One teacher, eleven kids, and every other job.
Microschools
NavEd fits the way Microschools already run: grades, attendance, records and a transcript, without asking anyone to be a district first.
You are teaching, running enrollment, and keeping the records a state or a scholarship program will ask for, usually in the same week. NavEd keeps attendance, enrollment, and transcripts in order so the paperwork stops competing with the classroom, and lets you go back to the part you actually signed up for.
This is you if
- You're the founder, the only teacher or one of two, and you're also the one doing enrollment and billing on nights and weekends.
- You meet in a rented space, a church basement, or your own living room, and where you meet might change as you grow.
- Some families pay tuition directly and some pay through an ESA or a state school-choice program, and you're the one keeping track of which is which.
- Your school doesn't sit neatly under "private school" or "homeschool" on the state's forms, so you registered under whichever category let you open and get paid.
- You didn't start this to become a compliance department, but a lot of your week looks like one anyway.
What NavEd does for you
The records a state or scholarship program asks for
The reporting a state or a scholarship program asks for is rarely hard. It is just relentless, and it always lands in the week you are already teaching. NavEd keeps real attendance records and enrollment history in one place, so when a state or scholarship program asks for proof, you're pulling it up instead of rebuilding it from memory.
Enrollment that stays free
Publishing an application and accepting students never costs anything, on any plan, no matter how large your roster gets. A family applying to your school is never stopped by a paywall.
Tuition and school-choice payments in one ledger
A form with a payment field collects one-off fees, and a tuition plan bills a set number of installments per household across the year, with a manual override when a family's number is different, which for a microschool it usually is. That means the ESA family and the paying-directly family sit in the same record instead of two, and you stop rebuilding a ledger from Venmo history every month. NavEd does not assess aid or set a family's rate; you decide the number and NavEd bills it.
Set up without a registrar
Atlas School Setup, an optional AI-guided walkthrough for whoever owns the admin account, names your school, session year, grades, and subjects in plain conversation rather than registrar vocabulary. If you would rather not use it, every one of those screens is there to fill in directly. Adding students by hand or through a CSV upload that catches siblings means you're not retyping one family's address four times.
What is still manual
- Volunteer and co-taught hours, the literal three-moms model of one teaching math and another teaching history in exchange for each other's time, aren't tracked in NavEd yet. You're still keeping that tally on paper or in a spreadsheet.
- NavEd keeps your records straight, but it doesn't file your state's ESA or tax-credit paperwork for you. You still submit what the program asks for yourself.
- If you belong to a curriculum or coaching network that already bundles an admin tool into what you pay them, NavEd runs alongside it, not in place of it.
- Grant reporting and nonprofit board compliance, if you've taken outside grant funding, live outside NavEd entirely.
- Tuition has no sliding scale, no financial aid assessment, and no sibling discount logic. A reduced rate is a number you decide and enter as that household's override.
Getting started
- Sign up and name your school. No card is required for the first five students, on every plan.
- Set up your session year, grades, and subjects, either yourself or by letting Atlas School Setup walk you through it.
- Add your students, by hand or with a CSV upload that catches siblings so you're not retyping the same family's address.
- If you're taking new applications rather than entering kids you already have, publish your enrollment form. It stays free no matter how large your school gets.
- Turn on attendance and start your gradebook. A transcript is ready the same day a family asks for one.
Questions Microschools ask
Our state paperwork puts us under a homeschool umbrella, not a private school. Does NavEd still fit?
Yes. NavEd doesn't ask which legal category you registered under. You set up your school, your session year, your grades, and your students the same way regardless of what the state calls you on paper.
Does NavEd file our ESA or tax-credit-scholarship paperwork for us?
No. NavEd keeps your attendance, enrollment, and expense-related records straight so you can produce what a program asks for. You still submit it yourself, on your program's timeline.
What does it cost to add our first students?
The first five students are free on every plan, and keeping records, issuing a transcript, taking attendance, enrolling a student, and getting your own data back out are never behind a paywall. See the [pricing calculator](/pricing-calculator/) for what happens past five.
Two of us split subjects instead of paying each other. Can NavEd track our hours?
Not yet. Tracking volunteer or co-taught hours between founding families isn't built. You'll still keep that tally outside NavEd for now.
If a student leaves for a traditional school, will our transcript hold up?
NavEd generates a real transcript from your actual grade records, the same day you need one. Whether a receiving school accepts it is that school's call. NavEd doesn't accredit schools or vouch for one on your behalf.
What it costs
The first five students are free on every plan, no trial and no expiration. Keeping records, issuing a transcript, taking attendance, enrolling a student, and getting your own data back out are never behind a paywall. See the full pricing calculator.