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DRAFT — not yet reviewed by legal counsel

Terms of Service

Last updated: 2026-04-23

Welcome to Gardenia. These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of the Gardenia web application, mobile experience, and related services (collectively, the "Service") operated by Gardenia Joy, LLC ("Gardenia," "we," "us," or "our"). By creating an account or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. Who can use Gardenia

You must be at least 18 years old and legally able to enter into a binding contract to create a Gardenia account. Gardenia is designed for parents, legal guardians, teachers, advocates, and other adults supporting a child with a disability through the special-education process. You may not create an account on behalf of a minor. If you are a professional (advocate, attorney, teacher, therapist) using Gardenia for client work, you are responsible for securing your client's or student's informed consent before entering their information.

2. What Gardenia provides

The Service includes, among other things:

  • Curriculum and educational content — the Parent Advocate 101 course, a full interactive book, a glossary of special education terms, and other learning resources.
  • Letter generation — templates and draft letters for common special-education requests (records, evaluation, mediation, state complaint, etc.).
  • Documents vault — secure storage for IEPs, evaluations, 504 plans, and other documents you upload.
  • AI-assisted analysis — automated summaries, measurability checks, and concerns drafting based on documents you upload.
  • Consults and Ask Nicole — paid one-on-one or asynchronous consultations with Nicole Burch or other Gardenia-vetted advocates, when those features are active in your account.
  • Rights tracking, meeting preparation, deadline calendar, and state-specific procedural information.

3. Important — this is not legal advice

Gardenia is an educational and advocacy-support tool. It is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. The Service does not create an attorney–client relationship between you and Gardenia, its affiliates, Nicole Burch, or any consultant. Letters generated through the Service are templates; you are responsible for reviewing, verifying, and personalizing every letter before sending it. AI-generated summaries and analyses are informational; they are not substitutes for professional judgment from a licensed attorney, school psychologist, or clinician.

If you need legal representation or formal legal advice — including, for example, in connection with a due-process hearing, state complaint, mediation, or federal-court proceeding — you should consult a qualified attorney licensed in your jurisdiction. See our disclaimer for more on this.

4. Your account and your data

4.1 Account security

You are responsible for keeping your login credentials confidential, for all activity that occurs under your account, and for promptly notifying us if you suspect unauthorized use. Passwords must meet our posted requirements. Gardenia will never ask you to share your password by email or in the Service chat.

4.2 Your content

You retain all rights in the documents, reflections, letters, and other content you upload or create on Gardenia ("Your Content"). By uploading Your Content, you grant Gardenia a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide license to store, process, and display Your Content solely for the purpose of providing the Service to you. We do not use Your Content to train general AI models. We do not sell Your Content. We do not use Your Content for advertising.

4.3 Deletion

You may delete individual documents, letters, or reflections from your account at any time. You may delete your account entirely through Settings → Account. When you delete your account, we will remove Your Content from live systems within 30 days, subject to limited retention in backups and as required for legal, tax, or audit purposes. See our Privacy Policy for details.

5. Acceptable use

When you use Gardenia, you agree that you will not:

  • Upload content that is unlawful, harassing, defamatory, or infringes another's rights.
  • Upload another person's health or educational records without lawful authority.
  • Attempt to reverse-engineer the Service, bypass security measures, or probe for vulnerabilities without written authorization.
  • Use the Service to harass school staff, other parents, or Gardenia users. Advocacy is firm but professional; we reserve the right to terminate accounts that send abusive or threatening content through our letter tools.
  • Share or resell access to your account.
  • Automate or scrape the Service, or submit content designed to overwhelm our AI pipeline.
  • Use the Service to practice law if you are not licensed to do so.

6. Payments, subscriptions, and refunds

Some features of the Service (including 1:1 consults, Ask Nicole questions, and Pro-tier subscriptions) require payment. Current prices are shown at checkout.

  • Subscriptions auto-renew on the cadence shown at sign-up unless you cancel before the renewal date. You can cancel anytime from Settings → Subscription; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period.
  • Consults are charged at the time of booking. A full refund is available if you cancel at least 48 hours before the scheduled session. Within 48 hours, the session is non-refundable unless rescheduling is available.
  • Ask Nicole questions carry a 24-hour answer SLA. If a question is not answered within the SLA, you will receive an automatic refund.
  • Payments are processed by our third-party payment processor (Stripe). You agree to Stripe's terms when you provide payment information.

7. Third-party services

Gardenia integrates with third-party services to provide the Service, including but not limited to: Stripe (payments), Resend (transactional email), Zoom (video consults), Anthropic (AI analysis), and Supabase (infrastructure). Your use of the Service is subject to those providers' terms and privacy practices in addition to ours. We are not responsible for the policies or actions of third-party providers, but we choose partners with compatible security and privacy commitments.

8. Intellectual property

The Service, including the Gardenia name, logo, curriculum, letter templates, written content, and code, is owned by Gardenia Joy, LLC or its licensors and is protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws. Nicole Burch's book content ("Your Seat at the Table") is licensed to Gardenia by Ms. Burch; nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of that content to you. You may use Your Content and access the Service subject to these Terms; beyond that, all rights are reserved.

9. Disclaimer of warranties

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE," WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. GARDENIA DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR FREE OF HARMFUL COMPONENTS; THAT AI-GENERATED CONTENT WILL BE FACTUALLY CORRECT; OR THAT THE SERVICE WILL ACHIEVE ANY PARTICULAR OUTCOME FOR YOUR CHILD OR FAMILY. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

10. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL GARDENIA, ITS AFFILIATES, OR THEIR RESPECTIVE OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, OR AGENTS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE AMOUNT YOU PAID GARDENIA IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM OR ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100), WHICHEVER IS GREATER.

11. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Gardenia and its affiliates from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising out of your use of the Service, your violation of these Terms, or your violation of any rights of a third party.

12. Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Georgia, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. The parties agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Fulton County, Georgia for any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service, except that either party may seek injunctive relief in any court of competent jurisdiction.

13. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. If a change is material, we will notify you by email or through the Service at least 30 days before the change takes effect. Your continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

14. Termination

You may stop using the Service and close your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your account, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe you have violated these Terms, if we are required to do so by law, or if continuing to provide the Service to you would pose an undue risk to us or to other users. Sections 3, 4.2, 4.3, 8-12, and 15 survive termination.

15. Contact

Questions about these Terms can be directed to: legal@gardenia.joy

This document is a draft prepared for Gardenia's internal review. It has not been reviewed by licensed legal counsel. Before relying on these Terms in production, they should be reviewed and revised by a lawyer admitted in Georgia (or in whatever jurisdiction Gardenia ultimately elects). Nothing in this draft should be treated as operative until that review is complete and the "DRAFT" marker is removed.