Frequently Asked Questions

NexGen Secure is a K-12 cybersecurity education platform that gives students, teachers, and school administrators access to interactive lessons, hands-on labs, quizzes, and gamified learning paths. Our goal is to make cybersecurity education accessible and engaging for every grade level — from kindergarten through 12th grade.

NexGen Secure serves four audiences:

• K-12 Students — Interactive, grade-appropriate cybersecurity content and labs
• Teachers — Class management, student progress tracking, and curriculum resources
• School Administrators — School-wide oversight, teacher management, and enrollment controls
• Individual & Family Members — Independent learners and families who want professional cybersecurity education outside of a school setting

School access is provisioned by the NexGen Secure team. If you're interested in bringing NexGen Secure to your school, apply for our Pilot Partner program or contact us. We'll set up your school account, create your administrator login, and walk you through onboarding your teachers and students.

Yes. Schools selected for our Pilot Partner program receive full Premium access at no cost during the pilot period. This gives your teachers and students complete access to all courses, labs, and features so you can fully evaluate the platform before committing to a subscription.

School Administrators have a dedicated dashboard where they can:

• Invite and manage teachers across the school
• View all classes and student enrollment counts
• Reassign teachers to different classes if needed
• Monitor school-wide activity and subscription status
• Manage billing and subscription settings

From the School Administrator dashboard, navigate to the Teachers section and enter the teacher's name and school email address. NexGen Secure will send them an activation email with a secure link to set up their account. Invitation links expire after 48 hours for security. If a link expires, you can resend the invitation from the same screen.

Yes. School Administrators can reassign teachers between classes from the Classes section of the admin dashboard. Student enrollments and progress remain intact during reassignment — only the teacher of record changes.

The number of teachers and students depends on your subscription plan. School and district plans are sized to match your enrollment needs. Contact us to discuss the right fit for your school.

The Pilot Partner program is our founding school initiative. Schools accepted as Pilot Partners receive full Premium access to NexGen Secure at no cost during the pilot period. In exchange, we ask for honest feedback that helps us improve the platform. Pilot Partners receive priority support and early access to new features. Apply here.

Student accounts and progress records are retained until the school's subscription is active. At year-end, schools can request a full data export for their records before the account renewal. If a subscription is not renewed, student data is retained for 90 days before permanent deletion, in line with our Privacy Policy. Parents may also submit a data deletion request at any time.

Every class you create has a unique Class Code. Share this code with your students. When a student logs in and enters the class code, their request appears in your Teacher Dashboard under Students → Pending Approvals. You review and approve each student individually — verifying their name spelling before confirming — ensuring only your real students gain access.

Student accounts are created using just a first and last name — no passwords or email addresses required. Because of this, teacher approval is the identity verification step. By reviewing each student, you confirm their name is spelled correctly and that they're actually in your class. This protects students from accidentally being enrolled in the wrong class and ensures clean, accurate records.

Yes. Teachers can manage multiple classes from the same Teacher Dashboard. Each class has its own unique code, student roster, and assigned courses. You can switch between classes from the class selector at the top of your dashboard.

The Teacher Dashboard shows each student's enrolled courses, modules completed, points earned, and recent activity. The Activity Feed tab provides a real-time stream of completions, badge awards, and new enrollments across your class so you always know how your students are progressing.

The Resources tab in your Teacher Dashboard includes:

• Teaching Guides aligned to each course
• Lesson Plan Templates
• Curriculum frameworks aligned to CYBER.ORG K-12 Cybersecurity Learning Standards
• Links to approved external references and tools

Students log in using only their first name, last name, and class code — there is no password to forget. If a student can't find their account, check the spelling they used when they first enrolled. You can see the exact name on file in your student roster. If corrections are needed, contact your school administrator or NexGen Secure support.

K-12 students log in using only their first name, last name, and class code. No email address or password is required. This lightweight approach is designed specifically for younger students and keeps the login process simple and fast, while teacher approval provides the identity verification layer.

A Class Code is a unique identifier assigned to each class by the teacher. Your teacher will give you this code. You enter it when you first log in to connect your account to the correct class. Once enrolled and approved, you won't need to enter it again.

Students can:

• Complete interactive cybersecurity courses and modules
• Play hands-on labs and simulations
• Take quizzes and earn points
• Earn digital badges and certificates
• Track their learning streaks and overall progress
• View and print their earned certificates

Learning streaks track how many consecutive weeks a student has been active on the platform. Completing any lesson, lab, or quiz during a given week counts as activity for that week. Streaks reset if a full week passes with no activity. Since students aren't expected to be online on weekends, streaks are measured weekly rather than daily to keep the experience fair and encouraging.

Badges are awarded automatically for milestones — like completing your first module, maintaining a streak, or achieving a high quiz score. Certificates are earned by completing full courses or learning pathways. All earned badges and certificates appear in the Awards section of the student dashboard and can be printed.

The platform has two student dashboard experiences:

• K-5 Dashboard — A child-friendly interface with larger icons, simplified navigation, animated characters, and age-appropriate language designed for younger learners.
• 6-12 Dashboard — A data-focused interface with more detail, career exploration tools, skill analytics, and content relevant to older students preparing for high school and beyond.

The correct dashboard is automatically assigned based on the student's grade level set by the teacher.

Yes. NexGen Secure is built with COPPA compliance as a core design principle. We collect only the minimum data necessary for students to use the platform: first name, last name, class affiliation, and educational progress. We do not collect email addresses, birthdates, phone numbers, home addresses, photos, geolocation data, or social media identifiers from K-12 students. School subscriptions operate under a school official consent model as permitted by COPPA. See our COPPA/FERPA Compliance page for full details.

Yes. NexGen Secure acts as a "school official" under FERPA when used by schools, operating under the school's authority to use student educational records for legitimate educational purposes. Student data is never sold, shared with advertisers, or disclosed to third parties for non-educational purposes. Our COPPA/FERPA page outlines our data handling obligations in detail.

For K-12 students, we collect only:

• First name and last name
• Grade level (set by the teacher)
• Class affiliation
• Educational progress (modules completed, points, badges, certificates)

We do not collect email addresses, passwords, birthdates, addresses, phone numbers, photos, or location data from K-12 students. IP addresses from school networks are logged in server security audit logs only (for fraud prevention) and are not stored in student profile records.

Parents and guardians can submit a formal data request using our Data Request Form. We support requests for data access, export, correction, and deletion. All requests are acknowledged within 5 business days and fulfilled within 30 days. You can also contact us directly at privacy@nexgensecure.us.

All student data is stored in a secure, encrypted database hosted on AWS cloud infrastructure in the United States. The platform enforces strict access controls to ensure students can only access their own data, and each school's data is logically isolated from other schools.

The marketing website uses minimal cookies for functionality. The application platform uses secure session tokens for authentication — not advertising or tracking cookies. We do not use advertising trackers or third-party analytics on student-facing pages. See our Cookie Policy for full details.

No. Never. NexGen Secure does not sell, rent, or share student data with advertisers, data brokers, or any third party for commercial purposes. Student data is used solely to provide, improve, and support the educational services described in our Privacy Policy.

NexGen Secure covers all K-12 grade levels across four grade bands:

• K-2 — Introduction to online safety and digital citizenship using simple concepts and visuals
• 3-5 — Foundational security concepts, password safety, and responsible internet use
• 6-8 — Network basics, threat awareness, phishing, and identity protection
• 9-12 — Advanced topics including cryptography, ethical hacking fundamentals, and cybersecurity career pathways

NexGen Secure content is aligned to the CYBER.ORG K-12 Cybersecurity Learning Standards, covering three main domains: Computing Systems, Digital Citizenship, and Security. This alignment ensures content is educationally appropriate and meets expectations set by one of the nation's leading cybersecurity education organizations.

Labs are hands-on, browser-based simulations where students practice cybersecurity skills in a safe, sandboxed environment. Labs might include activities like identifying phishing emails, navigating a simulated network, or completing a puzzle that teaches a security concept. Labs run entirely in the browser — no downloads, software, or special hardware required.

Yes. All labs are fully browser-based and run in isolated sandbox environments. They do not make external network requests, cannot install software, and cannot access any files or data outside the browser tab. Lab access links are secure and expire automatically when the session ends.

For high school students (9-12), the platform includes content that introduces foundational concepts aligned with entry-level certifications like CompTIA Security+ and CompTIA IT Fundamentals. The 6-12 dashboard also includes a career exploration section where students can discover cybersecurity career paths and understand what certifications are relevant to each role. NexGen Secure is an educational platform, not an official certification exam provider.

Yes. NexGen Secure is fully compatible with Chromebooks and Chrome OS. The entire platform — including all courses, labs, and dashboards — runs in the browser with no downloads or extensions required. This makes it ideal for schools where Chromebooks are the primary student device.

NexGen Secure is tested and supported on:

• Google Chrome (recommended)
• Microsoft Edge
• Mozilla Firefox
• Apple Safari (macOS and iOS)

We recommend keeping your browser up to date for the best experience.

No. NexGen Secure is entirely browser-based. Students, teachers, and administrators only need a modern web browser and an internet connection. There are no apps to install, no software to download, and no browser extensions required.

Not currently. NexGen Secure is a web-based platform accessible from any modern browser, including mobile browsers on phones and tablets. A dedicated mobile app may be added in a future release.

NexGen Secure is designed to work on standard school network connections. A minimum of 5 Mbps per student is recommended for a smooth experience, including labs. The platform does not stream high-definition video, which keeps bandwidth requirements low compared to typical video-heavy platforms.

Direct LMS integrations (Google Classroom, Canvas, Microsoft Teams) are on our product roadmap. Currently, teachers share the class code manually and manage students through the NexGen Secure Teacher Dashboard. Check our Roadmap for the latest on planned integrations.

Yes. For security on shared school devices, sessions automatically expire after 5 minutes of inactivity. Students, teachers, and administrators will be prompted to log back in. This helps prevent unauthorized access if a device is left unattended — an important consideration in shared classroom and library environments.

NexGen Secure offers four subscription tiers:

• Individual — A single learner subscription for independent students or professionals
• Family — Covers multiple learners in a household
• Team / School — Designed for classrooms and small schools, covering teachers and a defined student count
• Enterprise / District — Custom plans for large school districts with multi-school management and dedicated support

View the Courses page for more details on what each plan includes.

Yes. School plans include the Teacher and School Administrator dashboards, class management, student approval workflows, and school-wide reporting. They are billed to the school and managed by an administrator. Individual and Family plans are personal subscriptions that provide access to courses and member-specific features like skill analytics and career exploration, without the classroom management layer.

Yes. For school and district subscriptions, we can accommodate purchase orders and provide formal invoices. Please contact us to discuss your district's purchasing requirements and we'll work with you to make the process as straightforward as possible.

Our full refund and cancellation policy is detailed in our Terms of Service. If you have a specific billing concern, please contact us and we'll be happy to help.