Disclaimer

1. What this page is for

K12PhoneSystems.com publishes research and explanations to help K–12 school districts understand their phone systems. Phone systems touch safety, law, money and contracts, so this page is deliberate about what the Website is and is not. It forms part of the Terms of Use.

2. Not legal, regulatory or compliance advice

Nothing on the Website is legal advice, regulatory advice or a compliance determination. The Website discusses federal and state requirements, such as Kari's Law, RAY BAUM'S Act, 47 CFR sections 9.15 and 9.16, the FCC's Next Generation 911 rules, state silent panic alert laws, E-Rate eligibility, and privacy and accessibility laws. Those discussions are summaries written for planning. Laws change, apply differently depending on a district's systems and role, and are interpreted by courts and agencies.

A district should ask its own counsel and, where relevant, its state and local 911 authority and regulators what applies to it. Using the Website or completing a worksheet does not create a compliance finding, and the Website does not certify that any system, configuration, product or district meets any requirement.

3. Emergency calling

Emergency calling depends on a chain of equipment, software, carriers, location records and public safety organizations, any part of which can fail or be wrong. The Website explains how to ask better questions and what evidence to collect. It does not promise that any phone system will deliver an emergency call, the correct location or a notification, in normal operation or during an outage.

Do not rely on the Website for decisions about live 911 testing. Test emergency calling only through a plan agreed with your telecommunications provider and the relevant emergency communications center. Do not place unannounced test calls to 911.

If you have an emergency, call 911 from a working phone. This Website is not an emergency service.

4. Not engineering or security advice

The papers describe technical topics such as hosted, on-premise and hybrid deployments, failover, session border controllers, paging and intercom integration, identity integrations and automation. They are general explanations and are not a design, an engineering review, a security assessment or a recommendation for your network. Qualified engineers should review any design against your district's real equipment and requirements before you buy, change or rely on it.

5. Not financial, procurement or budget advice

Cost comparisons, five-year models, worksheets and examples are illustrations. They are not accounting, tax, grant, financial or procurement advice, and they are not quotes. Your costs depend on your contracts, equipment, usage, carriers, licensing and local purchasing rules.

Hypothetical figures. Where an example is labeled hypothetical or illustrative, the numbers were chosen to show a method and are not real prices or outcomes.
Customer examples. Where the research reports a result from a real district, the figures come from anonymized customer billing records supplied by SPARK VoIP. They describe one district at one time. They are not a sample, not an average and not a forecast, and they exclude one-time costs unless the text says otherwise.
Savings. The Website does not promise that you will save money. A review of your own contracts and requirements may show that keeping, renegotiating, upgrading or replacing a system is the right answer.
Funding. The Website does not promise that any cost qualifies for E-Rate or any other funding. Eligibility is decided under the program's current rules.

6. A connection to a commercial provider

The Website is managed by Greg Steinig, who works for SPARK VoIP, a commercial provider of managed phone services. SPARK VoIP has a commercial interest in district phone system projects. Some research on the Website uses information that SPARK VoIP supplied, such as anonymized billing records and descriptions of its own operating practices, and says so. Statements about SPARK VoIP's practices, such as how it tests failover, are provider-reported and have not been independently audited. Weigh them accordingly and verify anything that matters to your decision.

7. No professional relationship

Reading the Website, downloading a resource, sending a message or talking with us does not create a customer, client, consulting, attorney-client, engineering or other professional relationship, and does not obligate anyone to provide services or follow-up. Any such relationship exists only under a written agreement.

8. Accuracy and currency

We try to be accurate and to cite sources, but we do not promise that the Website is complete, current or error-free. Statements are made as of the dates shown on the papers, and manufacturer documentation, licensing rules, prices, regulations and laws change. Where the Website describes how a vendor's product behaves, confirm it with the vendor for the version and edition you use.

9. Third-party products, sources and links

Product and company names, including 3CX, Cisco, Microsoft, Mitel, Bandwidth and CyberData, belong to their owners. Mentioning a product is not an endorsement, a certification of compatibility or a promise that it works with another product. Compatibility and capabilities depend on versions, editions, configuration and testing.

The Website cites and links to government, standards, procurement and vendor documents. We do not control them and are not responsible for their content or for changes made after we read them.

10. Examples, illustrations and scenarios

Scenarios such as a classroom phone moved without updating its location record, or districts with different connectivity, are hypothetical illustrations unless a page says they describe a real event. The illustrations on the Website are drawings meant to explain an idea. They are not diagrams of any real installation, and they do not show real people or districts.

11. Worksheets, checklists and downloads

The worksheet and any other downloadable resources are general planning aids. They are provided as is. They help a district gather facts and ask questions, but they do not produce a legal, engineering or financial conclusion. Review your answers with qualified professionals before you act on them.

12. Information you send us

Please do not send student records or other sensitive information. We cannot promise confidentiality for what you send unless we agree in writing. See the Privacy Policy for how we handle personal information.

13. Limits on our responsibility

To the fullest extent the law allows, K12PhoneSystems.com, its operator and its contributors are not responsible for decisions you make, losses you suffer or harm that results from relying on the Website, including losses from emergency calling failures, compliance findings, purchasing, contracts, outages, data loss or projects. The Terms of Use set out the warranty disclaimers and limitations of liability that apply.

14. Contact

Questions about this Disclaimer:

K12PhoneSystems.com

Email: [webmaster@k12phonesystems.com](mailto:webmaster@k12phonesystems.com)

Telephone: 908-923-8241

Online: the contact form