Live In-Person and Virtual Course Cancellation Policy

Provider Cancellation Policy:

Training Providers may cancel a class with at least 5 calendar days’ notice to pre-registered students. Classes may be cancelled without advance notice due to weather conditions or other unforeseeable emergencies. The Training Coordinator determines the conditions that constitute an emergency. All monies paid to the Training Provider for a class that is cancelled shall be fully refunded within 14 business days of the cancellation notice. Students may choose to have their monies credited towards another scheduled class. Students should contact the Training Provider for additional terms and conditions regarding their refund policy.

Returns should be sent to: Attn: Training Return, PO Box 610605 Dallas, TX 75261

Student Cancellation Policy:

If a student cancels an ESA National Training School course more than seven days prior to a live class, a refund, less a 25% administrative fee, will be issued. In lieu of canceling, a student can opt to transfer their funds to a future course. There are no refunds or transfers permitted within seven days before the class.

Online Self-Paced Course Cancellation Policy

If the student has completed less than ¼ of the purchased course a transfer or refund will be granted (less a 25% administrative fee).

TRANSFERS: Students may choose to transfer their refund credits to another ESA National Training School Course.
REFUNDS: Refunds should be expected within thirty days of request.

Cancellation or transfer requests made beyond 6 months of the course purchase — or requests made for courses completed one-quarter or more through will not be accepted.

Terms and Conditions

I. Online Course Policies
II. Confidentiality
III. Students with special needs
IV. Proctored Exams
V. Intellectual Property

I. Online Course Policies

Student Expectations:

To be a successful online learner, students must be comfortable using their own computer and working on the Internet.

Students enrolling in an online course should expect to spend the same amount of hours in the online course as the instructor led course. Tools are in place to prevent students from advancing too quickly in the online course. If a student advances too quickly in the program they will be forced to return to the previous section or be locked out of the course. This system is in place to support learning outcomes and compliance with licensing requirements.
It is expected that students represent themselves ethically in their online course activities. This includes accurately identifying themselves when registering and completing the course.

System Requirements

The following are recommended computer system requirements for those taking online courses:

Windows based PCs: Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 or later, or Mozilla Firefox 17 or later
Sound card
Pop up blocker disabled.
Using a smart phone or tablet to view courses is not currently supported.

Students enrolled in online proctoring for exams, must have a computer with a reliable internet connection and web cam. See here for technical specifications for our online proctored exams.

Course Materials
Course materials, including the course manual (where applicable), are available digitally through the online course.

Course Completion
All online self-paced classes must be completed within one year from the date of enrollment — with exception of all OSHA 10/30 courses, which are federally regulated and must be completed within 180 days of enrollment.

Security
All personal information collected by ESA/NTS is considered confidential and is secured through encryption tools. Access to students’ personal information is limited to ESA/NTS employees and contractors who have a legitimate business need for information for the purpose of fulfilling ESA/NTS’s obligations, and who have entered into an agreement with ESA/NTS to handle personal information in a manner that is in accordance with this Policy.

Registration

In order to participate in ESA/NTS courses you will be required to register.
You must ensure that the details provided by you during registration, or at any time, are correct and complete.
You must inform us immediately of any changes to the information that you provided when registering by updating your NTS profile in order that we can communicate with you effectively.
You must keep your password and user name confidential and not disclose them or share them with anyone. If you know or suspect that someone else knows your password you should notify us by contacting nts@esaweb.org immediately.
If ESA/NTS has reason to believe that there is likely to be a breach of security or misuse of the website, we may require you to change your password or we may suspend your account.
ESA/NTS reserves the right to close accounts if any user is seen to be using proxy IPs (Internet Protocol addresses) in order to attempt to hide the use of multiple accounts, or disrupts any of our services in any way.
If you use multiple logins for the purpose of disrupting a community or annoying other users you may have action taken against all of your accounts.

Technical Support
Technical support is available for all registered users from 8:00am to 5:00pm C.S.T Monday-Friday by calling (888) 447-1689.

II. Confidentiality

Student mailing, email and additional contact information is kept confidential and not given to third parties without prior written consent of the student. Individual student test results are mailed to the student’s address as indicated on the student registration form. Notwithstanding the foregoing, student contact information, test results (including results from prior tests) and a record of all ESA/NTS courses taken by the student shall be made available to the student’s employer upon request, and the student hereby consents to the disclosure of such information to his or her employer.

III. Students with Special Needs

Training Providers shall comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. If a student identifies themselves as having a special need and requests accommodation, Training Providers should request appropriate and recent documentation of the disability. Documentation should be provided by a qualified professional. After determining a student is disabled, Training Providers should ask the student what accommodations they are requesting. Training Providers must agree to provide reasonable accommodations. If the student and class sponsors disagree on the reasonable accommodations necessary, Training Providers should engage in (and document) a dialogue with the student.

IV. Proctored Exams

ESA/NTS courses that require a final proctored examination must comply with the following:

Qualified Proctor : Proctored examinations may only be administered by ESA/NTS Certified Instructor, chapter Executive Director, ESA board member, Vice President of Training and Certification (or a designee), certified notary public or a pre-approved testing center.
Verify Identity: Approved proctors must verify test taker’s government issued picture identification and ensure it matches the course registration records.
Procedures: Proctors are provided written directions for each examination they proctor

For examinations given at the conclusion of instructor led courses, ESA may offer computer based testing as a replacement to the paper based examinations. This system allows the students to take their exam using a wireless enabled device (laptop or tablet). This is in lieu of taking the exam using paper. Due to the high stakes of our exams, we still require the exams to have an approved human proctor (usually the course Instructor) present at the testing site. Training Providers may only use computer based testing if the instructor has been trained on the process by ESA staff. Students have the ability to review their answers prior to submitting the exam. Once the exam is submitted students receive their pass or fail result immediately after submitting their exam.

Online Courses – Proctored Exams:
Proctored exams for students taking Online delivered courses must take a proctored final exam in order to receive a course completion. ESA requires all students to take their proctored exam through our web-based proctoring service, ProctorU.

Re-Examination
Candidates failing to achieve a passing score of 70 will be eligible for re-examination. Re-examinations are permitted within 6 months of initial course completion. Course must be retaken if re-exam is requested more than 6 months after initial course. Re-examination requires the submittal of a re-examination form and fee. Those needing to schedule a re-examination should contact the Training Provider for assistance. Those failing the exam for the third time will be required to retake the course.

Cheating

Cheating on exams will not be tolerated. Cheating is defined as an individual or group activity for the purpose of dishonestly obtaining and/or distributing testable information prior to, during, or after an examination.
One or more of the following penalties may be imposed once cheating has been substantiated:
1.  A written record of the infraction will be included in the student’s permanent file.
2.  A failing grade on the exam will be issued to the student.
3.  A ban from enrolling in future ESA/NTS courses for one year from the date of the adjudication.
For further information on the Cheating Policy and the Appeal process see the NTS Policies, Procedures and Administrative Guidelines.

V. Intellectual Property

All copyright, trademarks, design rights, patents and other intellectual property rights (registered and unregistered) in and on all content (including all applications and materials) located on or available through the online courses shall remain the property of ESA.

You must not copy, reproduce, republish, disassemble, decompile, reverse engineer, download, post, broadcast, transmit, make available to the public, or otherwise use the online course content in any way except for your own personal, non-commercial use. You also agree not to adapt, alter or create a derivative work from any online course content except for your own personal, non-commercial use. Any other use of the ESA/NTS online course content requires the prior written permission of ESA.

The names, images and logos identifying ESA or third parties and their products and services are subject to copyright, design rights and trademarks of ESA and/or third parties. Nothing contained in these Terms and Conditions shall be construed as conferring any license or right to use any trade mark, design right or copyright of ESA or any other third party.

Policies and Terms & Conditions