If you are in a co-op, what are your fees just to join?

[Prairie~Phlox]

We are having to up our fees because of various reasons. (paying for cleaning at the church that we meet at, not currently having any back up for added expenses, due to the church where we meet charging us more)

I'm just wondering what people pay to join a co-op?  Also, is there a non-working fee for your co-op?  What do you think it should be.  Right now our co-op was $25, going up to probably $35.  Nonworking fee was $50, I"m not sure what to raise it to.  It's unadvertised, only someone that would say, I have a high schooler, can he/she come without me working, or sometimes families have situations where they are unable to help. 

 

Switching churches is not an options, fees have to go up.  So I'm just curious what others pay.  Class fees are separate.

 

[KungFuPanda]

Ours is $25. $35 doesn't seem like a big deal for a whole year. We rotate lunch and end-of-day cleaning among participating families . . . everyone signs up for 3 jobs during the year. There is no non-participation and every child has a parent on-site. In your case I'd charge double for non-participants.

[Prairie~Phlox]

I should clarify, the non-working fee was $50 on top of $25, so total of $75 for a family that does not help or teach.  So we are talking $35 registration, do I make the non-working fee $60? or more?  We do not want to 'encourage' not working.

[Dmmetler]

$10/child per semester registration (so $20 for a year). We don't have a non-working fee-all parents are expected to stay on site and help, and usually the ones who don't teach/assist are those with very young children who then end up caring the children of those who do teach/assist. We post a supply list and all parents contribute there as well, not only for our group but for the church's Sunday school classes.

[Carrie12345]

The one we're looking at is $35/family (plus class and material fees.)  I believe they're restructuring their volunteer requirements for next year, but they currently hold 2 checks (amounts based on number of kids... or classes... can't remember which) and will cash one or two at the end of the year if the proper number of hours hasn't been met. Right now, mine would be two $100 checks, IIRC.  (I didn't commit it to memory once I heard they might change things up.)

[Shellie]

$145 per child per year. I did not join. There seems to be only one, and that's their fees. They also hold a curriculum swap, along with having activities for the children at each meeting. But I just cannot swing that for three kids. I would definitely join if the fees were as you say, much more reasonable.

[TechWife]

If I remember correctly, it's a $25 fee per student, plus a $4 copy fee per class. There is a family maximum, I just don't know what it is because it doesn't apply to us. Each class has a separate fee, depending on the nature of the class. They usually top out at $50, most are in the $25-30 range. There is a separate nursery fee for preschool aged children to cover diapers, preschool/craft materials, etc. . I'm not sure if they also pay the registration fee for nursery kids. The nursery kids don't have class fees, those start with Kindergarten classes. 

[rdj2027]

$65 per child with a maximum of $260 per family per year.  This however is a large rather professional place offering high school and some middle school classes, their focus is on music education.  Teachers have Masters or Ph.D's, in their field and as far as foreign languages go are fluent if not native speakers.  There is no volunteering commitment.  Since others mentioned it, there are fees for materials (depending on the class) and monthly fees ($41).  Private music instruction is $75 per month for half hour lessons.  Classes are held twice a week with some exceptions and are an hour to two hours long.

[retiredHSmom]

Ours is $100 per child per year/max $300 per family.  All adults serve in some fashion for 2 class periods, third adult class period is support group

[Tohru]

Here, it depends on the co-op.

 

One is only $15, but everyone has to teach 2 of 3 classes and all students are there for all 3 hours.

 

Another co-op has a $20 membership fee, then $45 per class, but the teacher's are paid and you get an hour free for every hour you volunteer/work. And some classes have small class fees.

 

The other co-op is $20 membership, then $20 per class, but for every hour your child attends, you must work that hour too.  Most classes have class fees that are about $5.

 

 

[Cinder]

It's been a few years since we were in a co-op but back then it was $50 per child. This covered church fees, insurance, and some supplies. We had no non-working fee; all parents had to work for the dc to be in the co-op. There was one exception made when a family had a major family situation--those kids were still allowed to participate even though the mom wasn't able to.

[OneStepAtATime]

Ours is $60 per family per year, but co-op children have to have a parent helping in some capacity.  If they have more than one child they stay with the youngest/most in need of parental assistance/supervision.  You cannot attend co-op, even as a high schooler, without a parent.  Unfortunately, even though the yearly cost is low, the involvement for the classes is low, too, and partly because of this.  The co-ops I have seen that were more successful and people were willing to pay a bit more money for offered solid instruction in something, either a core subject or a great P.E. class or History or Science where there was an enthusiastic and knowledgeable instructor and ALL parents weren't required to attend ALL the classes (maybe have one assistant for youngers and no one but the teacher for the olders).

 

Those that agree to teach pay half instead of the full $60, btw.

 

Can you realistically add up all the expenses and costs and see what you need to bring in to cover everything?  Or are there too many variables?  

[zoobie]

$25 membership fees, but I haven't been able to use any of the classes, so I pay that to be on the email group. Classes are separate and cleaning fees are separate or you have to sign up so many times to clean.

[MercyA]

$50 per family, and one parent is required to teach or help.

[MrsJewelsRae]

Ours is $15 to join the Christian homeschool group, then you pay per activity. We have a spring and fall session of 4 weeks co-op classes divided by age taught by parents- only 4 Fridays per session- so 8 per year. It's $15 per family for the co-op (we have it at a baptist church with a gym and classrooms as the pastor and his wife homeschool). Obviously field trips are extra. We also pay $65 a year to be part of the weekly skating rink rental for 6 months for our group- well worth it, it's our favorite part of hs group.

I know of one particular hs group in a large city that cost over $100 per family and each family must have a HSLDA membership as well. :-|

[sassenach]

$100 per family, per year. We meet for about 26 weeks total and have competition fees connected to a program we're currently participating in.

[mom2att]

Ours is $80 per family.  We are a large group that requires a good deal of space, so $70 of our co-op fee goes to the church where we meet, with the remaining $10 covering website and misc. fees.  That's just the membership fee--there are also materials fees associated with each class, which of course varies based on the type of class.  An Art class might be $50 for the year, but PE is maybe $5 for the semester if not free, and there are lots of options in-between as well.  Parents either teach or assist in  a classroom, every family serves on clean-up duty for one month.  There is no nonworking option.

[catz]

Ours is $80 per family.  We are a large group that requires a good deal of space, so $70 of our co-op fee goes to the church where we meet, with the remaining $10 covering website and misc. fees.  That's just the membership fee--there are also materials fees associated with each class, which of course varies based on the type of class.  An Art class might be $50 for the year, but PE is maybe $5 for the semester if not free, and there are lots of options in-between as well.  Parents either teach or assist in  a classroom, every family serves on clean-up duty for one month.  There is no nonworking option.

I believe our co-op fee is also about $80. That covers our rent, insurance, and other expenses for the non-profit to keep running.

Our class prices vary widely. Some parents will offer more casual classes for cheap. Professionally taught classes are much more expensive, especially if many materials and resources are involved.

Parents are also required to serve as monitors and/or clean up/take down 1-2 times a semester.

[HSmomof2]

$100 per family for registration. This covers building fee, insurance, cleaning and misc fees (copies for announcements, coffee/tea, a few co-op events over the year, etc). Everyone helps in some capacity-teaching, assisting, set-up/year down. We have about 90 families.

[Mandylubug]

Ok, we are members of a homeschool association that has multiple co-ops underneath it. We pay 35 a year per family just to be part of the association. We then pay 30 a year to be part of our co-op. Then, each semester we pay per class. Typically 10 to 15 for each class per kid. There are two classes each semester. The other co-ops with actual teachers in a tutoring environment cost a good bit more per semester. We just attend an enrichment co-op, though.

[momto10blessings]

$20/ year for each kid which covers everything: class supplies, cleaning supplies, tp, snacks, etc. The church we use is very generous and does not charge us a penny to use their facility. We take up an offering at Christmas and at the end of the year to thank the church for their generosity.

[G5052]

I've heard the range locally.  We were in a home-based one where jobs were assigned by the coordinator, and our only expense what what we bought for snacks, crafts, etc. when it was our turn.  Most of the more formal ones are $25-100.

 

A friend of mine who is in the next state pays a $50 membership fee and then $100 which is refunded at the end of the year if you fulfill your volunteer obligations.  There are additional, varying fees for each class.

[texasmama]

The only fee unrelated to a class is the $15 per year cleaning fee which pays for someone to clean the church after we finish our co op.  The church lets us use the facility free.  All other fees are related to classes, and some classes are clearly making money because there are very few supplies needed.  This overflow pays for pizza parties and such.  Since I teach, the director lets my youngest child attend two classes free, and my boys do not have to pay for the class I am teaching.  There may be a small fee for new members, but I would imagine it would not be more than $25 or so.

[Embassy]

$170 per year for the family.  This co-op covers electives only like art, music, gym, cooking, etc.  We are not part of the co-op.

[8circles]

The coop we will probably be leaving :D is not a volunteer group. I pay between $500-$600 for each semester for all 3 kids together.

[KarenNC]

$35 per year for local middle/high school co-op, one afternoon a week with the option to take up to 4 classes. I don't know if this is per student or per family, since we only have one child. Families are required to take on 2 responsibilities each year---teach a class for a semester, serve on a major committee, or host a social event. I taught a class in the fall, and am serving on the class committee for the spring. Families buy their own books or copy fee if the class requires one, and teachers try to keep the costs as low as possible. I expect there will be a higher class fee for something like a science lab. Evidently they have used professional teachers sometimes in the past, with the students in that class paying the cost for the teacher. It's our first year, so I'm still learning some of the ropes. There is a church that lets us use 3 rooms for free each week.

[LMV]

For comparison, the Co-op we still technically belong to (because they enroll on a five year cycle/plan) is $400/year with a five year committment.  There is no requirement to teach although they will repeatedly request that you teach if you don't volunteer.  DH and I did co-teach a hands on science course last year and if the social climate of the group was a bit different we probably would have been more involved and our children would have taken more courses.  As it was our oldest daughter took one semester of a literature course and DFD9 took the science course we taught last year.