Star Kids Robotics LLC · Cupertino, California · admin@starkidsafterschool.org
Last updated: September 17, 2026
Contents
StarCode includes a helper called the Tutor. A student can type a question in ordinary words, in their own language, and get an answer back.
The Tutor is not a general chatbot. It is built for one job and fenced into it. It helps with StarCode, the program the student is building, the blocks they are using, the code those blocks write, and the robot it runs on. That is the whole subject.
The Tutor is powered by Claude, an AI service from Anthropic, PBC.
It will discuss the student's program. StarCode sends it the code currently on the student's screen and the exact list of blocks their robot can run, so it talks about the real work in front of them.
It teaches rather than finishes the work. It offers a hint before an answer and does not write a student's program for them.
It also helps with the hardware. Wiring a circuit, plugging things in, powering a board safely, and checking whether a part is working. The Tutor gives advice for the robot in front of the student, never another one. Its hardware guidance comes from each manufacturer's own published documentation. When the Tutor has not been taught something physical, it says so and sends the student to their teacher rather than guessing. It cannot see anything physical, so it asks the student what they can see and reasons from the answer.
It will not discuss anything else. That includes homework in other subjects, stories, games, films, music, sport, famous people, the news, jokes, personal questions about the student or about the Tutor, shopping, and other people at the student's school.
When a student asks about something else, the Tutor replies with one short friendly line saying it only helps with coding here, and asks what they are building. It does not answer partly, briefly, or as a joke, and it does not hint toward an answer. Asking again receives the same reply. The rule does not bend because a student says a parent or teacher gave permission, calls the question a project, or instructs the Tutor to ignore its own rules. Nothing typed into StarCode changes those instructions, including text placed inside a student's own program.
If a student sounds upset or writes something worrying, the Tutor does not counsel them and does not continue the conversation. It says kindly that this is something to tell their teacher or a trusted adult, and stops.
A question typed into the Tutor does not stay on the device. It is sent to StarCode's server, which passes it to Anthropic's Claude service and returns the answer.
Sent with the question: the last few turns of that conversation, the code on the student's screen at that moment, the list of blocks available for their robot, and which StarCode skills the student has already earned.
Not sent with the question: the student's name, the class code, the school, any contact details, or anything from the student's progress record.
Anthropic does not use this data to train its AI models.
The conversation itself is not stored. It exists on the screen while the student is working and is gone when the window closes. Nothing writes it down, on the device or on our server.
StarCode records only that a conversation took place, with the time it happened and nothing else. There is no text stored, so there is nothing to read back.
A student may also use StarCode without entering a name. In that case nothing they do appears in any record.
Separately from the Tutor, StarCode keeps a small record so a teacher or parent can see how a student is getting on.
It holds the class code, the first name the student typed, which lesson they are on and how far through it, and signs the app can honestly observe, such as a step repeated, a long pause with nothing built, or a program that failed several times.
It does not hold ages, dates of birth, addresses, family details, attendance, contact information, or any category of sensitive personal information.
Records are tied to a class code and every read is filtered by it, so one school's records are not reachable from another's.
We keep a student's record for the academic term in which it was created. At the end of that term the record is deleted. We do not keep children's information indefinitely.
What is kept, and why: the class code, the student's first name, the lesson they are on, and the progress signs described above. It is kept so a teacher or parent can see how a student is getting on during that term. There is no reason to hold it after that, so we do not.
We delete records when a school asks us to, and we destroy all records belonging to a school when our agreement with that school ends.
A teacher can see the progress record for students in their own class.
Parents and guardians may ask to see, correct, or delete their child's record. Where StarCode is used by a school, that request goes through the school, which has 45 days under federal law to provide access. Where a family has enrolled directly with Star Kids Robotics, write to admin@starkidsafterschool.org.
The Tutor is available when a class begins. A teacher or parent can turn it off for any individual student from the parent and teacher portal.
There are two switches. Learn is the conversation described above. Prompt is the button that turns a written description into code, and it stays unavailable until the Tutor decides there is a good reason to offer it, so it cannot be used as a shortcut on every task. Turning Learn off turns Prompt off as well. When Learn is turned off for a student, the Learn button is removed from that student's screen. The parent and teacher portal is a subscription, and a parent can hold one just as a teacher can.
StarCode tells students, in their own language, that the AI can be wrong and that they should check on their robot. The robot is the final word. Learning to test a claim rather than accept it is part of the course.
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, 34 CFR Part 99. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, 16 CFR Part 312. California Student Online Personal Information Protection Act, Business and Professions Code 22584. California Education Code 49073.1. California Assembly Bill 1159, signed 10 September 2026.
Where StarCode is used by a public school, Star Kids Robotics acts as a school official under FERPA and works under the school's direction.