Vendor vetting & Ongoing protection

We measure each vendor against your district’s governance requirements before the district signs, then keep watching for the moment a vendor quietly changes the rules. Two connected services, one continuous line of protection.

How it works

Two services, one continuous line. The first tells you whether to adopt; the second makes sure the terms you accepted stay the terms you have.

01 Primary Engagement Start here one-time · per engagement

What it does

When a tool is up for adoption or renewal, we capture the vendor’s governing documents, read exactly what they permit themselves to do with your data, and measure it against your district’s governance requirements. The read is delivered before the district signs.

How we do it

We pull the vendor’s current terms and privacy documents, then read the obligations, permissions, and fine-print discretion buried inside them.

What you receive

A plain-language read on the vendor (what data they take, who they share it with, how long they keep it, and where it conflicts with your requirements), plus a clear recommendation.

The requirements we score against

Where your district has adopted procurement criteria, we score against those. Where it has not, the engagement establishes a working set from your executed agreements, board policy, and state requirements, and says so in the report. The full criteria build runs as a Governance Policy Consultation engagement.

Possible outcomes

ProceedProceed with conditionsClauses flagged for negotiationDecline

Pricing

Tools read	Flat fee per engagement
3 to 5 tools	$4,600.00
6 to 10 tools	$7,900.00
11 to 15 tools	$10,900.00
More than 15 tools	Scoped in consultation

Every band sits below the $15,000.00 federal micro-purchase threshold, so a district paying from federal funds is not required to run a competitive process.

Scope

An engagement covers a minimum of 3 tools and a maximum of 15, priced by band above. Districts with a larger set to read are scoped in consultation.

↓The agreement you accept becomes the baseline we watch for change.

02 Primary Retainer Keep it current ongoing · optional

What it does

Vendors change their terms quietly, long after the decision is made. We keep watching yours and tell you the moment a change crosses the agreement you hold or what your district requires.

How we keep watch

Scheduled re-checks on our Standing Calendar, plus an immediate read whenever a vendor announces a change or discloses a security incident.

What you receive

Plain-language drift alerts, an updated recommendation when something moves, and a ready-to-use fact sheet the moment one of your vendors has an incident, so you’re never reading the news at midnight to find out what it means for you.

Requires

A completed Primary Engagement. Drift is measured against a baseline, and the engagement is what establishes it.

Billing cadence

Billed monthly, quarterly, or by semester at the monthly rate. Prepaying twelve months carries the rate shown below.

Pricing

Tools under watch	Monthly	Prepaid, 12 months
Up to 4 tools	$850.00	$8,500.00
Up to 8 tools	$1,450.00	$14,500.00
Up to 12 tools	$1,995.00	$19,950.00
More than 12 tools	Scoped in consultation

Prepaying twelve months is billed at ten months of the monthly rate.

Scope

A retainer holds a maximum of 12 tools under continuous watch. The watch list is the tools that hold student data and carry real exposure, read by a person at a depth automated scoring does not reach, rather than every application in the building. Larger portfolios are scoped in consultation.

Why our findings hold up

Every conclusion we hand you is traceable to the vendor’s own words. Here is the method behind the work.

From the vendor’s words to your decision

Capture the documents → structure what they say → read the obligations → judge against your requirements → watch for change.

Capture

We collect the vendor’s governing documents: current terms, privacy documents, and any agreement your district has executed.

Structure

Dense prose becomes a clear record (what data, who it’s shared with, how long it’s kept), each point tied to its exact source.

Read the obligations

We separate what a vendor must do from what they merely may do: the discretion that fine print hides.

Judge

The vendor is scored against your district’s governance requirements, adopted or established at the outset of the engagement, not a generic checklist.

Watch for change

Under a retainer, we compare each new version against the terms your district agreed to, on the Standing Calendar.

Report

You get findings in plain language, with the clause behind every conclusion available on request.

Maintenance of the record

A read describes a vendor as of a date. Keeping it true is a schedule, and this is the schedule we keep it to.

Activity	Practical cadence	What The Language Firm checks
Contract and inventory reconciliation	Annually, preferably 90 to 120 days before the budget or renewal cycle	Signed agreement or NDPA/DPA is located, together with any state supplements and exhibits executed alongside it; current version is identified; renewal and termination dates, pricing, license counts, and authorized products or modules match procurement records
High-risk vendor review	Every 6 months	Vendors holding sensitive student records, special-education data, health data, biometrics, precise location, behavioral data, or using AI; review subprocessors, security posture, incident history, data use, and retention or deletion
Policy review trigger	Annually for operational procedures; every 2 to 3 years for board policy, with interim updates as needed	We flag when your AUP, student-data privacy policy, AI governance policy, procurement and approval rules, or parent notice fall due, and what has moved in your vendor set that bears on them. The review and rewrite itself runs as a Governance Policy Consultation engagement, not as retainer scope
Renewal review	90 to 180 days before renewal or auto-renewal	Legal terms, NDPA/DPA, privacy notice, security exhibits, accessibility, usage and value, deletion plan, and negotiation needs
Change-trigger review	Immediately, or within 30 days of a material change	Acquisition, new AI feature or model training, new data categories, changed privacy terms, new subprocessors, security incident, new integration or SSO data flow, or a legal or regulatory change
Usage and shadow IT sweep	Each semester or quarterly, depending on district size	Whether staff are using unapproved tools; whether approved tools are actually used; whether tools can be retired before renewal

The Primary Engagement establishes the record. The Primary Retainer is what keeps it to this cadence.

Nothing we tell you rests on our opinion alone. Every finding points back to the sentence in the vendor’s documents that it came from, so your team and your counsel can verify it.

What this work is not

It is not legal advice. The firm reads language and documents what the language does. Counsel advises on liability, drafts and negotiates terms, and interprets what the law requires of your district.

It is not a compliance certification. A read describes a vendor as of a date. It does not clear a tool, approve a purchase, or warrant that your district is in compliance with any statute or regulation.

It is not your procurement decision. We report what the documents permit and where that diverges from your requirements. What your district adopts, declines, or takes to counsel remains yours to decide.

Related services

Vetting reads the vendors. These two set the standard you read them against, and teach your staff to read for themselves.

Have a vendor decision in front of you?

Questions before a consultation or booking are welcome at jcs@thelanguagefirm.org.

Book Your Consultation →

Billing cadence is your choice; terms are confirmed in writing at scoping, before any work begins.

The Language Firm · Services

Vendor Vetting & Ongoing Protection