Q.How does the free trial actually work?
14 days free. Sign up, add a card, and the trial starts immediately — no charge for 14 days. If you cancel any time before day 14 in Settings → Billing, you're never charged a cent. We collect the card up front so the account converts smoothly for the families who decide to stay; it's not a trick.
Q.How many kids can I have on one account?
No limit. One Family plan covers however many kids you homeschool. The only shared limit is the AI tutor — 60 messages per family per week — and most families don't come close. The records side (grades, attendance, reading log, portfolios, transcripts, credentials) is unlimited per child.
Q.Is this a Christian homeschool tool, or a secular one?
Both. Pick Bible-based or family-safe secular when you sign up, then add notes about anything else your family steers clear of. That's what the AI tutor uses. Records, transcripts, attendance, and state compliance work the same either way.
Q.Does it work with my curriculum?
Yes. The Good and the Beautiful, Masterbooks, Abeka, BJU, My Father's World, Apologia, Saxon, IEW, Notgrass — or anything you build yourself. ArborSlate doesn't care which curriculum; it just tracks what your kids do with it. Curriculum-aware AI tutoring uses whatever you tell it you're using.
Q.What about Charlotte Mason families? We don’t really "grade."
Every subject has its own grading approach — percentage, letter, pass/fail, or just “not graded.” CM families usually pick “not graded” and lean on the portfolio and reading log. Narration support is on the roadmap if you'd find it useful — say so when you sign up and we'll let you know when it lands.
Q.What if my state requires testing, an evaluation, or quarterly reports?
Every state is covered — all 50 plus DC. You'll see your state's required subjects, notice deadlines, evaluation cadence, recordkeeping rules, and the authoritative source link the day you sign up. Arizona, Pennsylvania, and New York additionally have full template generators — affidavits, IHIPs, quarterly reports, annual evaluations — and the other 47 states + DC get auto-generators added based on user demand. Tell us where you live when you sign up and yours moves up the queue.
Q.Can I use ESA funds to pay for ArborSlate?
AZ ESA families: yes, as a reimbursable expense under “Tuition or fees, online learning program (non-public).” Pay the annual subscription, save your Stripe receipt, submit through ClassWallet under that category. ADE approval per submission isn't guaranteed, but the AI tutor + records platform fits the rubric cleanly. We're working on direct-pay (ClassWallet card MCC + approved-vendor status) over the next few months. More on using your ESA funds for ArborSlate.
Q.How is the AI tutor different from ChatGPT?
Three things. It respects your family's worldview because you set that when you sign up. It already knows your curriculum because your gradebook tells it. And every conversation it has with your kids is saved in your account, turn by turn — no black boxes. ChatGPT does none of that.
Q.Is my kids’ data safe?
Each family's data is isolated at the database level — no other family can see it, even by accident. Photos and PDFs live in private storage with signed URLs. We don't train AI models on your family's data, ever — that's in the privacy policy and in the AI system prompts themselves. COPPA-compliant data handling for under-13 students. You can export everything or delete the account fully from Settings any time.
Q.Does it work on my phone?
Yes. ArborSlate is a Progressive Web App — install it from your phone's browser to your home screen and it behaves like a native app. The daily-driver flows (log attendance, log a grade, log a book read, snap a photo for the portfolio, photograph an ESA receipt) are designed for one-handed phone use. Transcripts and credentials are still best on desktop where you can see the layout.
Q.Can my spouse or co-parent have access too?
Yes. Invite a second parent from Settings — same account, same data, no extra charge. Both of you can log entries, view records, and run reports. One parent is designated “primary” for billing-portal access; the other can do everything else.
Q.I’m starting mid-year. Can I get caught up?
Yes. Add school years for the past and current year, enter what you have, and skip what you don't. The transcript builder is forgiving of partial data — mark in-progress courses as “Scheduled,” complete them later, and the transcript updates. CSV import for grades and attendance is on the roadmap; until then, bulk entry is fastest from a laptop.
Q.Do you offer co-op pricing?
Yes — $19.99 per student per month, five-student minimum. One subscription billed to the co-op admin covers every family in the co-op with full ArborSlate access. Shared compliance dashboard, member roster, link-and-email invites. See the Co-op row above for details.
Q.What happens to my data if I cancel?
It's yours. Export everything as JSON or PDF from settings any time, before or after canceling. After canceling you get 90 days of read-only access plus export, then the account closes.
Q.Why should I trust this when there are already established homeschool tools?
Honestly? You've probably tried them and given up. I lived the paper-planner-and-three-spreadsheets life for years before I built this. If the others felt like they were made by people who've never homeschooled — that's the gap I'm filling.
Q.How is ArborSlate different from Homeschool Tracker, a transcript-only tool, or a planner?
Most tools do one slice — a gradebook, or a transcript, or a daily planner. ArborSlate does the whole record: grades, attendance, transcripts, report cards, compliance, and ESA expense tracking in one place. I put honest, side-by-side breakdowns on our comparisons page — including where another tool is the better pick.