Switch mid-year — the importers do the heavy lifting.
Attendance, gradebook, tuition, records, and a parent app families install the same week — $50/month for your first 20 students. No sales call, no implementation fee. A typical self-serve switch takes a weekend, and nothing already recorded is lost.
From wherever you are now to a running school
Here is the whole move, hour by honest hour — a typical weekend, start to finish. Every step below is on video too, one minute each, in the how-to library.
Build the school
First sign-in asks how your school runs and builds it in one step: the year with its terms and days off, you as a teacher, your subjects, your classes and a tuition plan — and your roster, pasted in on the same pass. That is about twenty minutes, and it undoes for a day if you want to start again.
Bring the rest of your data in
Transcripts, assignment-level gradebooks, health records and the library catalogue, from CSV — every import has a dry-run preview, so nothing is written until you've checked the rows. This is the part that takes a Saturday, and it is your own file you are reading.
Set up the money
The build made your first tuition plan; Sunday is the rest of it — plans per family, sibling discounts, invoices, and online payments through your own Stripe account. Invoice before your first Monday on Pearspark — much easier than chasing checks after.
Invite everyone
Staff get roles and permissions; families sign themselves up from the email on the student record, install the app, and turn on notifications. Nothing to distribute, nothing to explain twice.
Ready for day one — the short list
Six things working before your first day on Pearspark, and where each is covered.
Running a particular kind of school? Start from the page that matches yours:
Grab the printable launch checklist
Enrollment paperwork, records, money, academics, and parent communication — everything a new school should have ready, whether or not you use Pearspark.
Mid-year switch questions
We already started the year. Is it too late to switch?
No — mid-year switches are normal, and this page is the plan for one. Import what you have (including assignment-level grades), and attendance, billing, and the parent portal pick up from today. Nothing already recorded is lost.
How long does the switch actually take?
A typical self-serve switch takes a weekend. The long pole is data entry, and the importers remove it: rosters, guardians, transcripts, and gradebooks come in from CSV with a dry-run preview. Configuration is about twenty minutes: your first sign-in asks how the school runs and builds the year, its terms, your classes and a tuition plan in one step. Stuck anywhere along the way? Email support@pearspark.com and a person will help, free.
What does it cost?
$50/month covers your first 20 students, then per-student pricing from $2.50 (volume bands down to $1.00). A 30-student school pays about $75/month — every feature included, unlimited staff and family accounts, published pricing, no sales call.
Do parents need training?
No. Parents sign themselves up from the email on the student record, and the portal walks them through installing the app and turning on notifications. There's also a library of 60-second how-to videos for every role.