For co-ops & home-ed groups
Run the classes, and give every family a real record
Classes with a set number of places and a waiting list that moves on its own. Fees on the same ledger as everything else. Volunteer hours logged as they happen. And underneath it, the thing a group tool never gives you: a proper education record for each child, covering the whole week rather than the one day they spend with you.
What this is, and what it isn't
Class registration shipped in August 2026 — capped places, automatic waitlists, rosters, per-child fees and volunteer hours are all real and working. It is a first version, though, and there are things AltEd still does not do: there is no co-op website, no members' forum, and no group-level accounting (fees are billed to each family individually rather than run as a treasury). If your group needs a website and a forum, Homeschool-Life is entrenched and remarkably cheap at around $9.95 a family a year, and we would rather say so than sell you a plan you will regret.
The problem
What co-op families tell us
- 01
Co-op is one day; the record has to cover five
A group tool records what happened at co-op. AltEd records the whole week per child — the lessons at home, the tutor, the trips, the hours.
- 02
The hours spent at co-op never make it into anyone's record
Log co-op days as attendance and hours against each learner, with what was covered, so the group's contribution shows up in the child's education record.
- 03
The best evidence happens at group and stays on someone's phone
Portfolio entries — photo and note, tagged to a subject — capture the science demonstration or the drama performance where it belongs, on the child's record.
- 04
Paying the tutors the group brings in is a spreadsheet
Any provider teaching your families can bill through the AltEd ledger: pricing, automatic charges, prepaid packs, credits with approval and card payment.
- 05
Everyone's calendar disagrees
A shared calendar with attendees and recurrence, plus an iCalendar subscription feed so the group's schedule shows up in each family's own calendar app.
What you get
What AltEd does for the families in your group
All of this is per family, on the Free or Family plan. None of it requires the co-op itself to buy anything.
Classes with places, and a waiting list that runs itself
Set the number of places and a fee if you charge one. When a class fills, the next family joins a waiting list; when someone drops out, the person at the front gets the place automatically — nobody has to spot the gap and offer it.
A record per child, not per group
Each family's learners get their own profile, curricula, marked assignments and resource library — theirs to keep whether or not they stay in the group.
Read the guideAttendance and hours, including co-op days
Log the day, the hours and what was covered. Time at group counts towards the year like everything else, and the totals are simply there.
Read the guideEvidence from the sessions that make co-op worth it
The group science experiment, the performance, the collaborative project — captured as photo-and-note portfolio entries against each child's subjects.
A printable education record
For each family, a printable record and transcript pulling together marks, hours and evidence — useful for a local-authority conversation about a child who learns partly in a group.
A shared calendar with recurrence and feeds
Recurring group meet-ups with attendees, and a one-way iCalendar subscription feed families can add to Google, Apple or Outlook.
Read the guideTutor billing for the providers you bring in
A provider teaching your families gets lesson pricing, automatic charges, prepaid packs, absence approval and card payments — on a flat monthly fee, never a cut of their revenue.
Read the guideConsent-based connections
Families decide which providers see which learners, and can withdraw that access at any time. Nobody's child data is shared by default.
Read the guideMessaging and notifications
Families and the providers they're connected to can talk in the app, next to the records they're discussing.
Read the guideStep by step
How a group can use AltEd today
Step 1
Point families at the Free plan
Each family starts free with one learner — no card, no commitment, and no cost to the group. Nothing about your existing co-op tooling has to change.
Step 2
Have families log co-op days
Attendance, hours and what was covered, recorded against each learner. This is the single most valuable habit a group can encourage.
Step 3
Capture the group's best evidence
Suggest families add a photo and a note after a group session. Ten seconds each week builds a portfolio nobody has to reconstruct later.
Step 4
Put your tutors on the ledger
If your group brings in paid tutors, they can take the Provider plan and bill families directly — charges, packs, credits and card payments all handled.
Step 5
Tell us what a co-op product needs
Registration, waitlists, volunteer hours, group fee collection — we would rather build what you actually need than guess. Get in touch and we will keep you posted before anything ships.
For co-ops and home-ed groups
Start with the families, not the group
Each family can start free today and build a record that covers co-op along with everything else. When a co-op product exists, they will already be on it.
Free plan · No card needed · Built for UK home education