Can You Get Paid to Teach Other Families' Kids?¶
Yes, when you teach children other than your own. Teachers in co-ops, microschools and hybrid schools are paid in a few ways. The school pays them from tuition. Families pay them directly per class. Or they sell a course they built. Which one fits depends on whether you teach inside one school or for families in many places.
If you are searching "can you get paid to teach homeschool," you are probably in one of two spots. Either you teach your own kids and wonder if that can be paid work, or you teach other people's kids already and are not sure how to be paid for it. This post is mostly for the second. Money a state gives to families is a different question, and we cover it here.
Way one: the school pays you from tuition¶
Say six families meet in a church hall on Tuesdays, and one mom teaches everyone's kids math. The families agree each will chip in, and the money goes to her. That is the school paying a teacher from tuition.
It works at any size. A co-op with volunteer teachers can pay a stipend to the ones who want it. A microschool with a lead teacher can pay a salary or an hourly rate. A hybrid school can pay each teacher for the days they teach.
A school on NavEd can take tuition and form fees by card into its own Stripe account. NavEd keeps 1% of what is collected, and Stripe's card fee also applies. A school can also record checks and cash for free. Whether a teacher is paid, and how much, is the school's decision, because it is the one holding the money.
If you are the person hiring, our post on hiring your first teacher covers that side.
Way two: families pay you directly¶
You teach a Thursday writing class, and each family who signs up pays you for it. No school sits in between. Some co-ops run this way, with a class fee paid to the teacher.
It has the fewest moving parts. The tradeoff is that you are the one collecting, keeping the records and chasing late payments. Before the first class, settle three things with the families: the price, when it is due, and what happens when a child misses a week.
Way three: sell a course you built¶
If you have a unit you built and taught, you can offer it to families who do not live near you. On NavEd Network, one teacher builds one self-paced course in a free workspace, using the same Lessons tools a school uses for its own classes. A step can hold text, links, videos, files, a rubric and a due date, and a child can turn work in as a photo, a video, a document or text.
How it goes:
- A person at NavEd approves each seller and each course before it goes live.
- You set a one-time price, per child or per family. No monthly pricing.
- The family pays by card and does not need a NavEd account.
- The child becomes a student in your workspace, so you see and respond to their work.
- Stripe pays you on a rolling delay of about 7 days.
Because the child becomes your student, you are the one who responds to their work. Plan for that time before you set a price, and How to Price a Course for Families works through the fee math. Building the course is free. NavEd keeps 3% of each sale, and Stripe's card fee, 2.9% plus 30 cents, comes out of the sale too. The buyer is not charged extra. Nothing is owed if the course does not sell.
What it is not: a course on the Network is self-paced, not a live class. The catalogue at network.nav.education/courses/ is new and has no courses in it yet, so a seller today would be among the first. Your signup email must be one that has never had a NavEd account. How to Sell a Course You Already Teach goes through the steps.
Which one fits¶
Ask where your students are.
- They are in your room already. You are in way one or way two. Talk to the group about what it can pay, and ask out loud rather than guessing.
- They are in other places. Way three is the one built for that.
- Both. You can be paid for the class in your room and build a course for families farther away. Nothing says you have to pick one.
If you teach only your own children, none of these three pays you, and that is a complete way to teach. The state money post above covers what programs say about that.
Paid, volunteer, or somewhere between¶
Some teachers in co-ops teach for free and are glad to. Some would rather be paid and have not asked. Neither is behind. Nobody should teach for free unless they want to, and a teacher who would like to be paid is allowed to say so.
Ike, NavEd's founder, was schooled in a co-op three moms built, one good at math, one at history, one at English, pooling what they each knew.
If you have a unit ready to sell as a course, you can start a seller workspace.