These policies are designed to promote empowerment, peace, and thoughtfulness in both our lives and yours! Returning families, even if you have been working with us for a while, please review these policies - we have made some adjustments and clarifications. Thank you!
Coaching Philosophy: We truly believe that group coaching is an amazing process for facilitating growth - but we also acknowledge that growth is not always a linear process. As coaches, we believe our job is to help your child navigate the challenges they face and make progress on their goals - rather than take over tasks that belong to them. Because of this, your child may occasionally hit a bump in the road - a low grade or a missed assignment, for example. Our philosophy is designed to help minimize these occasions as much as possible but also to help your child learn how to deal with them. Our belief is that learning how to deal with these situations will serve our clients better in the long run and help them build skills for independence. Additionally, this is a group setting, complete with its own amazing social benefits - but it's also very different from having an individualized, one-on-one session. Please ensure this is the right fit for your child and that your expectations are in alignment with the goals of group coaching.
Group Setting: At Empower, we are a team made up of unique and important identities, and we also serve clients with unique, important identities and backgrounds. It is of utmost importance that we maintain an environment that is safe and affirming for our students. We invite students and families with similar priorities to join us! Students or families who do not agree with these values are encouraged to seek support elsewhere. If students or families are contributing to an environment that harms other students and families, Empower reserves the right to handle these situations in the way we see fit, including conversations, opportunities for conflict resolution, or discontinuing providing services for a student if needed.
Communication with Coach: We encourage you to schedule a call with your child's coach at least once per semester. You may also text and email us. If it is after 8pm ET or a weekend, please use email instead of texting. Thank you!
School Communication: All schools have confidentiality procedures in place that limit our ability to talk with teachers about your child. If you would like us to be able to communicate with teachers, please ask your school for a release form that you can sign to grant permission for us to communicate with them. However, please continue to maintain your communication relationship with the school and your child's teachers and please continue to check your child's grade portal; we are part of your child's team but are unable to take over these responsibilities.
Grades: Grades often improve for our students as a consequence of other areas of growth, but it is not a gurantee as grades are influenced by a number of factors. Those other areas - confidence, study skills, organization, collaboration - are our focus rather than grades. Please ensure this is in alignment with your parental goals for your child before signing up with us.
Cameras: We know that students (and coaches!) may not always want to have their camera on during a Zoom call, but we request that students do have it on whenever possible - unless it interferes with their peace & comfort level or they do not have a functioning camera (please let us know in either case). We make this request because we find that students are able to be more engaged in the session, and it allows us to connect better and have more awareness of their understanding.
Coaching is our full time job, and we greatly value our weekly appointments with your child. The following policies allow us to provide a high level service to all of our clients on a regular basis.
Number of Sessions: We meet with students approximately 17 times over the semester. We will not meet the week of September 19th or November 21st.
Cancellation/Rescheduling of a Session: Because of the nature of the group coaching session, if your child is unable to attend, they are not eligible for a refund or a rescheduled session but your child's coach will reach out with information they missed and can communicate with their coach by email or text for quick questions. Occasionally a coach may have an emergency situation that requires the group session to be rescheduled for that week.
Missed Payments: We understand that life happens and our families may at some point have automatic payment errors or miss a payment. If you miss a payment, we ask that it be resolved within seven days. If it cannot be, we need some form of written notice about what’s going on and the date you expect it to be resolved (i.e. lost credit card, new card details, etc.). If it’s due to financial hardship, we ask that you reach out to us within seven days of the missed payment and request a call to discuss options. We are committed to working with your family to find a solution, but we do need to know within this timeframe in order to continue working together. Regardless of the cause, if we do not hear from you and/or do not have a plan in place within fourteen days from the date of the missed payment, we reserve the right to remove the student from our group.
Client Testimonials: We love happy clients! If you have had a great experience and have expressed that verbally or in writing, we love to share those quotes anonymously & without information that could lead to your identification unless you have expressly given us permission otherwise. If it is NOT ok with you for us to share these quotes anonymously, please contact us at info@EmpowerAcademicCoaching.com to share this request.