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Security report for casel.org

Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) · Education · United States

Medium risk. 6 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

57/100

Risk levelMedium

0–100, higher is better. How it is calculated

CASEL is a well-established non-profit organization founded in 1998, dedicated to advancing social and emotional learning (SEL) across educational settings from preschool through high school. The organization provides a comprehensive suite of resources, research, professional development, and policy advocacy to support educators, school districts, families, and policymakers. Their market position is strong as a leading authority in SEL, supported by a large and consistent digital presence and partnerships such as with the Allstate Foundation. Technically, the website is built on WordPress and leverages modern web technologies including jQuery, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, and Hotjar for analytics and user experience insights. The site is hosted behind Cloudflare DNS and uses HTTPS with good SSL configuration. The website demonstrates good mobile optimization, accessibility, and SEO practices, contributing to a positive user experience. From a security perspective, the site enforces HTTPS, uses reCAPTCHA for form protection, and implements cookie consent mechanisms compliant with GDPR. However, DNSSEC is not enabled, and some security headers are not explicitly detected, suggesting room for improvement. No critical vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were found. The WHOIS data confirms the domain's legitimacy with a long registration history and consistent registrant information. Overall, the website is professional, secure, and trustworthy, with excellent content quality and strong business credibility. Strategic recommendations include enabling DNSSEC, enhancing security headers, and publishing a dedicated security policy or incident response page to further strengthen trust and compliance.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
65/ 100 · Medium
Checks completed
7of 7

NIS2 Art. 21(2)

  1. (a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
  2. (b) Incident handling: One indicator
  3. (c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
  4. (d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
  5. (e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
  6. (f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
  7. (g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
  8. (h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
  9. (i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
  10. (j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside

This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.

GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.

Priority findings

6 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Security headers

    Security headers are instructions your web server sends to every visitor’s browser. Missing ones leave visitors more exposed to attacks such as clickjacking and injected scripts.

    • High

      Missing Strict-Transport-Security header

      Forces HTTPS connections

      What to do: Add "Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"

      • CWE-319
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V3.4.1
    • High

      Missing X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

    • High

      Missing Content-Security-Policy header

      Controls resources the browser is allowed to load

      What to do: Implement a Content-Security-Policy appropriate for your application

      • ASVS V3.4.3
      • OWASP Secure Headers: OWASP Secure Headers Project recommends Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; form-action 'self'; base-uri 'self'; object-src 'none';…

  2. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching casel.org

This scan found 24 issues across 6 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

Daily monitoring

Recommended

€25per month

  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

Email alerts on material changes and an exportable JSON history of every change.

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Results by check

Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.

How this score is calculated

The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.

Counted in this score

SSL/TLS
62
Security headers
20
Email security
85
DNS health
70
Network security
40
GDPR outside view
65
Average
57

Not counted

  • NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
  • OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.

Findings that cap the score at 49

Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.

  • The certificate is not trusted by browsers
  • The website is not served over HTTPS
  • A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
  • The page loads a script from a compromised source
  • The domain registration has expired
  • SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain

Partial scans

When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.

Risk levels

  • Critical0–25
  • High26–49
  • Medium50–75
  • Low76–100

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

CASEL operates in the education and non-profit sectors, focusing on social and emotional learning. Their business model centers on providing evidence-based resources, professional training, and policy advocacy to improve educational outcomes. The organization targets educators, school districts, policymakers, and families, positioning itself as a thought leader and resource hub. Revenue streams likely include grants, donations, professional services, and event registrations. The partnership ecosystem includes foundations like Allstate and related SEL-focused domains. Growth indicators include active event promotion and extensive resource offerings. The organization's operations reflect a mature, large-scale non-profit with a consistent brand and strong market presence.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a mature security posture with mandatory HTTPS, clientTransferProhibited domain status, and use of reCAPTCHA to protect forms. Cookie consent and privacy policies indicate compliance with GDPR. The absence of DNSSEC and some security headers suggests moderate risk areas. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. Incident response and security policy pages are not found, indicating a potential gap in transparency and readiness. Overall, the security maturity is good but could be improved with enhanced DNS security and published security policies.

Recommendations

  1. Enable DNSSEC on the domain to improve DNS integrity and security.
  2. Implement and verify security headers such as X-Frame-Options and X-Content-Type-Options.
  3. Publish a dedicated security policy and incident response page to increase transparency and preparedness.
  4. Regularly audit third-party scripts and libraries for vulnerabilities and update them promptly.
  5. Enhance Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to mitigate cross-site scripting risks.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)
Description
CASEL is helping make evidence-based social and emotional learning an integral part of education, preschool through high school.
Key services
Research and publications on SEL, Professional development and training, Guides and resources for schools and districts, Policy advocacy and support, Annual SEL Exchange conference
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
jQuery, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Hotjar, YouTube iframe API, Cloudflare DNS, WordPress
Frameworks
WordPress
Platforms
WordPress CMS
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • ClientTransferProhibited domain status
  • Use of reCAPTCHA v2 for forms
  • Cookie consent mechanism implemented
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Jetpack Stats, Hotjar
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
good

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Hotjar, Jetpack Stats
Marketing tools
Hotjar
Transparency
good

Site quality

Design
excellent
User experience
excellent
Content relevance
excellent
Navigation
excellent
Professionalism
excellent
Trustworthiness
high

Key observations

  1. Website is professionally designed and well maintained.
  2. Strong focus on social and emotional learning education and advocacy.
  3. Multiple resources and guides available for different stakeholders.
  4. Robust privacy and cookie consent mechanisms implemented.
  5. Use of modern web technologies and analytics tools.
  6. No signs of malicious or suspicious activity.
  7. Domain age and WHOIS data support legitimacy.
  8. No visible security policy or incident response page found.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on WordPress CMS with a modern tech stack including jQuery, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Hotjar, and YouTube iframe API. Hosting is via Cloudflare DNS and likely CDN services, providing performance and security benefits. The site shows good mobile responsiveness, accessibility, and SEO optimization. Performance is moderate, with some room for improvement in loading speed. The use of multiple analytics and tracking tools is balanced with privacy compliance mechanisms. Technical risks are low, but the absence of DNSSEC and some security headers indicates opportunities for modernization and hardening.
Standards and sources

Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.

Retrieved 2026-10-25

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