Running your co-op (directors)

Start a co-op, set the schedule, add classes, invite families, collect forms and post to the bulletin board.

A co-op on Homeschool Corral links each family’s own account. Families share only what the co-op needs: a family name, the children they bring (first name and grade), photo permission and the forms you ask for (a signed form holds whatever the family wrote on it). It’s free during the beta.

1. Start the co-op

In My Homeschool, choose 👥 Co-op, then Start a co-op.
Give it a name and the name families will see for you. You become its director.

2. Settings

About and where you meet: shown to families before they join.
Meeting days, first and last day, class hours (for example 9:00–10:00, 10:15–11:15) and breaks. Meeting dates are worked out from these.
Statement of faith: paste your co-op’s own statement and choose whether families must agree to it to join. If you change it later, every family is asked to agree again.
Class registration is open: switch it on or off as you go.

3. Add classes

Under Classes, choose + Add a class and set the day, hour, grades, room, size limit, teacher, helpers, description, supplies and fee. Anyone you name as a teacher or helper becomes a teacher in the co-op and can take attendance for that class.

4. Invite families

Under Families, type the parents’ email addresses (one or many) and choose Send invitations.
Each family gets an email with its own link. It works only when they sign in with that email address, for 14 days.
They choose their children and agree to your statement of faith, and they’re in: inviting them is your approval. You can change anyone’s role to teacher or director.

Only invited families can join; there’s no shared link or code. Under Invitations you see who has joined, and you can Resend (with a new link) or Cancel an invitation.

5. Forms

Under Forms, choose + Add a form (medical release, waiver, covenant), whether it’s one per child or one per family, and attach the blank form. Families download it, sign it, upload a copy and confirm it. The Turned in table shows who has confirmed, who has uploaded and who is missing; select an entry to open their copy. Only directors and that family can see the copies.

6. Open registration

In Settings, tick Class registration is open. Families sign their children up under Our family. Grades and same-hour conflicts are checked for them, and full classes get a waitlist that moves up on its own.

7. The bulletin board

Choose + New post. Send it to everyone, to a role (directors, teachers or families), to one or more classes, or tag particular families. Everyone you send it to gets it by email too, unless you untick Email it to them now. You can pin a post to the top.

8. Attendance

Under Attendance, pick a class and day, mark each child Here, Late or Out, and choose Save attendance. If someone comes in late, choose Edit, change them to Late and save again. Absences reported ahead of time are already marked Out. Print a sign-in sheet gives you a paper copy with a pick-up column.

Marking a student out ahead of time

When a family tells you instead of reporting it themselves, go to Attendance and use Mark a student out ahead of time: choose the student, the co-op day (and a Through day if they’ll miss several weeks), add a note if you like, and choose Mark out. The student shows as Out when teachers take attendance that day, the teachers are emailed, and the family gets a copy. Coming up lists every absence reported ahead, with Remove if plans change.

Live classes and messages

Live classes in a co-op open only after Homeschool Corral approves the co-op for them: a director asks once, under Classes (Ask for live classes), and gets an email when they’re on. To have a class meet online, edit it under Classes and tick This class meets live on camera. On its day, from 10 minutes before its hour until it closes 5 minutes after, its teacher gets Start class and its families get Join on My Homeschool and on the Schedule tab (see teaching live classes for how a live class works). Under Messages, directors and teachers can write privately to any family, and families can write back. Children don’t see messages.

9. Homework and class money

A class’s teacher (or a director) assigns homework under Homework; it shows in each enrolled family’s planner. Teachers record what they spend from class fees under Class money. As a director you see Every class: its fee, children enrolled, budget, spent and left. The budget starts as the fee times the children enrolled; type the amount actually collected under Set the budget to replace it, or choose Use the estimate to go back. Only a class’s teacher and helpers change its entries; you can open receipts. Families don’t see class money.

Open Co-ops and classes →