Terms of Service for Tutoring:
Payment Policy:
The payment for the weekly session should made at least 48 hours in advance before our actual meeting time. If the payment is not received by the payment deadline, and no other arrangements have been made, the session I am holding for you may be filled by another student.
Refunds/Cancellations:
I do NOT offer any refunds for tutoring sessions. Parents must give 24 hour notice to cancel or reschedule one on one tutoring sessions or they will be charged the regular session rate. Reschedules must be done for the same week. I understand that students get sick so in that case 24 hour notice may not be possible. In case a student is sick, we will try to reschedule to meet during the same week or we will meet one extra time the following week.
No Shows:
No shows will be charged the regular session rate. If the student does not show up to their session, the session will be cancelled by me after 10 minutes. No shows can not be rescheduled.
Tardy Policy:
If the student is late, it will count as part of their session time. I often have classes scheduled back to back so being on time for our sessions is important.
Session Policy:
The student must in a quiet space for the duration of the class. It is essential that the student has minimal distractions. The student must come to class prepared with something to write on and something to write with. Please be nearby so the student can come and get you in the event they need assistance with technology. The student’s camera and mic should be on for the entire meeting.
Session Recordings:
Our sessions are recorded but not made available publicly. Parents may request recordings to review what we covered during our session.
For Group Classes:
Payment Policy:
I do NOT offer ANY type of refund or credit for group classes once payment is made, unless we are forced to cancel the class. Please make sure you are signing up for the correct time and class. Classes cancelled due to low enrollment will get a complete refund MINUS the fee charged by the payment processor to take the payment (PayPal is 3.49% + 49 cents or Stripe is 2.9 % + 30 cents). Teacher may decide to teach class with below minimum enrollment in which case class meeting time will be reduced from 40 minutes to 30 minutes.
Lesson Recordings:
It is important to me that learners feel safe and supported in the classroom. It is also important that I have the ability to document and investigate any safety concerns. I record live sessions and store them for a period of 6 months. I may share recordings with individuals (such as parents/guardians of involved participants) involved in the discussion of any classroom incident if necessary for a safety issue.
Parents may also request the lesson recording if their child was absent from class so that they can still keep up with the class. When parents make this request, they agree that they will not share the recording with anyone else. The recording must only be used for learning purposes.
Missed Classes:
Missed classes can not be made up unless I have another section running the same week that your student may join.
Class Participation:
I ask that students have their camera and mic on during our class meetings. If this is an issue, please contact me ahead of class start time.
Student Behavior:
It is important to me that all students have a safe and enjoyable classroom experience, so I have some behavioral guidelines to reach that goal.
Mute microphones if there is excessive background noise
Students must wear clothing when on camera
No flooding the chat with off-topic content. I will have the setting set to where students can only communicate with me.
No sharing contact information with other students without parent permission
No disruptive behavior that distracts other learners (such as constantly changing background screen, changing screen name to something silly, making faces at the camera, etc.)
Be respectful to everyone in class
Come to class prepared to learn and participate
Response to Behavioral Concerns:
My top priority is that all learners get the best experience they can out of the class. This means that my response to behavioral concerns is to address the individual problem with the least amount of disruption as possible to the student concerned. In general, I try to mitigate a specific behavior rather than remove a student from the classroom or limit their participation. Here are some examples of ways that I may address behavioral issues:
Disable particular functions of the online classroom (for example, turn off annotate, manually mute microphones, turn off a video feed)
Privately reach out to students to ask them to stop the behavior during class via chat
Move the student to the waiting room for a few minutes to allow them to refocus before joining our class again
Remove a student from live sessions but allow them to continue in the rest of the course. In this case, parents will be contacted to make a plan to avoid the issue in the next class.
Remove a student from the class altogether if behavior continues and it impacts the learning of others.
* Please note that if a student is removed from class permanently for behavior issues, you will not be given a refund for the remaining classes.
Safety in Live Meetings:
I use the “Waiting Room” so that learners cannot enter the classroom until I am present and open the class. This ensures I am present to observe group activity in live meetings and that strangers cannot enter our classroom. I am well-versed in the safety features to shut off cameras, turn off chat, and eject a participant from a meeting. In the rare event that there is an incident during a live meeting that jeopardizes student safety, I will contact Parents/Guardians using contact info given as soon as possible.
Discussion Boards:
Depending on the class, I use internal discussion boards that are not accessible by people outside of the classroom. I monitor these discussion boards.
Sharing Personal Information:
Learners are instructed to never share physical addresses via the discussion boards or live meeting chats.
Learners are instructed to never share personal contact information (such as email addresses, social media accounts, etc.).