Florida Dept. of Education warns school districts about use Chinese-owned tutor program

SANTA ROSA COUNTY, Fla. -- Santa Rosa County school leaders confirmed with WEAR News on Tuesday that they've canceled a deal with the online tutoring service "Tutor.com."

This comes two weeks after WEAR News reported concerns from parents about the company's alleged ties to Chinese nationals.

The announcement from Santa Rosa County Schools coincides with a letter released by Florida's education commissioner on Tuesday.

The district didn't share any other information about the decision to part ways, only saying saying it severed ties with Tutor.com last week as a supplemental tutoring resource for students and will be moving to a different tutoring platform after spring break.

Florida's education commissioner did not hold back in a letter sent on Tuesday to school superintendents, charter school boards, and state college presidents. He writes: "Let me be clear -- school districts, charter schools and state colleges should not contract with companies that have ties to foreign countries of concern and risk compromising student data."

As WEAR News reported, Tutor.com's website says it is controlled by Primavera Holdings Limited, a firm owned by Chinese nationals.

The company sent WEAR News a statement two weeks ago, saying in part, "Tutor.com is an American company -- and no personal information of students or families is shared with Primavera." It goes on to say "Primavera does not have -- and cannot get access to IT systems."

In the letter from the state education commissioner, it says "Primavera Capital was recently investigated by the Florida Department of Education," and that "the board has recently adopted rules to strengthen and protect the privacy of student data to keep it out of the hands of bad actors."