Published terms
What is charged, and when
The numbers our in-home agreements point at. They are here rather than behind a login because terms you cannot read before they apply to you have not really been disclosed.
Your own quote and agreement carry the figures that apply to your family, and where they differ from this page, yours is the one that controls. If we change these, we publish a new version and the one you agreed to stays readable.
Cancellation, notice and what is charged
Version 1 · in force from September 8, 2026
Your teacher is paid whether or not a session happens. They are on our payroll, the hour was in their week, and it is not one they can sell to somebody else. That is the reason these charges exist, and it is the honest version of it. Cancellation goes through the portal: a message to your teacher is not a cancellation, and the notice period runs from when the portal recorded it.
- Sessions you may move each month
- 2
- On monthly billing, the fee reserves your teacher's schedule, so a canceled session is not refunded. You may move up to two a month to another time that month, if your teacher has it free. Beyond two the session is gone.
- Notice needed to cancel a session free of charge
- 24 hours
- Applies where you are billed by the session rather than monthly. Reschedule freely with this much notice, subject to your teacher's availability.
- Charged for a cancellation inside that window
- 100%
- The full session. Your teacher is paid for it and the time cannot be given to anybody else.
- Charged when the teacher traveled and could not teach
- 100%
- The full session, plus the travel charge, because travel is billed separately on your quote. This covers nobody answering, the agreed room not being available, and you having asked that an adult be at home when nobody is. That last one follows from the decision you recorded about adults being present.
- Late cancellations forgiven, no reason needed
- 1
- Once a quarter, life happens and we do not ask about it.
- If we cancel
- You are not charged, and the session is made up or credited.
- This is not discretionary and it is in your agreement. A session your teacher misses is never taken out of anything you have paid for.
- Verified emergency closure
- Not charged.
- Where your state or county declares one. Weather that does not reach that threshold is treated as an ordinary cancellation.
- If your household is running late
- The session still ends at its scheduled time.
- Your teacher usually has somewhere else to be, and the family after you should not lose their hour.
- How to cancel
- Through the portal.
- A text to your teacher is not a cancellation. This matters more for in-home than anything else we do, because your teacher may already be in the car.
Teacher search and placement fees
Version 1 · in force from September 8, 2026
What a search costs, when each fee is earned, and what the guarantee is. These are the standard terms; your own search agreement carries the figures that apply to you and it is the one that controls.
- Standard search: engagement fee
- $2,000
- Payable to begin the search. Credited in full against the placement fee. It is not refunded if you close the search, because it pays for recruiting work that has already happened.
- Standard search: placement fee
- 20%
- Of the educator's annualized gross base compensation, earned when you hire somebody we introduced.
- Standard search: minimum total
- $7,500
- Specialized search: engagement fee
- $3,500
- For special education, bilingual instruction, advanced secondary subjects, heavy travel, rural recruitment, learning pods, or several children with materially different needs. Credited, not refunded.
- Specialized search: placement fee
- 25%
- Specialized search: minimum total
- $10,000
- Executive search: placement fee
- 30%
- Retained, paid in thirds: at launch, at candidate presentation, and at acceptance. Used where compensation is expected above $125,000, or for rotational, international or confidentiality-intensive roles.
- Executive search applies above
- $125,000
- Part-time rules apply below
- 20 hours
- Per week. Annualizing a low-hour role can make a percentage fee too small to pay for a real search.
- Part-time fixed fee
- $6,000
- Offered only where the role is straightforward and locally serviceable. Otherwise the higher of the percentage or the minimum applies.
- Replacement guarantee
- 90 days
- From the educator's first working day. The remedy is a replacement search, not a refund, and the exclusions are in the guarantee document.
- How long an introduction stays ours
- 12 months
- From the date we introduce a candidate. Hiring them inside that period means the placement fee is due, however the hire happens.
- If you close the search
- The engagement fee is credited, not refunded.
- Credited in full against a placement fee if you hire anybody we introduced within twelve months.
- Hiring a managed Skhillz teacher directly
- $7,500
- Or 20 percent of the first year we would have paid that educator, whichever is greater. Applies during the assignment and for twelve months after it ends. Ask us rather than them: they have signed an agreement saying they cannot accept it.
Managed families are billed monthly in advance and the fee reserves a teacher's schedule, so the cancellation rules above work differently from the way they work for a family billed by the session. Both are set out. If you are not sure which applies to you, ask before you need it rather than after.