How It Works - PodsCool for Families and Teachers

How it works

A whole sCool year handled, Pod by Pod.

We connect families with verified, credentialed teachers who deliver mastery-based learning anchored in the Carnegie credit system. While unaccredited, our platform provides comprehensive academic tracking and complete financial transparency, so you always know exactly where your tuition goes.

More than a pod, it’s a personal connection. Find your teacher, build your cohort, and learn together.

A parent and her daughter studying together at a table at home

Find your side of PodsCool.

A father and his son working through a lesson together on a laptop at home For parents Your family’s whole school year, in one place. Find a verified teacher, pay by the credit, and watch every pod add up on a transcript. Learn more A teacher at her laptop in front of a chalkboard covered in math For teachers Teach your way. We handle the rest. Get verified, build a pod by the credit, and keep 85% of tuition. Learn more

How a pod begins

  1. A burnt-out but qualified teacher, and a parent new to homeschooling, haven't met yet.
  2. They each join PodsCool: Mr. Tom, a science teacher, and Dana, a parent.
  3. Mr. Tom adds his Florida teaching certificate and his degree. Dana adds her kids, Ava, 11, and Leo, 8.
  4. Dana browses teachers, keeps one in mind for Leo, and finds Mr. Tom for Ava.
  5. Dana messages Mr. Tom: her 11-year-old is obsessed with volcanoes, and would he teach a pod on it? He says yes.
  6. It becomes a pod: Volcanoes, Up Close, 0.1 credit, 6 hours of live class, $120. Ava enrolls.
  7. Ava finishes with an A on her transcript, and Dana writes to say thank you.
  8. PodsCool at work.
See the teacher dashboard › See the parent dashboard ›
Privacy

What happens in a pod stays in PodsCool.

Sessions, kept private.

Each pod has its own class link, sent only to its teacher and the families enrolled in it. Session files are stored by PodsCool and stay private to the pod.

Everything stays in PodsCool.

Messages, assignments, quizzes, grades and files live in one place, with teachers, parents and students each seeing the part that's theirs.

Payments, secured.

Card payments are handled by Stripe, so your card number never reaches PodsCool. Every purchase comes with an itemized receipt.

See something wrong? Use the Report button.

Every signed-in parent and teacher has a Report button on every page. Inappropriate behavior will be investigated and, if necessary, reported to the proper authorities. As with any system, we can’t be everywhere all the time. The first layer of defense is an active user base who does not hesitate to use the report button.

Class sessions run on Google Meet and land on Google Calendar. PodsCool's use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Read more in our Privacy Policy.