Terms of Service

Last Updated: May 23, 2026

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using the Root Skills platform ("Services"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you are using the Services on behalf of a childcare centre or organization, you represent and warrant that you have the authority to bind that organization to these Terms. If you do not agree to these Terms, you may not access or use the Services.

Root Skills is operated by Canada's Sunshine Inc. (Business Number 735974735), a Canadian corporation based in Richmond Hill, Ontario.

These Terms incorporate by reference our Privacy Policy.

2. Description of Services

Root Skills is a cloud-based platform that provides tools for licensed Ontario childcare centres, including:

AI-assisted weekly program planning aligned to ELECT learning areas
Children's roster, attendance, and observation scheduling
AI-assisted observation note generation from raw jottings
AQI (Assess / Improve / Track) assessments
Centre administration and reporting

We reserve the right to modify, enhance, or discontinue features of the Services at any time. We will not remove a feature that is central to your subscription without reasonable notice.

3. User Accounts and Registration

Centre supervisors register their centre directly. Educator accounts are created by the supervisor through invitation.
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials.
You must provide accurate and complete information during registration and keep your information up to date.
You must notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your account.
You must be at least 18 years of age to create a Supervisor or Educator account.
You are responsible for all activities that occur under your account.

4. Acceptable Use

You agree to use the Services only for lawful purposes related to childcare management. You agree not to use the Services to:

Engage in any unlawful, harmful, abusive, threatening, harassing, defamatory, or otherwise objectionable conduct.
Enter, upload, or store any content that is unlawful, infringing, or violates any third party's rights.
Enter data concerning any child other than a child lawfully enrolled at your centre and for whom appropriate parental or guardian consent has been obtained.
Share your account credentials with unauthorized individuals.
Attempt to access data belonging to other centres, users, children, or tenants.
Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to derive the source code of the Services.
Use automated tools to access or extract data from the Services.
Interfere with or disrupt the integrity, security, or performance of the Services.
Resell, sublicense, or commercially exploit the Services without our prior written consent.

We reserve the right to determine, in our sole discretion, what constitutes a violation of these Terms, and to suspend or terminate any account for violation, with or without notice.

5. User Content

Your Content. You retain ownership of observations, program plans, AQI assessments, child records, and other content you create through the Services ("User Content"). You grant Root Skills a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, process, transmit, display, and back up your User Content solely for the purpose of operating the Services and complying with applicable law.

Your Representations. You represent and warrant that, for all User Content you create, you (or your centre) have all necessary rights and consents to do so. For any child-related information, you represent and warrant that your centre has obtained and retained all parental or guardian consents required by applicable law, including under CCEYA.

Centre Supervisor Responsibility. Centre supervisors are responsible for managing all content and user activity within their centre on Root Skills. This includes ensuring that entered content is appropriate for a childcare setting, removing inappropriate material, and revoking access for users who leave the centre or violate centre policies.

Illegal Content. You must not enter, transmit, store, or share through the Services any content that is unlawful under Canadian law, including content that depicts, promotes, or facilitates the abuse or exploitation of any child. Where we become aware of suspected illegal content, we may preserve relevant content, metadata, and account records; cooperate with law enforcement and child-protection authorities; and disclose account information in response to valid legal process. Accounts associated with unlawful content will be terminated immediately and without notice.

6. Data Ownership and Portability

Your data belongs to you. All child records, observations, program plans, AQI assessments, and other content you create through the Services remain your property.
We claim no ownership over your data. We will not use your data for any purpose other than delivering and securing the Services, troubleshooting, improving features using aggregated or de-identified data, or as required by law. Customer Data is not used to train general-purpose AI models.
You grant us a limited, non-exclusive licence to store, process, transmit, and display your data solely to operate the platform and provide the Services.
You may export your data at any time through the platform's built-in export tools.
Upon account termination, you may request a complete data export. We will make your data available for download for thirty (30) days following termination, after which retention is governed by our Privacy Policy.

7. Data Processing

Where Root Skills processes personal information on behalf of a childcare centre or organization in the course of providing the Services, Root Skills acts as a service provider under applicable Canadian privacy laws. Customers may request a copy of our Data Processing Agreement by contacting privacy@rootskills.ca. Where a signed Data Processing Agreement is in place, it governs the processing of Customer Data and prevails in the event of conflict with these Terms.

8. Subscription Plans and Pricing

Root Skills offers a 14-day free trial that does not require a credit card. During the trial, all features are available with no usage limits.
After the trial, Root Skills is offered on tiered subscription plans based on the number of rooms at your centre. Current pricing and plan details are available at rootskills.ca/pricing.
Subscriptions may be billed monthly or annually. Annual plans receive a discount disclosed at checkout.
Paid subscriptions renew automatically until cancelled.
You may cancel anytime through your centre settings. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period — you keep access until then. We do not pro-rate refunds for partial months.
All prices are in Canadian Dollars (CAD) and are subject to applicable taxes (HST/GST), which will be added at checkout where required.
We reserve the right to change pricing with at least 30 days' written notice to existing subscribers. Price changes take effect at the start of the next billing cycle.
You may change your plan at any time. Plan changes may include proration; the effect on your next invoice will be previewed before you confirm.
Complimentary or negotiated pricing may be offered at our discretion and is governed by the terms of the specific arrangement.
Refunds are handled on a case-by-case basis. Contact billing@rootskills.ca for refund requests.

9. Service Availability and Support

We strive to maintain high availability of the Services and may perform scheduled maintenance with reasonable notice. We are not liable for service interruptions caused by factors beyond our reasonable control, including internet outages, cloud infrastructure disruptions, denial-of-service attacks, natural disasters, epidemics, labour disputes, or government actions.

Support is available via the in-app help interface and at support@rootskills.ca.

10. Intellectual Property

The Root Skills platform — including its design, source code, user interface, logos, trademarks, documentation, and all related intellectual property — is owned by Canada's Sunshine Inc. You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, or create derivative works based on any part of the platform without our prior written consent. You retain all rights to your data as described in Section 6.

11. AI-Generated Content

Root Skills offers AI-assisted features that generate content such as program plans and observation notes. You acknowledge that:

AI-generated content is provided as a draft suggestion and must be reviewed and approved by an authorized human (Supervisor or Educator) before use.
Root Skills does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or regulatory suitability of AI-generated content.
You are solely responsible for reviewing and approving all AI-generated content before saving it to a child's portfolio, sharing it with parents, submitting it to regulators, or relying on it in your programme.
AI features are optional and may be disabled at the centre level.

12. Privacy

Your use of the Services is governed by our Privacy Policy, which describes how we collect, use, and protect your information. By using the Services, you consent to our data practices as described in the Privacy Policy.

13. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law:

The Services are provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.
We are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising from your use of or inability to use the Services.
Our total aggregate liability for any claims arising from or related to the Services shall not exceed the greater of (a) one hundred Canadian dollars (CAD $100), or (b) the total amount you paid to Root Skills in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.
We are not responsible for decisions made based on data in the platform, including but not limited to staffing decisions, programming choices, compliance filings, or AI-generated content.

AI-Generated Content. You acknowledge that AI-generated content — including program plans, observation notes, and any other automated output — is provided as a tool to assist authorized human decision-makers. Root Skills does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, regulatory compliance, or suitability of AI-generated content. You are solely responsible for reviewing and approving all AI-generated content before relying on it, sharing it with parents, submitting it to regulators, or using it in your programme. Root Skills disclaims all liability for decisions, filings, or actions based on AI-generated content.

Consumer Protection. Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes any liability that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable Canadian consumer protection law. Where any provision of this Section is found unenforceable against a consumer, the remaining provisions remain in effect to the fullest extent permitted by law.

14. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Root Skills, Canada's Sunshine Inc., and our officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any and all claims, liabilities, damages, losses, costs, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in connection with:

Your use of the Services.
Your User Content, including any claim that your User Content is unlawful or infringes a third party's rights.
Your violation of these Terms or any applicable law.
Any decision made or action taken based on AI-generated content.
Any dispute between you and another user, centre, parent, or third party arising from your use of the Services.

15. Termination

You may close your account at any time through your centre settings or by contacting us at support@rootskills.ca.
We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms, with notice where practicable.
Upon termination, your data will be available for export for thirty (30) days, then retained and deleted according to the schedule in our Privacy Policy (one year, then hard-deleted, unless you request earlier deletion).
Sections that by their nature should survive termination will survive, including Sections 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, and 18.

16. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein, without regard to conflict of law principles. Any disputes arising from or relating to these Terms or the Services shall be resolved exclusively in the courts of the Province of Ontario, Canada.

17. Force Majeure

Neither party is liable for any failure or delay in performance (except payment obligations) to the extent the failure or delay results from circumstances beyond its reasonable control, including acts of God, natural disasters, epidemics, war, terrorism, civil unrest, labour disputes, government actions, internet or telecommunications outages, power failures, or failures of third-party infrastructure providers.

18. Changes to Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. We will notify registered users of material changes via email or in-app notification at least 30 days before they take effect, except where a shorter period is required by law. Continued use of the Services after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms. The most current version will always be available at rootskills.ca/terms.

19. Miscellaneous

Entire Agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy (and any applicable Data Processing Agreement), constitute the entire agreement between you and Root Skills regarding the Services and supersede all prior agreements.
Severability. If any provision is held invalid or unenforceable, that provision will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable, and the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.
No Waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision does not waive our right to enforce it later.
Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our prior written consent. Root Skills may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets.
Notices. Notices to Root Skills must be sent to the address in Section 20. Notices to you may be given by email, in-app notification, or posting on the Services.
Relationship of Parties. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, agency, or employment relationship.
No Third-Party Beneficiaries. These Terms do not create any rights in favour of any third party.
Language. The parties have expressly requested that these Terms be drafted in English. Les parties ont expressément exigé que les présentes conditions soient rédigées en anglais.

20. Contact Us

If you have questions about these Terms of Service, contact us at:

Canada's Sunshine Inc. (operator of Root Skills) 238 Montiel Road, Richmond Hill, Ontario, L4C 4T5, Canada Email: support@rootskills.ca Billing: billing@rootskills.ca