Tutor Attendance Expectations

Effective May 1, 2023 

BookNook's Tutor Attendance Expectations are designed to meet the expectations of our school and district partners by ensuring the greatest student progress and learning growth through consistent, synchronous tutoring engagements.

To successfully tutor with BookNook all contracted tutors are expected to be able to commit to at least 80% of their sessions. 

For example, if a tutor has 100 booked sessions with BookNook, they need to be able to teach a minimum of 80 of those sessions. 

In addition to the terms outlined in our Agreement with tutors, the following expectations apply to all tutoring engagements.

Session Timing

Tutoring sessions are scheduled to be 30 minutes in length. BookNook’s contracts with school district partners require us to meet this expectation. Please note the following:

• Tutors are required to deliver a minimum of 25 minutes of tutoring in a session.
• If the lesson content is completed in less than 25 minutes, the tutor is expected to engage in extension activities of their choosing with the student to ensure the entirety of the session is utilized for student learning.
• If a tutor wishes to leave feedback on the session, they should do so during the last 2 minutes.
• When back-to-back sessions are scheduled, tutors are encouraged to end the first session at the 28-minute mark. This is to ensure they are able to exit and enter their next session in a timely manner.
• Tutors should not start a session more than 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time. If all students are present prior to the scheduled start time, tutors can welcome their students and engage in any appropriate pre-lesson activities before starting the lesson. Tutors should not start the lesson before the scheduled time even if all students are signed in early.  BookNook tracks lesson duration from the scheduled start time.
• Substituted sessions are expected to be taught until the scheduled end time. If a tutor picks up a last-minute substitute session, and the session time has already begun, tutors are expected to teach until the scheduled end time of the session.
• If a tutor ends a session in under 25 minutes, BookNook may reach out to the tutor to better understand the circumstances and ensure future engagements can be taught in full. 
• Consistently short sessions (under 25 minutes) may result in BookNook reviewing a tutor’s account. Tutors are encouraged to reach out to the Tutor Success team (bntutoring@booknook.com) in the event they are unable to complete at least 25 minutes of tutoring. 

Cancellations and Missed Appointments

Tutors may cancel up to 20% of the total sessions they have booked in a month or a maximum of 3 sessions (whichever is greater). For cancellations in excess of 20%, please see the Exceeding the Cancellation Limits section below.

Important Note: See FAQs below regarding the automated 20% cancellation limit notification for opportunities in the Tutor Portal (it is not related to these expectations).

• Cancellations should be made at least 24 hours before the scheduled start time of the session. For cancellations less than 24 hours in advance, see Late Cancellations below.
• The 20% is calculated at the end of each month, not at the time of cancellation.
• For Cancellations in excess of 20% or 3 (whichever is greater), see the Exceeding Cancellation Limits section below.

Example 1: If a tutor has 40 sessions booked for the month of April, they can cancel up to 8 of those sessions (20%).

Example 2: If a tutor has 10 sessions in a month, they can cancel up to 3 of those sessions (since 3 is greater than 20% of 10 sessions).

Example 3: At the beginning of April, if a tutor has 10 April sessions booked and they cancel 3, but then they add an additional 10 sessions that are also scheduled to take place in April, they will have canceled less than 20% (3 sessions of a total of 20 in the month).

If a tutor cancels a session less than 24 hours in advance of the scheduled start time or misses a session entirely, they need to let BookNook know as soon as possible via the Attendance Notification Form (see below). 

• Tutors can late cancel/miss one day of sessions per calendar month.
• Tutors should fill in the Attendance Notification Form (see below) as soon as they are able to. Failure to fill in the form may result in BookNook reaching out to ensure future sessions can still be taught.
• Late Cancellations / missed sessions are also counted toward the 20% cancellation limit.
• For Late Cancellations in excess of one day in a month, see the Exceeding Cancellation Limits section below.

Example  1: A tutor is sick and misses all 5 sessions in a day, then fills out the Attendance Notification Form the following day. One day of Late Cancellations is recorded for the month (and 5 sessions are counted towards the 20% of Cancellations). 

Example 2: A tutor has 5 sessions scheduled in a day, but needs to cancel one. They cancel the single session less than 24 hours before it starts and fill in the Attendance Notification Form. One day of Late Cancellations is recorded for the month (and one session is counted towards the 20% of Cancellations). 

Example 3: A tutor misses a session and does not fill out the Attendance Notification Form. One day of Late Cancellations is recorded (and one session is counted towards the 20% of Cancellations). BookNook will reach out to the tutor directly since the Attendance Notification Form was not filled out. 

The Attendance Notification Form

The Attendance Notification Form helps us better understand the circumstances around cancellations and also lets us better prepare to assist our students. 

Filling in the Attendance Notification Form is optional but in order to ensure no disruption to your tutoring, we strongly recommend tutors fill out the form in the following instances:

1. If a tutor feels BookNook and the student impacted will benefit from additional early notification of cancellations
2. If a tutor cancels any number of sessions with less than 24 hours' notice or misses a session (Late Cancellation)
3. If a tutor thinks they will exceed either the 20% Cancellation limit or the one day Late Cancellation limit (see Exceeding the Cancellation Limits below)

Important: Submitting the Attendance Notification Form provides BookNook with additional information regarding canceled sessions. BookNook does not “approve/deny” submissions, nor will tutors receive a response (see Exceeding the Cancellation Limits below). There is no need to submit a ticket in addition to the form. 

Exceeding the Cancellation Limits

It is important that BookNook is able to fulfill its obligations to schools and students and, as such, the Attendance Expectations have been designed to be as accommodating to tutors’ situations and lives as possible.

If however, either the Cancellation or Late Cancellation limits are exceeded, at the end of each calendar month, the following may occur:

• First Occurrence within 12 months: At the end of the month (~ a week after), BookNook will reach out to the tutor to understand the reasons for the cancellations (see Attendance Notification Form above) and ensure the tutor is still able to sufficiently commit to their tutoring engagements. If the tutor does not respond to BookNook’s email, their slot quota (not existing appointments) may be reduced to 0 until we make contact. 
• Second Occurrence within 12 months: BookNook will reach out to the tutor to understand the reasons for the cancellations (see Attendance Notification Form above). BookNook may suspend the tutor’s account for 30 days (and release any scheduled appointments into the substitute pool). The tutor will be notified accordingly.
• Third Occurrence within 12 months: BookNook will reach out to the tutor to understand the reasons for the cancellations (see Attendance Notification Form above). The tutor’s account may be suspended pending an internal review and any scheduled appointments released into the substitute pool.

FAQs

• What would constitute a reason for BookNook to suspend a tutor’s account? We understand that life happens, and that no two circumstances are the same. In keeping with this, we will evaluate each situation on a case-by-case basis and our underlying determination will be based on whether we believe the tutor’s reasons for absences / shortened sessions still allow the tutor to commit to future engagements with students successfully and sufficiently. 
• What if I want to cancel more classes than the 20% limit? The 20% limit has been determined as a fair and reasonable amount of cancellations that still allows BookNook to deliver on its commitments to schools and students. If a tutor exceeds 20%, we encourage them to fill in the Attendance Notification Form. 

• How can I see the number of cancellations I have had? The Tutor Portal currently does not display the number of tutor cancellations in real-time. However, we will compile the data and send it to tutors at the end of each month (see Monthly Cancellation Email Update above). We encourage tutors to keep track of the number of sessions they cancel to ensure they remain below the 20% limit. 

• What happens if the school cancels a session or a complete program? If a program or a program day/days are canceled by BookNook, or if sessions are canceled/missed due to technical problems with BookNook’s systems, they will not be counted towards your cancellation limits. 
• Will canceling sessions scheduled to take place in a future month affect my cancellation limits for the current month? No. Cancellations are counted toward the month they are scheduled to take place. 

• Are substitute opportunities included in the Cancellations limits? Yes.

• What happens if I cancel a session, and then the tutor who substitutes for that session also cancels? Will I, the original tutor, be impacted in any way since I still hold the remaining sessions? You are only held accountable for the sessions that you personally cancel. 

• What if my student(s) are absent / need to leave early? If students are absent or need to leave the tutoring session early, tutors are required to remain in the BookNook lesson and the Zoom meeting room for no less than 25 minutes. 

• I am trying to cancel one session but the system is forcing me to cancel all remaining sessions for an opportunity. Does this mean I have already hit my 20% cancellation limit for the month? No. This is a result of an automatic system setting that is triggered when the total number of canceled sessions for full opportunities exceeds 20%. This occurs when another tutor(s) prior to you picked up this set of sessions and then canceled several sessions. This system warning is not related to your individual cancellation limit.  If you need to cancel just one session and the system is not allowing you to, please email bntutoring@booknook.com for assistance. 
• For cancellations that exceed the limits, when are the 12 months counted? The 12 months are considered on a rolling basis. Therefore, if a tutor logs a “first occurrence” for the month of May, that record will remain until May of the following year.