Effective date (date these Terms first took effect): June 12, 2026. The "Last updated" date and version for this document are shown at the top of this page.
These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding agreement between you and Advoly LLC, a Texas limited liability company with a principal place of business at 5900 Balcones Drive, Suite 100, Austin, TX 78731 ("Advoly," "we," "us," or "our"). Advoly LLC operates the Advoly mobile and web applications at advoly.app and the Advoly website at advoly.com (collectively, the "Services").
Advoly LLC is not a law firm and does not provide legal services. Advoly LLC is owned by Kevin Shields, who is also the principal of Shields Law Firm, LLP, a separate Texas limited liability partnership. Use of Advoly does not engage Shields Law Firm, LLP as your attorney; engagement of Shields Law Firm, LLP requires a separate written attorney engagement entered into outside of Advoly. Engaging Shields Law Firm, LLP as your attorney does not give that firm access to your Advoly data unless you separately authorize it in writing.
What Advoly is for - and what it isn't. Advoly is built for educational records related to your child's special education advocacy. Educational records include IEPs, prior written notices, behavior intervention plans, progress reports, report cards, ARD/IEP team meeting notes, 504 plans, and communications with school personnel.
Do not upload medical records, prescription information, insurance documents, treatment notes, hospital records, or other documents whose primary purpose is medical care. If you need to store medical records, use a service designed for that - Advoly is not that service. If our system identifies a document as a medical record, we will not save it. Section 11.1 makes this a term of this agreement, not just a feature limitation. You can upload your child's educational evaluations, including ones you paid for yourself. Advoly's AI reads them like any other school record: it will tell you what a report says and what an assessment generally measures, but it will not interpret your child's results, diagnose anything, or tell you whether your evaluator got it right. Medical records are not accepted. Section 10.1 explains how that works and its limits.
Where Advoly is available. During our beta period, Advoly accepts new accounts from residents of Texas only. We plan to expand to additional states, and we have not completed the compliance work for state-specific health-data and privacy statutes elsewhere (including the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act and Washington's My Health My Data Act). If you live outside Texas, you can join our waitlist at advoly.app/waitlist; we plan to notify waitlist members when Advoly expands to their state.
By creating an account, accessing, or using the Services, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy at advoly.app/privacy.
During our beta period, you must be 18 years or older and a resident of the State of Texas to create an Advoly account. We plan to expand to additional states and expect to update these Terms when we do. The Services are not offered to residents of the European Union, the United Kingdom, or other jurisdictions where additional consents or registrations would be required.
You represent and warrant that:
This last representation is intentionally strict. Advoly is built around the assumption that the parent or legal guardian is the user. If a relative, family friend, advocate, or other party uploads a child's records without parental authority, that is a violation of these Terms and also potentially a violation of state and federal privacy law.
Advoly is an information, organization, and advocacy-support tool for parents and legal guardians of children with disabilities navigating special education. It provides AI-assisted document organization, journaling, drafting, and educational content. Specific features include but are not limited to: an AI advocate-style chat assistant (the "Pocket Advocate"), a document repository, a document checklist, a journaling tool ("Events Log"), email and letter drafting templates, an IEP Audit tool, meeting preparation tools, and educational content. An account may contain up to four Child Profiles, each holding the records of one child in your household.
When you use a tool that produces an AI-generated artifact - for example, the IEP Audit - both the document you upload and the resulting analysis are saved as persistent entries in your Document Tracker, linked to one another. The analysis is itself a record in your account. You can read it, share it (at your direction), or delete it, the same as any other record.
Advoly is currently in an invite-only beta. During the beta:
This section is intentionally prominent. It is also incorporated by reference into the in-product Pocket Advocate AI and into your account signup acknowledgment.
ADVOLY IS COMPUTER SOFTWARE. THE SOFTWARE, AND THE FORMS, DRAFTS, TEMPLATES, AI OUTPUTS, AND OTHER PRODUCTS OF THE SOFTWARE, ARE NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR THE ADVICE OF AN ATTORNEY.
I understand and agree that Advoly is not a law firm or an attorney, and may not perform services performed by an attorney. The forms, drafts, templates, AI outputs, suggestions, and educational content provided by Advoly are not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. I am representing myself and my child in any administrative or legal matter unless I separately retain a licensed attorney. No attorney-client relationship or privilege is created with Advoly LLC, with Shields Law Firm, LLP, or with any attorney affiliated with either by my use of Advoly.
Some information you upload to or generate within Advoly may relate to your child's health, diagnoses, evaluations, therapies, or medications. Advoly is not a healthcare provider. The Services do not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Do not use Advoly to communicate about a medical emergency. If you or your child is experiencing a medical emergency, call 911.
To use most features, you must create an account. You agree to:
You are responsible for activity that occurs under your account, except where caused by our breach of these Terms or our Privacy Policy.
Advoly offers a free tier and one or more paid subscription tiers, the current details of which are described at advoly.app/pricing. Paid subscriptions are billed in advance on a monthly or annual basis through our payment processor, Stripe. By subscribing, you authorize us and Stripe to charge your designated payment method on a recurring basis until you cancel.
Free trial. New paid subscriptions may include a free trial period. You will not be charged during the trial. If you do not cancel before the trial ends, your subscription will convert to paid and your payment method will be charged at the then-current rate.
Cancellation. You may cancel your subscription at any time through your account settings or by emailing support@advoly.com. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period. You will continue to have access to the paid tier until then.
Refunds. If you cancel an annual subscription within 30 days of the initial purchase, we will refund that purchase in full. If a substantial deliverable has already been generated and delivered to you during that period, such as an IEP Audit, we may deduct the value of what was delivered from the refund. Monthly subscriptions can be cancelled at any time and are non-refundable for the current billing period except where the law requires otherwise.
Price changes. We may change subscription prices on at least 30 days' notice. Price changes do not apply to billing periods already paid for.
The free tier of Advoly is provided "as available" and may include feature limits, AI usage caps, document upload limits, or other restrictions described at advoly.app/pricing. We reserve the right to modify or discontinue the free tier on reasonable notice.
Advoly uses a third-party AI provider's commercial API to power its AI features, including the Pocket Advocate, IEP Audit, Meeting Prep, Draft Emails, and document analysis. The current AI provider is named on our Subprocessors page (advoly.app/subprocessors), which we update when our subprocessors change.
Two AI privacy commitments apply to the Services:
Other things to know about Advoly's AI features:
"User Content" means everything you upload, type, dictate, or otherwise submit to the Services, including documents, journal entries, profile information, and AI prompts and outputs you save.
You own your User Content. Advoly LLC does not claim ownership.
Limited license to operate the Services. You grant Advoly LLC a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to host, store, transmit, process, display, and back up your User Content solely for the purpose of providing the Services to you. This license terminates when you delete the User Content or your account, subject to a reasonable backup retention period described in our Privacy Policy.
What this license does NOT do. This license does not allow us to:
This is intentionally narrower than the content licenses we have seen in adjacent products. We are not seeking a perpetual or irrevocable license to your child's IEP or to anything else you upload.
Your responsibility for User Content. You represent and warrant that your User Content does not violate the rights of any third party and that you have authority to upload it. You are responsible for keeping your own copies of any User Content you consider important.
Advoly handles documents in three categories, and the handling is different for each:
Educational records - IEPs, prior written notices, behavior intervention plans, progress reports, report cards, ARD/IEP meeting notes, 504 plans, school correspondence, and similar records of your child's education. This is what Advoly is for. When you upload an educational record:
Educational evaluations - Full Individual Evaluations (FIEs), Independent Educational Evaluations (IEEs), psychological and similar evaluations done for school placement. An evaluation done to decide school eligibility, placement, or services is an educational record, and we handle it as one: the file is stored, its body text is extracted and encrypted at rest, and that text is available to AI features for the child it belongs to, on the same terms as an IEP. Advoly's AI reads your child's evaluations and will restate what they say. It does not interpret clinical results, render diagnoses, assess whether an evaluation was competently performed, or predict what a school will decide. How a document is handled depends on the document type assigned at upload, which you select, so identification is best-effort and a mislabeled document may be handled under the wrong rules. See "Document-type identification is best-effort," below.
Medical records - documents whose primary purpose is medical care: doctor's notes, prescriptions, treatment plans, insurance and billing documents, hospital records. These are not accepted, period. If our system identifies an upload as a medical record, it will not be saved to your account. Section 11.1 makes uploading them a violation of these Terms.
Document-type identification is best-effort. Advoly determines how to handle a document based on the document type assigned at upload - the type you select when you upload it (see Privacy Policy §5.2). A document that is mislabeled may be processed under the wrong category's rules, including body-text extraction or OCR that would not otherwise have happened. If you discover a document was processed under the wrong type, you can correct the type in Document Tracker, and you can delete the document at any time, which removes its extracted body text by the cascade described above. What we describe here is the design and the remedy, honestly stated - not an absolute that no software system can keep.
The Privacy Policy describes the retention horizons that apply to backups (separate from the cascade-delete behavior of the live database) and the retention windows that apply to our subprocessors (which are separate from Advoly's own retention).
When you run a tool that produces an AI-generated artifact - for example, the IEP Audit - both the source document you upload and the resulting analysis are saved as persistent entries in your Document Tracker. The analysis is its own Document Tracker record, linked to the source IEP. Older versions of Advoly described this flow as ephemeral processing; that description is no longer accurate. If you do not want the analysis or the source upload retained, delete them from Document Tracker after the run completes. Both will follow the deletion behavior described in §10.1 and in the Privacy Policy.
What you may upload. IEPs, 504 plans, prior written notices, progress reports, report cards, meeting notes, school correspondence, and educational evaluations - including school evaluations (FIEs) and independent educational evaluations (IEEs) you obtained yourself.
What you may not upload. Medical or treatment records, clinical charts, therapy notes, or any record of care that was not created to determine educational eligibility, placement, or services. You may not upload another child's records unless you are that child's parent or legal guardian.
You agree not to:
We reserve the right to refuse, suspend, restrict, or terminate access to the Services, at our sole discretion, for any violation or suspected violation of these rules. Section 17 governs the effect of suspension and termination, including the treatment of prepaid fees.
Advoly is for educational records. You agree not to upload, store, or submit to the Services:
To be clear about the line: your child's educational records often mention health information - an IEP may reference a diagnosis, therapy minutes, or medication. That is normal and fine; those are educational records and Advoly is built for them. The prohibition is on documents whose primary purpose is medical care, not on educational records that touch health.
Advoly is not a HIPAA-covered entity and the Services are not designed, secured, or permitted to operate as a medical-records store. If our system identifies an upload as a medical record, it will not be saved. If a medical record nonetheless ends up stored in your account, we may remove it, and we ask you to delete it when you notice it. Uploading medical records or PHI in violation of this section is a material breach of these Terms, and Advoly has no obligations with respect to such content beyond those imposed by applicable law.
Advoly LLC owns or licenses all intellectual property in the Services themselves, including the software, the trademarks "Advoly" and "Pocket Advocate," and the content we publish (such as the Learn modules and template language). Your use of the Services does not grant you any rights in our intellectual property except the limited right to use the Services as described in these Terms.
Our Privacy Policy at advoly.app/privacy describes how we collect, use, and protect your information, including the named subprocessors that help us operate the Services. The Privacy Policy is incorporated into these Terms by reference.
THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, ADVOLY LLC AND ITS AFFILIATES DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ACCURACY OF AI OUTPUT.
WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR SECURE; THAT AI OUTPUT WILL BE ACCURATE OR COMPLETE; OR THAT USING THE SERVICES WILL ACHIEVE ANY PARTICULAR RESULT IN AN IEP MEETING, ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDING, OR OTHER MATTER.
Special education matters depend on facts, deadlines, jurisdiction-specific rules, and the discretion of school personnel and administrative bodies. The Services do not guarantee a particular outcome.
You make the decisions, and deadlines are yours. You - not Advoly - decide what to send to your child's school or district, when to send it, and to whom, and you are responsible for the consequences of those decisions. Special education matters are governed by deadlines, statutes of limitations, and procedural windows - for example, the timelines for requesting a due process hearing, filing a state complaint, responding to a proposed IEP or evaluation, or exercising stay-put rights. The Services may display dates and deadlines drawn from your records or entered by you, as a convenience only. Advoly does not guarantee that any displayed date or deadline is accurate, complete, or current, and AI output about deadlines, limitations periods, or procedural requirements may be wrong or out of date. You are solely responsible for identifying, calendaring, verifying, and meeting every deadline that applies to your matter. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Advoly LLC is not liable for any missed deadline, expired statute of limitations, lapsed procedural window, or forfeited right or remedy, however it arises.
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW:
Excluded damages. ADVOLY LLC AND ITS AFFILIATES, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, SPECIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA, OR LOSS OF GOODWILL, ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICES OR THESE TERMS, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
Cap. THE TOTAL LIABILITY OF ADVOLY LLC AND ITS AFFILIATES FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICES OR THESE TERMS WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE AMOUNT YOU PAID TO ADVOLY LLC IN THE TWELVE MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO LIABILITY OR (B) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100).
Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages. To the extent these limitations are unenforceable in your jurisdiction, our liability will be limited to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Advoly LLC and its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, and agents from any claim, loss, damage, liability, or expense (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of (a) your use of the Services in violation of these Terms, (b) your User Content, or (c) your violation of any third party's rights.
This indemnification does not apply to claims arising from our breach of these Terms or our Privacy Policy.
You may terminate your account at any time through your account settings or by emailing support@advoly.com.
We reserve the right to refuse registration, and to suspend or terminate your account or your access to any part of the Services, at our sole discretion, if we believe you have violated these Terms (including the Acceptable Use rules in Section 11 and Section 11.1), if we are required to by law, or where we believe suspension or termination is necessary to protect the Services, other users, or Advoly. Where reasonably practicable, we aim to give notice before suspension or termination, but we may act immediately where we judge the circumstances to require it.
Prepaid fees. If we terminate your account for a violation of these Terms, prepaid subscription fees are not refunded, except where a refund is required by applicable law. If we terminate your account without cause (not for a violation), we will refund the prorated unused portion of any prepaid subscription period.
When your account is terminated, your right to use the Services ends. Your data will be handled according to our Privacy Policy's data deletion provisions, which include cascade-deletion of encrypted document body text along with the rest of your account record, across all Child Profiles on the account. Subprocessor retention windows that apply downstream of Advoly's own deletion are described in our Privacy Policy and on our Subprocessors page; those windows are independent of Advoly's deletion and continue to run on those subprocessors' own schedules.
Sections 4 (Not Legal Advice - including 4.1 first-person acknowledgment, 4.2 what we don't do, and 4.3 Pocket Advocate AI), 5 (Not Medical Advice), 10 (User Content - limited license back to us terminates, but the no-training and no-resale promises survive), 11.1 (No medical records or PHI), 14 (Disclaimers), 15 (Limitation of Liability), 16 (Indemnification), 18 (Dispute Resolution), and 21 (General) survive termination.
Informal resolution first. Before filing any formal proceeding, you agree to send a written description of your claim to support@advoly.com and to negotiate informally for at least 30 days.
Binding arbitration. Any dispute that is not resolved informally shall be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by JAMS under its Streamlined Arbitration Rules and Procedures (or AAA Consumer Arbitration Rules), in Harris County, Texas. The arbitrator's decision is final and may be entered as a judgment in any court of competent jurisdiction. The Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of this provision.
Class action waiver. Disputes must be brought individually. You and Advoly LLC waive any right to participate in a class action, collective action, or representative action.
30-day opt-out. You may opt out of this arbitration provision by emailing support@advoly.com within 30 days of first creating your Advoly account, with the subject line "Arbitration Opt-Out." Opting out has no other effect on these Terms.
Carve-outs. Either party may bring claims (a) in small-claims court if eligible, (b) for injunctive relief to protect intellectual property rights, or (c) where applicable law prohibits arbitration of the claim.
Governing law. These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles.
We may update these Terms from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top of these Terms reflects the most recent revision. We will endeavor to provide advance notice of material changes by email or by an in-product notice - ordinarily at least 14 days before they take effect. However, we may make changes effective immediately where we determine that is necessary to comply with law, address a security or safety issue, or prevent harm to the Services or our users. Your continued use of the Services after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.
Notices to you may be sent by email to your account email address or by an in-product notice. Notices to us must be sent to support@advoly.com and to Advoly LLC, 5900 Balcones Drive, Suite 100, Austin, TX 78731.