In response to the current educational landscape many families are looking for ways to keep their children safe and close to home and still meet their learning needs.

Some parents are considering creating small groups or pods, made up of children from several families who get together regularly for play and learning. Homeschoolers have been creating co-ops just like this for many years. As they have discovered, this method of organizing learning has many advantages.

A Co-op is a group of families working together to meet common needs. Our current situation is calling for us to organize ourselves to meet the needs of our children. We know that many kinds of organic solutions are arising from this crisis, and we are enthusiastic about contributing our knowledge and expertise to assist others in meeting their children’s current needs.

At Birch School we want to support families who are considering this model of learning for their children. Our goal is to help parents create a robust learning plan while being flexible enough to support many kinds of needs. We have created an easily-delivered model of learning that can be adopted by a group of families to address their children’s learning needs this fall.

This may be temporary, or we may discover there are things about these new arrangements that are advantageous. Either way, our children need well-organized, consistent learning opportunities and Pandemic Family Pod Co-ops are one way to help facilitate that.

What we provide:

  • guidance and assistance in organizing your learning pod
  • scheduled Zoom support meetings for parents
  • access to all-in-one, adaptive online learning platform for each child in the pod, covering all subjects for 12 weeks
  • access to supplemental learning platforms such as math practice, spelling, vocabulary, typing, etc. for 12 weeks
  • background checks for all the adults in your group working with children
  • assistance for parents in preparing the NYS required homeschool plan and quarterly report for the 12 week period
  • optional student participation in weekly Birch School Community Zoom meetings
  • weekly suggested hands-on activities for adults to facilitate with students in the pod

What parents/families need to do:

  • identify the children and families who will participate,
  • identify a meeting location or locations
  • decide on a model of supervision (parent rotation, hire counselor, hire teacher, etc)
  • with our assistance and guidance, complete required homeschool paperwork and reporting for each child age 6 and up
  • provide students with individual internet access
  • provide students with basic school supplies, i.e. paper, pencil, notebooks, markers, colored pencils, construction paper.

Fall 2020 12 weeks

Program Fees Per Pod

Pod of 2 – 4 students 12 weeks   $1500.00
Pod of 5 – 9 students 12 weeks   $2600.00
This fee is for the basic services outlined above for the period from Sept – December 2020 Fee is for each pod. A “pod coordinator” would be responsible for collecting the appropriate individual fee from each participating family and making payment in total.

OPTIONS FOR in-person program delivery with Birch School Staff

Add a counselor to supervise and assist.

One day per week 6 hours 12 weeks $2500.00
Two days per week 12 hours 12 weeks $4750.00
Three days per week 18 hours 12 weeks $6600.00
4 days per week 24 hours 12 weeks $8750.00
5 days per week 30 hours 12 weeks $11,000.00
Up to 5 children per counselor, (4 children if under 7 years old)

Add in-person live teaching, we come to you.

Once a week 2 hours per week 12 weeks $2500.00
Twice a week 4 hours per week 12 weeks $5000.00
Three times per week 6 hours per week 12 weeks $7300.00
Professional teacher to work at your pod location, up to 9 students depending on age.