Frequently Asked Questions

In person CHEC classes are held on Mondays between 9:30am and 3:50pm. There are three terms: an 8-week term in the fall (Sept.-Nov.), an 8-week term in the winter (Jan.-Mar.), and an 8-week term in the spring (April-May). Exact dates for each session are available when registration opens. Some classes will run over a shorter term (e.g. 6 weeks) or longer term (e.g 10 weeks) - this will be noted in the schedule. Most classes run for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Some classes are shorter, and the length of these classes will be noted in the schedule. Several classes will take place at an off-site location as described in the schedule. Online classes usually take place on a different day of the week, and the day and time for these classes will be noted in the schedule. Online classes take place via Zoom.

Your child may take just one class or multiple classes.

In accordance with Virginia law, children attending CHEC who are under the age of 5 must have a parent or guardian on site at all times. You are welcome to arrange for a friend or adult babysitter to be your child’s guardian, but please let our site supervisors know if this is the case. Children ages 6-12 who are attending a full day of classes at CHEC must have a parent or guardian onsite for at least 30 minutes at some point during the day. You are welcome to arrange for a friend or adult babysitter to be your child’s guardian, but please let our site supervisors know if this is the case. The law requires this parental supervision of children who are attending day programs that exceed 6 hours per week. Because our full day is 6 hours and 20 minutes, parents must be present for more than 20 minutes of the day in order to comply with that law. We plan to adjust our times for the winter 2024 session so that our full day is under 6 hours. Children ages 6-12 must be enrolled in either a class or in Supervised Stay in order to remain on site during time when they do not have parental supervision. Please sign your child(ren) in and out of CHEC. The sign-in sheet can be found at the check-in table with our site managers. If your child is at least 13 years of age, you can waive the CHEC sign-in and sign-out procedures by completing the Teen Sign-Out Waiver. Teens ages 13 and up have the option of staying on site without enrolling in (and paying for) Supervised Stay. What this means is that we will NOT be supervising your teen during those periods. In other words, our site managers will not be notified that they are on site, and we will not be looking for them in the event of an emergency. This also means that your teen will be free to go off-site without notifying anyone at CHEC. We leave it up to your discretion to determine whether your teen is mature enough to be able to be left at CHEC unsupervised. However, if we feel that your child is demonstrating that they need supervision, then we reserve the right to require them to be enrolled in Supervised Stay. If you will be picking up your child late, please notify our site supervisor at sitemanager@cvillechec.org or (434) 326-1772. CHEC will have several site managers on site. The site managers will be available to help direct families to classes, answer questions, and assist instructors and families as needed.

There will be a lunch break between 2nd and 3rd periods. As we hope to facilitate social connections, we think this time is especially important for students and hope they will socialize and play. We have many children with allergies, including nuts, gluten and eggs. Please be mindful of what you pack for your child’s lunch or snack. While we do not have nut-free policy, we do have several children with severe peanut allergies so we ask that you avoid packing peanuts or peanut butter in your child’s lunch or snack. Please talk with your children about washing hands and cleaning up messes after they eat.

The age ranges for each class are set by the teacher. In order to be registered for a course, the student must at least be turning the minimum age listed by the last regular class of the session. If you would like to request an exception for your child (to take a course whose age range is above or below the limit), please submit that request through the website at Registration Menu--> Request Enrollment Exception. These requests go directly to the instructors, who will respond to them.

For Fall 2023, in-person classes will be held at Unitarian-Universalist building at 717 Rugby Road, Charlottesville. Some classes are held at alternate sites. The location of a class is listed in the course listing.

Classes generally change each term, but several popular classes return regularly.

We do not have a nut-free policy, however we generally have a number of students with food allergies, including nut, dairy, and gluten. Our instructors are sensitive to the individual needs of the students in their classes who have food allergies and are willing to accommodate them in any class, including cooking classes. When you enroll your child in a particular class, please include your child’s allergens in the notes during enrollment, as well as on the health form that is part of the initial registration packet.

CHEC is very accepting of diverse learning styles. We have students with a variety of learning differences, including ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, and gifted learners. These students are often successful at CHEC as we have small class sizes, flexible instructors, and the a-la-carte nature of our program allows careful pairing of students with appropriate classes. If your child would benefit from accommodations, please discuss them with instructors prior to registering. Please note that CHEC is not equipped to handle students with behavior issues. We do require that students respect instructors and other students.

We encourage family involvement. As a non-profit, CHEC is entirely run by volunteers! A variety of volunteer opportunities exist, including serving on the board or as an officer, working as a site manager, fundraising, or helping with special events. And, of course, donations are always welcome.

Yes. CHEC strives to provide all interested children the opportunity to attend at least one class per session. We recognize that tuition costs are prohibitive for some families and we provide financial aid as we are able. CHEC offers both work/study financial aid and partial scholarships. We are able to offer financial aid thanks to donations and fundraising efforts. In order to apply for a scholarship for your child, please complete a scholarship application on the CHEC website under the "Registration>Request Financial Aid" tab.

Where possible, we ask that families participate in our work/study program. Partial scholarships can be used if that is not possible or does not cover a sufficient amount of the course cost. Partial scholarships depend on the availability of funds in our scholarship account. The amount of scholarship varies from covering a percentage of the course cost, to covering the entire cost. We do ask that families pay a minimum of $25 per course that they are applying for. Scholarship applications must be submitted every term, prior to the scholarship due date. Applications can be submitted once you have created an account and registered your child in a class. Scholarship applicants are not required to pay half at registration, but must pay $25 per class to secure a spot in a course. The scholarship committee will contact you after the scholarship deadline to let you know what funds are available to assist you. If no funds are available, the $25 deposit(s) will be refunded.

For work/study financial aid, parents participate in the running of CHEC in exchange for discounted tuition. Typically, this involves serving as a site manager or an officer, although we occasionally have other work/study positions available. Site managers are selected on a session by session basis and stay at CHEC for part of the day to help with supervision of students and support instructors. Officers serve a year long term and are selected by the board at the end of each year. Officers receive a discount on the admin fee per class while they are serving. Site Managers receive a discount on the admin fee on two classes for each shift they work. If you are interested in holding a work/study position, please contact CHEC's site supervisor at sitemanager@cvillechec.org.

Instructors specify a minimum number of students needed to run each of their classes when they submit the class for consideration. If a class does not meet the minimum enrollment, the class may be cancelled, or may proceed with low enrollment. Any low enrollment classes that are canceled will be closed after the add/drop period has passed (late registration deadline). CHEC will notify parents via an automated email, the student will be withdrawn from the class and a credit will be issued to the account. If parents would like to register the student for another class in place of the cancelled one, they should email the registrar at registrar@cvillechec.org to process the new enrollment so that CHEC can waive the late registration fee. CHEC will attempt to run some classes with less than the minimum number of students originally specified by the teacher. We understand that peer interaction is very important to CHEC families, and in cases where we consider running a class with three or less students, CHEC will reach out prior to the start of a term to confirm that the teacher, as well as registered students, wish to proceed with the class.

We appreciate it when parents make every effort to determine if the class will be a good fit prior to registration. If you have questions about prerequisites or accommodations, please contact the registrar or instructor prior to class. If after the first class, your student feels a class is a poor fit, we will do our best to find a better fit if possible. Please talk to the registrar, head site manager, or instructor to try and find a resolution. We believe it is in the best interest of all involved to find a good fit, so we will make every effort to help parents with this. Do be aware, however, that we make a commitment to pay instructors, so excessive switching puts a financial burden on CHEC. You have up until 3 days after the first class to drop or change a class. Classes dropped and not replaced prior to this date (and after the add/drop date listed on the class schedule) will be charged a $25 drop fee per class. Classes that are dropped after this date will not be refunded.

There are several types of registrations that occur prior to registration opening. Sometimes an instructor will register their own child in their course. Returning students or those who were on a waitlist in a previous term may be given the opportunity to register prior to general registration opening. Sometimes a few registrations are processed as test cases to confirm that the registration software is working. CHEC Officers are volunteers, and are given the opportunity to register their children for classes early as a way to thank them for their contributions to CHEC.

If your student is interested in taking a class that is full, you can add to the waitlist by going to Registration->Request Enrollment. If a space opens in the class, the registrar will contact you to see if you are still interested in enrolling your student. In some cases, instructors may be willing to accept additional students in the class (particularly in cases where a student is switching from another class that closed due to low enrollment). Occasionally we may open a new section of the course if space and demand warrant it.

If you are interested in teaching a class at CHEC, please contact the registrar (registrar@cvillechec.org). Prospective teachers can visit CHEC and sit in on a class to see what we are all about. Teachers submit course descriptions to the registrar each session, which will be scheduled depending on availability and suitability.

Once you have an instructor account, you can add courses (Instructor->Propose a course). Courses can be configured at any time, but should be set to 'available for the upcoming term' to be considered for scheduling for an upcoming term.

The registrar emails to inform instructors when we are getting ready to schedule a term. The email will specify a deadline for submitting courses. All courses that are submitted prior to the deadline will be considered for scheduling.

The registrar considers many factors in setting up the schedule including: teacher preferences, topic variety, student ages, and available space. Instructors that have a good track record (both with students and with administration) may receive more schedule slots, but we make every effort to offer new teachers at least one slot. Some time slots tend to be better enrolled than others. If you receive a non-desirable slot one session, an effort will be made to offer a better slot to the instructor/course the following session. Some course do not run simply because of the slot they are in. If a course doesn't run two sessions in a row, we are unlikely to offer it a third time. If there are more courses submitted than we have space for, the registrar may ask instructors to limit the number of courses they will offer that term.

It is a good idea to come observe a class similar in age/topic that you plan to teach. It is generally a good idea to try a smaller first class. In some cases, instructors will need to run with small classes initially until they become known in the community. If you offer the same class two terms in a row, you will almost always see a substantial dip in enrollment the second time you offer a course.

Currently, teachers are paid $112/student for an 80-minute class over an 8-week term. You can also set a materials fee for each student. This fee is set by you when you configure your course. You get paid in two installments. Half on the first class and the second half on the final class (make-up day if you need to make up classes). Checks may be picked up in person at CHEC.

Students are permitted to drop after the first class and instructors are not paid for students who only attend one class. Although this can make planning difficult, in the long run we have found that it is disruptive to have students in class that don't want to be there. After the first week, it is completely up the instructor whether they wish to offer a refund to students who do not continue the class. There is typically a bit of a shuffle between classes during the first week.

Discuss the situation with the head site manager who is familiar with the students and may be able to offer assistance. We sometimes have site managers available that can sit in class with you. A discussion with the parent and/or the student is sometimes effective. If attempts to address the issue are unsuccessful, it may be necessary to ask the student to discontinue the class. Please involve the head site manager in all communications so everyone is in the loop. In addition to teaching content, CHEC is an opportunity to learn for students to get along with each other and about appropriate classroom behavior, so addressing a behavior issue in class is as important (perhaps more so) as the content you are teaching.

When you set a scholarship policy in your instructor profile, you are in no way committed to offer a scholarship--it merely lets the scholarship committee know what you are likely to consider. The committee gathers all scholarship requests at the scholarship deadline. The number of scholarships we can offer depends on the funds available in our scholarship account. We will make every effort to see that all students who want to take a CHEC class are able to do so. If we have funds available, we will use those prior to asking instructors to grant scholarships. If we have exhausted our account and still have requests outstanding, we will ask instructors who have indicated a willingness to provide some scholarship if they are able to grant this term. Many, many factors play into scholarship decisions. We are likely to grant priority to requests for classes with low enrollment, where an additional student is likely to make the class run. If instructors have a history of granting scholarships when we do not have funds, we make an effort to grant scholarships to students enrolled in those instructors classes in the future. If you grant a scholarship to a student, you will see who that student is on your pay stub. However, if we have granted the funds to a scholarship student, they will just appear as a regular paying student on your pay stub.

Email the photo you would like to use to website support.

There are many ways to contribute to the CHEC scholarship fund. (1) Direct donations are appreciated and can be made through your account under Registration>My Account. (2) Every time you purchase something through a bake sale or pizza sale; buy a t-shirt; or pay for a Parents Day Out drop-off event, the proceeds of your purchase go toward the CHEC scholarship fund and the administration of CHEC. Other events that raise money for CHEC include the Spring Fling, the plant sale and the curriculum sale. (3) Designate the Community Homeschool Enrichment Center as the charity of your choice through Amazon Smile, and then shop at smile.amazon.com every time you make a purchase.

Supervised Stay will run in a dedicated lounge space and/or playground, supervised by site managers. We will offer one Supervised Stay session per period. Supervised Stay is not offered before 9:30am or after 4pm. The cost is $60 for the whole term, per child. Please note the following policies: • Students may not register for more Supervised Stay sessions than classes. • Discounts and scholarships do not apply to Supervised Stay sessions. • Children of parents who are on site (teaching, site managing, or just hanging out) may participate WITHOUT charge. • If a class is cancelled for the day, students may participate in Supervised Stay for that class period without charge (but please report to your regular classroom first). • Students not enrolled in Supervised Stay for the whole term may drop-in to a single Supervised Stay for $10. • Students in Supervised Stay should provide their own busy work. While we try to provide a few games and books, we do not have the staff to provide other activities to entertain the children. • A Quiet Lounge will be available for parents or students who are working quietly on computers or reading. A Middle/High lounge is available for students who are 12+.

You can mail tuition payments and other correspondence to CHEC, PO Box 1730, Charlottesville, VA 22902.

CHEC will cancel classes in the event that either Albemarle County or Charlottesville City schools cancel classes due to poor weather. If the county or city has a 1- or 2-hour delay, we will hold classes as scheduled. If we do need to cancel classes, we will update the announcement on the homepage of our website. We will also send out an email to parents and teachers. If we do cancel classes, we will reschedule them on one of the makeup days.

Yes! You can find our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/cvillechec/ and on Instagram @checcooperative.

If you know in advance that your child will not be attending class, please call or email us at info@cvillechec.org or (434) 326-1772 so we can let the instructor know.

We require every teacher to visit CHEC and meet with one or more of the officers before they can teach a class at CHEC. We conduct background checks on every teacher and site manager for identity verification and a criminal records check. We renew these background checks every three years. Every class description is reviewed by the registrar before it is published on our website.

Classes at CHEC should be age-appropriate, objective and secular. Other than that, the sky is the limit! The classes at CHEC reflect the knowledge and imagination of our teachers. Classes can be purely for enrichment purposes or can be academically based in any subject. Please contact our registrar at registrar@cvillechec.org if you are interested in teaching at CHEC.

Classes are taught by independent contractor teachers (some are homeschool parents, some are not). Parents can volunteer with CHEC (and receive discounts for classes) but participation is not required. If you are a parent and interested in teaching with CHEC, please email registrar@cvillechec.org. If you are interested in volunteering with CHEC as a site manager, please email sitemanager@cvillechec.org. If you wish to volunteer for one of our committees (fundraising, website support, etc), please email info@cvillechec.org.

Chec is intended to facilitate communication between teachers and students. Our role is to schedule classes in a convenient time and place, provide insurance coverage, and to streamline payment. Our goal is to make it easier for teachers and students to connect.

CHEC maintains a strict policy on the use of student information provided to us in your child’s account on the website and in our forms. CHEC agrees to hold your confidential information in trust and confidence and agrees that it shall be used only for purposes related to your child’s participation in CHEC, shall not be used for any other purpose, or disclosed to any third party unless expressly authorized by this agreement or further written authorization by you. Teachers, officers and site managers are authorized access to such confidential information to the extent necessary to perform their duties. Teachers, officers and site managers are required to protect against unauthorized access to such information, ensure the security and privacy of such information, and disclose any anticipated threats or hazards to such information.