SOS pilot proposal

Pilot overview

Scholastic OS invites a school, district, or municipality to evaluate temporary device-access policies, session records, and reliable release in a controlled 90-day pilot. The aim is to determine whether the workflow reduces operational work.

January 2027 is the target. SOS is a prototype; phone-app development, physical-device testing, and external validation remain ahead. Deployment requires successful readiness checks, an agreed scope, and institutional approvals.

Purpose

The pilot will test session start, policy application, device signals, and authorized release while preserving required access. Baseline and final measurements will show whether SOS adds value beyond current management and filtering tools. The report will document outcomes, limitations, support effort, and the cost of continued use.

Fit for your institution

The specific workflow will be chosen during discovery. Municipal use excludes emergency response. School deployments must fit local device rules, including relevant New York and New Jersey requirements. SOS does not certify compliance or replace a required storage policy. ^4,5

Public funding for phone-free schools is written for storage hardware. New York provides $13.5 million for storage solutions and states that student backpacks are not an acceptable storage option; New York City allocated $25.90 per student in grades 3 to 12, more than $16 million, as one-time implementation funding; New Jersey appropriated $3 million for fiscal year 2026 and awarded about $980,000 to 86 districts in the first round, with a largest award of $52,451, for lockers, locked pouch systems, or check-in cabinets and staff training. ^15,16,17

Scope and delivery

Supported configuration

Before start, the scope will identify device models and OS versions, ownership and enrollment method, installed applications, permitted and restricted access, session triggers, release rules, network dependencies, and administrative roles. Native iPhone and Android pathways will be evaluated separately. A pathway that has not passed acceptance testing will not be included as a supported pilot feature. ^2,3

Core includes session policies, administrator controls, release records, standard reports, and support during agreed business hours. An Integrated pilot adds one named and tested identity, device-management, or network connection. Any isolation, blocking, or network action performed by the institution’s controller remains that system’s responsibility and requires the institution’s approval.

The proposed pilot excludes replacement of the institution’s full device manager or network stack, continuous security monitoring, custom integration development without a separate scope, and reliance on SOS as an emergency communications service. Required exceptions and ordinary fallback communication methods will be agreed before use.

Pilot sequence

The 90-day pilot starts after technical acceptance on the agreed date. Expansion to 100 Integrated devices requires verified operation. Scope, timing, and fee changes require written agreement.

The institution may pause the pilot if restrictions impair required access, release does not behave as agreed, a material privacy or security incident occurs, or support capacity is inadequate. SOS and the institution will restore the documented fallback, investigate, and agree whether to restart. Devices and users will be released through the approved exit procedure.

Success measures

Targets are proposals to agree during discovery; none represents measured SOS performance today. Release timing while offline will be separately defined and tested before start. Weekly reports will show sample size, conditions, exceptions, and failures. A small pilot can inform a purchasing decision but will not establish general claims about educational attainment or every device environment.

Commercial proposal

Pricing and examples

The proposed commercial model combines annual software pricing with a defined implementation fee. The organization fee includes an initial population; additional units follow a published rate. This provides a budgetable annual commitment while keeping third-party services and custom work visible.

Annual software price equals the organization fee plus the additional-unit rate multiplied by contracted units above the included allowance. All prices are proposed USD amounts before applicable taxes, subject to a supported configuration and a final institutional agreement.

A school unit is one governed student with one enrolled device; a separately governed shared device or additional concurrently licensed device uses another unit. Staff devices can be allocated within the same contracted school unit pool. Municipalities license enrolled devices, including shared devices. Count contracted capacity rather than momentary online activity. A swap replaces a unit; it does not create a second charge. One organization fee applies per contracting organization and agreed administrative environment; a state framework does not automatically pool unrelated organizations.

Core covers the agreed session workflow, standard administrative controls and reports, and business-hours support. Integrated adds one supported connector and a quarterly configuration review. An institution can select Core when it does not need that integration. The written scope will define the administrative environment and any multi-site work.

Pilot and implementation fees

The credit applies if the institution signs for continued use within 60 days after a successful pilot. It cannot reduce the annual software subscription or be paid in cash. There is no automatic conversion. Any extension is agreed in writing. A limited founding-partner sponsorship may waive a pilot fee after scope and participation commitments are agreed; it is not included in the standard examples.

Illustrative annual software budgets

Example: 500 municipal devices on Integrated cost $27,200 annually plus $5,000 implementation. A $5,000 paid pilot fully offsets implementation. Total for the pilot and a separate 12-month production period is $32,200 before tax and third-party costs.

Example: 500 students on Core cost $5,000 annually. The $2,500 pilot offsets $1,500 implementation, for $7,500 total across the pilot and first production year. The remaining $1,000 pilot fee does not offset software. These are illustrative budgets.

Final pricing itemizes sites, travel, hardware, mobile service, third-party licenses, data providers, and custom work. Compatible existing equipment may be used. The agreement sets activation, invoicing, purchase orders, payment, renewals, and appropriation provisions. This proposal provides no emergency support or uptime commitment.

Participation and decisions

Responsibilities and data

Before the pilot, SOS will document what information is collected, where it flows, which providers receive it, who can access it, how long it is retained, and how it is deleted or returned. The institution will review the written data terms and any consent or authorization process. School approval does not automatically authorize unrelated commercial use of children’s data. ⁶

The intended boundary is to collect the minimum information needed for the agreed session and its records. The pilot must verify that boundary, including after-hours behavior and retention. No claim is made that security or privacy has already been independently certified. Personal messages, photos, and unrelated personal content are outside the proposed pilot scope.

Incident notification, data-export format, deletion timing, and responsibility for statutory retention will be agreed before start. The institution controls whether its name, logo, quotes, or results may be used publicly. No publicity permission is implied by participation. The pilot agreement will also state how the institution can end participation and verify device release.

Next steps

The next step is a discovery meeting with the institution’s operational and technology leads. We will agree on the problem to test, review the existing device and network environment, identify required approvals, and prepare a specific pilot scope and budget. A demonstration and readiness review follow before a launch date is confirmed.

1. Identify one proposed department, school or campus and a technical liaison.
2. Provide device types, ownership and existing management systems at a high level.
3. Choose the operational result that would justify continued annual use.
4. Agree on the approval route, evaluation window and commercial decision date.

Contact: Shane Giordano, development and marketing, Scholastic OS. Website: scholasticos.app/contact. This proposal is for discussion and does not itself create a subscription, purchase order, or commitment to participate.