Student First Technologies

At Student First Technologies (SFT), trust and security are foundational to our mission of transforming how K–12 education choice funding is managed and delivered. We’re pleased to announce that SFT has successfully achieved SOC 2 Type II compliance, effective June 9th, 2025. This milestone reflects our commitment to operational excellence, data protection, and leadership in the evolving landscape of K–12 education choice programs.

Defining a New Category in Regulated Education Finance

Student First is an innovative fintech operating in the K–12 education funding space. We are defining a new open marketplace category in the K–12 regulated payments sector, powered by our proprietary pre-authorization payment engine that drives our smart debit card system, TheoPay™. This system is specifically designed to maximize family purchasing optionality, and removes the need for education vendors to integrate into a closed marketplace, while ensuring school choice education dollars are used in accordance with statutory and programmatic requirements.

‍

Our platform and wraparound services enable the compliant management, distribution, tracking, and reporting of hundreds of millions of dollars in school choice funds through an end-to-end fintech infrastructure tailored to the unique needs of state agencies and nonprofit administrators that serve families and education providers.

What is SOC 2 Type II?

SOC 2 (System and Organization Controls 2) is a security and compliance framework developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). It ensures that service providers securely manage data and adhere to best practices around privacy, availability, and confidentiality.

‍

SOC 2 Type II is the gold standard in operational security audits; it validates not only the design of internal controls but also their real-world effectiveness over an extended monitoring period.

Why It Matters

SOC 2 Type II compliance is a clear signal of our long-term commitment to securing the financial and personal data entrusted to us by our clients and their users. For the public-sector programs we support, it also reinforces confidence that:

‍

• Robust Safeguards Are in Place: We actively defend against unauthorized access, breaches, and fraud.
  
  
• Systems Are Stable and Dependable: Our infrastructure is monitored, hardened, and built for uptime and integrity.
  
  
• Compliance is Continuous: We operate with policies and procedures designed to meet the evolving expectations of regulators, auditors, and agency partners.

The Path to Certification

This certification was the result of a methodical, company-wide effort. Our security and compliance team worked systematically to document, implement, and test security controls across systems, operations, and policies to meet the stringent requirements of the SOC 2 Type II framework.

‍

We engaged Aprio, a nationally recognized advisory firm specializing in SOC audits for high-growth SaaS and fintech companies, to conduct our independent audit. Their examination confirmed the effectiveness of our internal controls across the full audit window.

What’s Next for Student First Technologies?

This milestone affirms our role as a category leader in secure K–12 financial infrastructure, but we’re just getting started. As education choice programs continue to grow nationwide, Student First will continue to help lead the way with innovative technology and programtic services designed for accountability, transparency, and positive impact for families, schools, and education providers.

‍

We are committed to setting a high standard for public-sector fintechs serving education funding programs. Built to meet the expectations of state governments and nonprofit administrators while delivering a comprehensive experience for families and education providers, our end-to-end, white label ready modular platform, Theodore™, includes robust applications with integrated identity verification, digital wallets, integrated payments, real-time reporting, and configurable program controls.

Requesting Our SOC 2 Type II Report

If you are a state agency, scholarship organization, or prospective partner and would like a copy of our SOC 2 Type II attestation, please contact us at compliance@studentfirsttech.com.

For more information about SOC compliance, please visit: www.aicpa.org/soc4so

About Student First Technologies

Based in Indiana, Student First Technologies is implementing the infrastructure for education funding programs across the country in partnership with state agencies and non-profits.

For more information, you can connect with us here.

Website: www.studentfirsttech.com

X.com: @StudentFirstHQ

Email. press@studentfirsttech.com

‍