Last updated: July 27, 2026
The Children's Orchestra Society teaches young musicians, which means most of the information we hold is about children. We take that seriously. This policy explains what we collect, why, who else sees it, and what you can ask us to do about it.
The Children's Orchestra Society is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1962.
COS decides what information is collected and why, and is responsible for it. Our website is built and maintained by Nimble Dragon Studios, who act on our instructions and can be contacted about technical matters relating to the site.
When your child auditions or enrolls. This is the largest amount of information we hold. Depending on the form, it includes your child's name, date of birth, age, school and grade, gender, ethnicity (optional), instrument and playing experience, home address, and their own phone number and email address where they have one. We also collect parent and guardian names, addresses, home, work and cell phone numbers, email addresses, and an emergency contact.
When you apply for financial aid or a scholarship. Household financial information you enter on the form, and for some applications a student's activities, leadership positions, employment history and hours worked. We do not ask you to upload tax returns, pay stubs or other supporting documents.
When you donate. Your name, contact details, donation amount and history, whether the gift is recurring, and any tribute or dedication you attach to it. Card details are entered directly with our payment processor and are not stored on our website.
When you buy tickets or merchandise. Order and contact details, handled the same way.
When you sign a consent or release form. Your name, contact details and an electronic signature.
When you email us or subscribe. Your name, email address and whatever you write to us.
When you browse the site. Pages visited, approximate location, device and browser details, and how you interact with pages. See "Cookies and tracking" below.
Most of our students are minors and some are under 13.
We collect children's information because we cannot place a child in the right ensemble, keep them safe on a Saturday, or contact a parent in an emergency without it. It is provided by a parent or guardian as part of an audition, registration or application.
We do not require a child to provide more information than is needed to take part. We do not sell children's information. We do not use it for advertising and we do not allow anyone else to.
A parent or guardian can ask to see what we hold about their child, correct it, or ask us to delete it. Requests go to our Executive Director and we will honor them.
We do not sell personal information.
We use outside services to run the organization, and they receive only what they need:
We may also share information where the law requires it, or where it is necessary to protect a child.
Student and alumni records: indefinitely. There are three reasons.
The first is that we stay in touch. COS has been running since 1962 and people come back. Former students return as faculty. Former parents become donors, and some join our board. A family's relationship with COS often outlasts the years their child was enrolled, and we keep contact details so we can stay in touch and, like a college with its alumni, ask for support from time to time. If you would rather we did not, say so and we will take you off the list right away. Families ask us to do this and we do it.
The second is that we measure whether the program works. Since 1984 we have followed what happened to students after they left, including where they went to college, and we update those figures every year. That tracking is the source of the outcome statistics we publish, and it only means anything because it covers decades rather than a single season.
We learn this the ordinary way. Families and former students tell us, and a graduating student's college destination is announced at their graduation recital. We do not buy this information or gather it from anywhere else. If you would rather not hear from us, or would rather not be counted, tell us and that is the end of it.
We publish the results as totals. We do not publish information about an individual student.
The third is that we are required to keep financial and administrative records, which is covered below.
How form submissions are stored. When you complete a form, everything on it is saved together as one record. We are not able to remove individual answers from a saved form while keeping the rest. If you ask us to delete your information, we delete the record.
Signed consent and release forms: indefinitely. Where a family has given permission for photographs or recordings to be used, we keep the signed form for as long as that material might be used. COS has fifty years of concert footage and photography, and a recording from the 1970s may still appear in something we publish today. The signed form is how we know we have permission to use it.
Financial and donation records are kept as long as required for tax, audit and accounting.
You can ask us to delete your information at any time. Indefinite retention is what happens by default, not a refusal to remove you. Requests go to our Executive Director.
To make any of these requests, email yeoucheng@childrensorch.org or write to us at the address below.
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Session recording. Microsoft Clarity records how visitors move through pages, including mouse movement, scrolling and clicks, so we can see where the site is confusing. It is set to mask what you type, so information you enter into a form is not captured in these recordings.
Video. We track whether videos on the site are played and how far they are watched.
We use encrypted connections, a firewall, limited staff access and regular backups. No system is perfectly secure, and we will tell you and the relevant authorities if a breach affects your information, as New York law requires.
We will post any changes here and update the date at the top. If a change materially affects how we handle children's information, we will tell families directly.
yeoucheng@childrensorch.org
The Children's Orchestra Society
65-03 180th St., Fresh Meadows, NY 11365
(718) 888-0635
Saturday classes are held at 36 Church Street, Syosset, NY 11791.