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[Money] Teacher-Collected Tuition: Families Pay Independent Tutors Directly
Raised Nov 4 by a tutorial-style co-op on a sales call, and asked about several times before. In many tutorial co-ops the board or director runs the program, but families pay each teacher directly for their classes. The director does not want tuition to touch the co-op's bank account, so the co-op is not issuing W-9s, 1099s or running payroll for teachers who are independent businesses. What it does The director chooses, per class, whether the co-op collects tuition or the teacher collects it. Teachers who collect their own tuition connect their own bank account through Stripe and are paid out on a set schedule. Teachers set the price for their own classes and handle their own refunds. Families pay through LearningSense with one saved bank account (and one invoice where possible), and each teacher's share goes straight to that teacher. The co-op can still collect its own fees (membership, facility, supplies) on the same platform. What stays with the director: approving who teaches, background checks, rosters, attendance, child health and safety info, rooms and schedules, and messaging oversight. The director does not set teacher prices, see teacher payout amounts, or handle teacher refunds. Priority: after the December and January (spring 2027 semester) work.
The new look for LearningSense
Live for every program on November 1, 2026. A cleaner, phone-friendly design for directors, families and teachers: a new Today page that shows what needs you first, grouped menus, class pages with their own tabs, and the same information and history you already had.
Find-a-Co-op directory
A public directory where families can search for homeschool co-ops and Parents Day Out programs near them, built from programs' public websites. Split out of the public program website (which shipped Nov 1, 2026).
[Platform] Multi-Program Support Under One Organization
Raised Sept 25. A church hosting several distinct programs (an MDO, a homeschool co-op, a youth program) wants to run them under one organizational umbrella rather than as fully separate LearningSense accounts, likely with shared family records but separate classes/billing/staff per program. Real architectural question, not a small feature: does a family belong to the church or to each program, how do permissions/billing separate per program, does this share the co-op data model or need its own layer. Needs real scoping before an effort estimate.
[Platform] Director Handoff / Leadership Transfer
Raised Sept 25. Co-op leadership turns over, and there's no clean way to hand the director role and all its access to a new person without an account-sharing workaround. Real risk: whoever holds the login effectively owns the co-op's data and Stripe connection. Scope: a formal director-transfer flow (outgoing director initiates or an org owner reassigns), moving admin access and Stripe Connect ownership cleanly to a new account, with an audit trail of the handoff.
[Forms/Events] Donations
Raised Sept 25. Co-ops, especially church-hosted or nonprofit ones, want to collect donations separate from tuition (a scholarship fund, a building fund). Scope: a donation flow distinct from tuition invoicing, with its own receipt (tax-deductible acknowledgment where applicable), not routed through the enrollment/billing engine.
[Forms/Events] Online Store
Raised Sept 25. Co-ops want to sell spirit wear, curriculum, or other merchandise to their own community. Distinct from the Classifieds Board (peer-to-peer, no payment processing) and Business Directory (listings only). Scope: a simple storefront per co-op, director-managed inventory/items, checkout through the existing payment infrastructure.
[Forms/Events] Field Trips (Permission Slips + Payment)
Raised Sept 25. Field trips need a permission slip (ideally via the Custom Forms/E-Signed Waivers item) plus a payment collection tied to a specific one-time event, distinct from regular class tuition. Scope: create a field trip as an event, collect e-signed permission slips and payment from opted-in families, track who's signed/paid vs. not, before the trip date.
[Forms/Events] Re-Enrollment with Deposits
Raised Sept 25. Returning families need a priority re-enrollment window with a deposit that holds their spot, distinct from Tiered Registration Windows (that's staged open-registration order for new vs. returning families generally). Scope: a re-enrollment flow for existing families ahead of general registration, with a deposit charge that holds the spot and applies toward the semester total.
[Forms/Events] Custom Forms & E-Signed Waivers
Raised Sept 25. No general-purpose form builder exists today. Programs need custom forms beyond the fixed profile/enrollment fields (health forms, photo releases, program-specific questionnaires) with a legally-binding e-signature, not just a checkbox. This is the underlying building block that Field Trip permission slips and several other items would sit on top of. Scope: a director-built custom form (arbitrary fields), sent to families, e-signed, stored per family/child.
[Money] Budget vs. Actual Reporting for Treasurer
Raised Sept 25. A treasurer needs to plan a budget and see actual income/spending against it, distinct from Expense & Supply Reimbursement Tracking (that's logging individual expenses) and QB/Accounting Integration (that's syncing to an external system). Scope: a director/treasurer sets a budget by category, and sees actual vs. budgeted spending and income update as the year goes, natively, without needing QuickBooks.
[Money] Teacher/Staff Payroll via Stripe + 1099 Prep
Raised Sept 25. Money currently only flows one direction (families pay in). Bigger programs need to pay teachers/staff out through the same Stripe infrastructure rather than handling payroll separately, and then produce 1099s for contractors at year end. Two-part scope: (1) pay teachers/contractors out via Stripe Connect, tracked per co-op; (2) generate 1099-NEC forms from those payouts at year end. Real infrastructure lift, this is a second money-movement direction on top of the existing family-to-co-op billing engine, not a small add-on.
[Money] Year-End Childcare Tax Statements for Parents
Raised Sept 25. Parents paying for childcare (MDO especially) need a year-end statement showing total paid, for the Child and Dependent Care tax credit (the IRS Form 2441 documentation parents need, similar to what a daycare provider issues). Nothing generates this today. Scope: an annual per-family statement of total childcare payments made through LearningSense, with the co-op's EIN/tax info, generated at year end.
[Money] Day-Rate Tuition with Proration
Raised Sept 25. Childcare/MDO programs typically bill by days-per-week attendance (e.g., 2-day vs. 3-day vs. 5-day rate) rather than a flat class/semester fee, and need proration for a family starting or leaving mid-month. Distinct from Per-Class Multiple Fee Line Items & Rate Tiers (that's per-class pricing variation, not a recurring day-rate childcare billing model). Scope: a day-rate tuition model per program with mid-month proration, on top of the existing billing engine.
[Micro-School] Attendance-Hours Compliance Reporting
Raised Sept 25. Micro-schools/private programs need to report total instructional hours per student for state compliance, distinct from Family-Reported Absences (a single-day notification). Scope: aggregate attendance/instructional hours per student over a period, exportable in whatever format the relevant state requires, so a director isn't hand-tallying at year end.
[Micro-School] Student Portfolios
Raised Sept 25. Micro-schools want a place to collect and showcase a student's work over time, distinct from Digital Resource Uploads (teacher-to-class materials) and Assignments (submission/grading workflow). Scope: a per-student portfolio where selected work (assignments, projects, writing samples) can be curated and shared with the family, not just graded and filed away.
[Micro-School] Report Cards
Raised Sept 25. A micro-school needs a formatted, periodic report card, distinct from the transcript work already planned (a transcript is a cumulative academic record; a report card is a per-term summary sent to parents). Depends on Grading existing first. Scope: a per-term report card generated from recorded grades, formatted for print/PDF, sent to the family.
[Micro-School] Admissions Pipeline
Raised Sept 25. Micro-schools need a real admissions process before a family ever gets to enrollment/payment, unlike a co-op's self-registration model. Scope: an application/inquiry stage (interest form, requested documents, interview scheduling, acceptance/waitlist/decline decision) that sits before self-registration, so a family isn't paying or enrolling until admitted.
[MDO] Immunization Records with Expiration Alerts
Raised Sept 25. Licensed childcare programs must keep immunization records on file per child, with alerts as they approach expiration/renewal. Distinct from the general health fields already on a child's profile (allergies, medical conditions) — this needs structured records with dates and expiry tracking. Scope: immunization records per child (vaccine, date, expiration where applicable) and an alert to the director/parent as one approaches expiry.
[MDO] Live Staff-to-Child Ratios per Room
Raised Sept 25. Licensed childcare/MDO programs are legally required to maintain a maximum staff-to-child ratio per room, and it needs to be visible in real time, not calculated after the fact. Scope: a live count per room (staff checked in vs. children checked in) against the co-op's configured ratio, with a warning when a room approaches or exceeds it.