish it outside the platform without written permission.

Every class is recorded for enrolled families and for safety review, under the Recording & Media Policy. Student video is never published. Recordings are retained for a limited window and released only to enrolled families.

The Lyceum is not a school. It does not enroll students in a course of study, award diplomas, or hold accreditation, and it makes no promise that any class will be accepted for credit by any school, district, state, or university. Transcripts we generate describe what happened in our classes; what anyone else does with them is their decision.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the platform and its classes are provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the platform will be uninterrupted or error-free, or that any particular educational outcome will result.

Content screening, recording, instructor vetting, and the other safety measures described in these Terms and our policies are undertaken in good faith to reduce risk; they are not a guarantee of safety, are not a substitute for a parent’s own supervision, and do not create a duty beyond what the law imposes. To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Lyceum is not liable for content written or uploaded by any user, for a failure of automated screening to catch such content, or for the consequences of screening that mistakenly holds or refuses content.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties. In those places, the exclusions above apply only to the extent the law allows.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the total liability of Odysseus Lyceum, its directors, officers, employees, volunteers, and agents to you for all claims arising out of or relating to these Terms or the platform, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), or otherwise, is limited to the greater of (a) the amount you paid to the Lyceum in the six months before the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) one hundred U.S. dollars ($100).

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Lyceum is not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost data, or loss of goodwill, even if we were told such damages were possible.

The limitations in this section apply to every claim, including claims arising from content another user wrote or uploaded, from the operation or failure of content screening, from an instructor’s acts or omissions, and from the acts of any service provider, and they apply together: the cap in the first paragraph is a single aggregate cap for all claims, not a cap per claim. The Lyceum is an interactive computer service within the meaning of 47 U.S.C. § 230 and does not become the publisher or speaker of content provided by others by screening it.

Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes liability that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable law, including liability for death or personal injury caused by our own gross negligence or willful misconduct, or for fraud. Where the law permits a limitation but not the one above, our liability is limited to the smallest amount the law allows.

You agree to defend and indemnify the Lyceum and its directors, officers, employees, volunteers, and agents against claims, losses, and reasonable attorneys’ fees arising from your breach of these Terms, your misuse of the platform, or your violation of the rights of another person or of the law. This does not apply to the extent a claim arises from the Lyceum’s own negligence or misconduct.

You may close your account at any time from Family Settings or by writing to us. Academic records belong to your family and can be exported before you close the account.

We may suspend or close an account that violates these Terms or any policy that forms part of them, that endangers a child, or that we are required by law to close. Where it is safe and lawful to do so, we will tell you why.

Sections of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination, including intellectual property, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnity, and disputes, survive.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules, and by the Federal Arbitration Act and other applicable federal law.

PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT REQUIRES YOU AND THE LYCEUM TO RESOLVE DISPUTES THROUGH BINDING INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION RATHER THAN IN COURT, AND IT WAIVES THE RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL AND TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION.

Informal resolution first. If you have a dispute with us, write to info@odysseuslyceum.org or to Odysseus Lyceum, 223 West Wall Street, Suite 299, Midland, Texas 79701 with your name, the account email, and a description of the problem and what you would like done. A person will answer, and most things are settled that way. Neither side may begin arbitration until sixty days after that notice is received, and if the dispute involves money, the notice must say how much.

Binding arbitration. Any dispute, claim, or controversy between you and the Lyceum arising out of or relating to these Terms, the Parent Agreement, the Instructor Agreement, or your use of the platform that is not resolved informally will be settled by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules (or, for instructors, its Commercial Arbitration Rules), as modified by this section. The arbitrator applies Texas law and these Terms, may award any individual relief a court could award, and must issue a reasoned written decision. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court with jurisdiction. The arbitrator, not a court, decides whether a dispute is arbitrable, except that a court decides any question about the enforceability of the class-action waiver below.

How and where. Arbitration is conducted by one arbitrator, by videoconference or on written submissions unless either side asks for a hearing in person, in which case it is held in the county where you live or another place you and the Lyceum agree on. The Lyceum pays the filing, administrative, and arbitrator fees for any consumer claim seeking less than $10,000, unless the arbitrator finds the claim frivolous. Each side bears its own attorneys’ fees unless the law or the arbitrator provides otherwise.

Class-action waiver. You and the Lyceum each agree to bring claims only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, consolidated, or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person’s claims or preside over any form of representative proceeding. If this paragraph is found unenforceable as to a particular claim, that claim (and only that claim) proceeds in court under the "Where court proceedings happen" paragraph below, and is stayed pending arbitration of any remaining claims.

What is not covered. Either side may bring an individual claim in small-claims court where you live if it qualifies there. Either side may seek a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction in court to protect a child’s safety, to stop infringement of intellectual property, or to prevent unauthorized access to the platform. Nothing in this section prevents you from making a report to a regulator or law-enforcement agency, and nothing limits any mandatory reporting obligation.

Thirty-day opt-out. You may reject this arbitration agreement by writing to us within thirty days of first accepting these Terms, stating your name, the account email, and that you opt out of arbitration. If you opt out, the "Where court proceedings happen" paragraph governs, and every other part of these Terms still applies. Opting out does not affect any earlier arbitration agreement between us.

Where court proceedings happen. Any claim that is not subject to arbitration, including a claim where the class-action waiver has been found unenforceable or where you have opted out, must be brought in the state or federal courts located in Midland County, Texas, and both sides consent to the personal jurisdiction and venue of those courts. YOU AND THE LYCEUM EACH WAIVE THE RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL for any such claim, to the extent the law allows.

Changes to this section. If we change this section after you accept these Terms, you may reject the change by writing to us within thirty days of the change taking effect, in which case the version you most recently accepted continues to govern.

Material changes are announced by email and in-app notification before they take effect, and you will be asked to accept the new version the next time you sign in. Prior versions are available on request. If you do not accept a new version, you may close your account and export your records.

Questions about these Terms may be sent to info@odysseuslyceum.org or by mail to Odysseus Lyceum, 223 West Wall Street, Suite 299, Midland, Texas 79701. A person will answer.