Policies & Procedures

Welcome to RTC!
We’re thrilled to be nurturing your student toward growth and success.

Tutor Matching

During our initial intake and interview process, we want to get to know your student so that we can make the best tutor match possible. We make our tutor matches based upon your student’s availability, personality, strengths, learning needs, and expressed preferences as well as the strengths and teaching styles of our tutors.

We are very thorough and thoughtful in our tutor matches because we strive for the best student-tutor match from the start – chemistry matters, and we are 95% successful in great first-time matches. However, we are also open to a tutor and student not being the right “fit.”

As we tell our students, they always have an “escape” button! If you have any concerns about your tutor-student fit, please contact our office immediately. It’s crucial to us that your student is happy with their tutor. Learning should be fun!

Even though all our lessons are virtual, we want you to trust in the safety of your children. All RTC team members have a current background check and have completed Mandated Reporter Training.

Test Prep Scheduling

RTC tutors and coaches schedule directly with our tutoring families.

All of our Test Prep programs are scheduled in advance of the targeted SAT or ACT test. In test prep, tutors and students generally meet once weekly, usually for two hours, leading up to the anticipated test date. For example, if an SAT test prep program is twelve weeks long, the tutor and student will ideally meet once a week for the twelve weeks leading up to SAT test day, including the week of test day.

During those twelve weeks, most Test Prep students will also meet with a Performance Coach some weeks to ensure they have the mind-body-spirit tools that support elite test-taking performance on Test Day. These sessions are typically 45 minutes.

Academic Scheduling

In Academic programs (usually homework support), most students meet weekly with their tutor. We strongly recommend that students have a set weekly appointment, because we know that tutoring is most effective when it is consistent.

Academic tutoring appointments usually last 45-120 minutes, and each lesson’s length is customized to the student’s needs. Minimum lesson length is 30 minutes, and RTC tutors log lessons in 5-minute increments so that your student receives the exact lesson time they need.

For answers to your academic tutoring questions, please visit our FAQs for Academic Tutoring.

Lesson Progress Notes

RTC maintains a Google Doc with progress notes for every student. At the end of each lesson, your student and tutor will usually update your student’s lesson notes collaboratively, documenting the duration of the lesson, what was taught, how your student is progressing, any homework assigned, and the date and time of the next lesson. The Google Doc is intended to be interactive, and we invite your comments!

Lesson Cancellation Policy

If a family needs to cancel a tutoring appointment, twenty-four hours’ notice is required, or you will be charged for the appointment in full. If you need to cancel a tutoring appointment well in advance, you are welcome to contact your tutor via email. However, if you need to cancel at the very last minute due to a dire emergency, please be sure to call or text your tutor to ensure a connection and ensure you receive confirmation of the cancellation.

RTC will choose to end its working relationship with families that abuse our team members’ time.

Meeting Cancellation Policy

We are busy! Families are kindly asked to reschedule or cancel appointments — especially student interviews (60-90 minutes) and family meetings (60 minutes) with as much notice as possible. Twenty-four hours’ notice of a cancellation is required, or a $100 cancellation fee will be assessed to reschedule.

Program Cancellation Policy

If a family wishes to cancel a tutoring program, RTC requires two weeks’ written notice. Email is an acceptable form of notice; text is NOT. RTC will bill the family for these two weeks of tutoring in full, regardless of whether they choose to use the tutoring time. If two weeks’ notice is not provided, the family will be charged in full for this tutoring time.

Billing and Payment Arrangements

RTC requires a deposit to begin every tutoring program: the entire deposit applies directly to the cost of tutoring services and supplies, if needed.

All our tutoring programs are managed conveniently on our TutorCruncher online software for our families’ convenience.

RTC bills for tutoring monthly: invoices arrive in clients’ inboxes from TutorCruncher between the 4th and 10th of the following month. Families are kindly asked to pay their invoices within 14 days. Late payments are subject to a 6% monthly late fee. These fees are cumulative for invoices that fall into arrears.

Families can pay their invoices via credit card on TutorCruncher, via ACH, or by check. Checks can be mailed to Russell Tutoring at P.O. Box 613, Ambler, PA 19002.

We offer flexible payment arrangements for families; investing in your child’s future shouldn’t hurt, and talking about money can be simple and comfortable.

Preparing for Test Prep Lessons

For paper-and-pencil ACT prep, we provide students with their customized test prep curriculum (usually a red binder) and practice test book.

We ask that students be prepared for lessons with the following:

A graphing calculator – a TI-84 is best
A sharpened pencil with an eraser
A fully charged phone
A fully charged PC or tablet
A simple, silent timer or watch to practice with and use on test day.

Students will need to print test PDFs for homework regularly. In addition, students will use online tools during their tutoring program, and your student will receive an email with login information.

For digital SAT prep, we provide students with their customized test prep curriculum (usually a red binder). All other materials are entirely digital, and your student will receive emails with login information. In addition, students should download the College Board’s “Bluebook” App onto their PC or tablet.