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Families

Getting Started as a New Family

Welcome. This guide walks through your first week in HomeschoolGo, from logging in for the first time to enrolling in classes and finding everything you need. It takes about 15 minutes to complete, and then you’ll know where everything lives.
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Your first login

When your co-op admin approves your application, you’ll receive an email with a Set up your account button. Click it, then click Continue on the page that opens, and you’re signed in. A short welcome setup walks you through your profile and your children before handing you off to your family dashboard. You can also click Skip on any step to go straight there.

The link works once. If it has expired or was already used, you land on a page with an Email me a new link button instead. Click it and a fresh link goes to the same address.

After that, sign in from the HomeschoolGo login page. Enter your email, press Continue, then enter your password or choose Email me a sign-in code instead. The email we send has an 8-digit code and a Sign in button. Type the code on the login page, or press the button and then Sign in on the page that opens. Only the newest email works, so if you asked twice, use the latest one. You can also set a password or add a passkey (Face ID, Touch ID or your device’s screen lock) from My Profile if you prefer to sign in that way.

The login page also has Google and Apple buttons. If your co-op invited you by email, sign in with that email first and then connect Google or Apple from My Profile, on the Sign-in methods card. Connecting them in that order keeps everything on one account. Pressing Google or Apple before you have ever signed in can start a second, empty account instead of opening the one your co-op knows you by. Once connected, either button opens your usual account.

If that happens, you’ll see a page headed We don’t have a co-op account for your email. Click Use a different account and sign in with the email your co-op has on file. Google lets you choose which account to use. Apple can’t switch accounts, so use your email with a sign-in link or password instead.

You stay signed in between visits. Closing the browser doesn’t log you out, and next time you’ll land straight on your dashboard. On a shared or public computer, use the Log out button at the bottom of the sidebar when you’re done. That signs out only the device you’re on. To sign out a device you no longer have with you, use the Signed-in devices card on My Profile.

Tip: Bookmark your dashboard or add it to your home screen now. You’ll come back to it often. It shows your upcoming classes, your balance, volunteer progress, and recent announcements all in one place.

Your dashboard also has a Getting Started checklist at the bottom that links to each of these steps directly. It tracks your progress and disappears once you’ve finished, or you can dismiss it early if you’d rather find things yourself.

Setting up your profile

Click your name at the bottom of the left sidebar to open My Profile. The Family Information card shows a read-only summary, click Edit to open a panel with your contact info, address, and guardian birthdays. Below it, a few more cards on the same page cover the rest of your account. There are a few things worth doing now:

Add a photo

Upload a family photo from the Family Information card. It shows on the Families page so other families can put a face to your name. Not required, but it helps in a community where people see each other in person.

Confirm your contact info

Open the Family Information card’s Edit panel and check that your phone number is correct. Some co-ops use it for SMS alerts and emergency contact lookups. Under Text messages in the same panel you can turn on texts for your own phone. For a second adult without their own login, save their phone number first. Then either tick the box saying you have their permission and choose Turn on their texts, or use Email them a link so they can decide themselves. Their first text confirms they’re signed up and tells them how to reply STOP. Anyone with their own login, like a grandparent you invite to your household, turns texts on under Your texts at the top of My Profile.

Set communication preferences

Further down the profile page, the Communication preferences card lets you turn email notifications on or off and, if you like, get a summary email once a day or once a week with anything you haven’t read yet. The summary is extra: other emails still arrive as they happen. There’s also a push notifications toggle that controls alerts to the HomeschoolGo mobile app (iOS or Android) if you have it installed; it has no effect if you only use the web app. Changes save automatically as you toggle them.

Below that sits a row per kind of notification, each with its own switches for email, push, and the bell in the sidebar. Calendar events is the first: it tells you when your co-op adds a new event to the calendar, so something posted two weeks out does not go unnoticed until the signup deadline has passed. It reaches the bell and your phone, with email off, unless you change it. A Volunteer shift reminders row turns off the reminder sent about a week before a shift you signed up for, and Volunteer shift changes turns off the email you get when your co-op cancels one of your shifts or changes its time or place. Co-op announcements controls the bell entry and the phone notification you get when an admin posts an announcement. Both start on. It has no email switch, because the announcement email is sent separately. New class files tells each adult in your family who has their own login, on the bell and by phone, when a teacher adds a file to one of your children’s classes. Several files posted close together arrive as one notification. If your co-op has turned on unread message emails, a Direct messages row appears with an email switch: when a message has waited unread for a few hours, you get one email about it, unless you read it first. Which other rows you see depends on what your co-op uses.

If your browser supports it, a Desktop notifications toggle is also on this card. Turn it on and HomeschoolGo shows a browser notification when you get a new direct message while a dashboard tab is open. It only applies to the browser and device where you turn it on. The first time you open your messages, a small banner offers the same toggle.

Appearance

The Appearance card lets you switch between Light, Dark, and Auto mode. Auto follows your device’s setting automatically.

Guardian birthdays

In the Family Information Edit panel, each guardian can add a birthday, just a month and day, no year. It’s optional. If you fill it in, co-op admins see it in an upcoming-birthdays panel on the Families page, so your co-op can mention it in an announcement or newsletter.

Note: Some co-ops require a complete profile before registration opens. If yours does, you’ll see a reminder on your dashboard. Getting your profile done now means you won’t be blocked when enrollment starts.

Adding your students

You need to add your students (children) before you can enroll them in classes. If you added them during the application process, they should already be there, but it’s worth checking.

1Open My Students in the sidebar (or the Children card on My Profile, both work the same way) and click Add child.
2Enter their name, grade level, date of birth, and any allergies, dietary restrictions, or medical notes. Teachers and admins see the allergy and dietary information on the class roster, so add anything they should know. If your child has their own cell phone, you can add the number and tick Send co-op texts to this phone to let your co-op text them directly. It’s optional and starts unticked.
3Save. Repeat for each child.
Tip: You can update your students’ information anytime. Grade levels don’t roll over automatically. Update them at the start of each new school year.

Before registration opens

Co-ops open class enrollment during specific registration windows, usually a few weeks before the term starts. Until a window is open, the class catalog is read-only.

Your co-op admin typically announces when a window opens. Your dashboard also shows a reminder chip when one is about to open this week. In the meantime:

  • Browse the Class Catalog (sidebar) to see what’s being offered and read class descriptions. You can’t enroll yet, but you can plan your schedule.
  • Check Calendar in the sidebar for the registration window dates. They appear there alongside other co-op events.
  • Note which classes have limited seats. Popular classes fill fast at the start of a window.
Tip: Know which classes you want before registration opens. When the window goes live, you can move quickly instead of reading descriptions under pressure.
Note: Some co-ops use invite-only priority windows for returning families. If you see an “Invite only” notice in the catalog, ask your admin for the access link.
Note: Starting with your second term, the first time you try to enroll in a class, sign up for a volunteer shift, or pay for an event in a new term, you’ll land on a Confirm your information page instead. Your dashboard also shows a banner pointing you there as soon as the term opens, so you don’t have to stumble into it by clicking around. Quickly review your contact info, address, and each student’s details, fix anything that’s changed, answer any waiver your co-op has added or asked everyone to sign again — either by typing your name or, for a simple Yes/No waiver like a photo release, picking Yes or No — and click Confirm & continue to classes. If your co-op charges an enrollment fee for the new term, you’ll be taken to a secure checkout for it right after. It’s a one-time check per term, not something you’ll see again until the next one starts. A few co-ops review each of these before it counts; if yours is one, you’ll see that you are waiting for approval, and an admin releasing it is the last step.

Enrolling in classes

When the registration window opens, go to the Class Catalog. You’ll see an Enroll button on each class. Click it, select which of your students you’re enrolling, and confirm.

If a class is full, you can join the waitlist at no charge. Promoting someone off the waitlist is a decision your co-op admin makes, not something that happens automatically the moment a seat opens. You’ll get a notification if and when you’re moved in.

For classes with a fee, clicking Enroll takes you through a secure checkout to pay. Free classes enroll instantly with no payment step. If you’re enrolling more than one of your students in the same class, you pay once at checkout for all of them, not a separate charge per student.

Tip: After enrolling, check My Classes in the sidebar to confirm everything looks right. That page shows your enrolled classes organized by day and time, useful for spotting schedule conflicts. Use the Print button at the top of My Classes to print a clean copy of your schedule.

The Enrolling in Classes & Managing Waitlists guide covers the full enrollment flow, waitlists, payment at checkout, and dropping classes.

Paying your first bill

Go to Payments in the sidebar to see your current balance. Class fees, event signups, and any co-op dues all show up here as line items.

If your co-op accepts online payments, click Pay now to pay through Stripe Checkout. You’ll pay by card there, and some co-ops also offer paying directly from a bank account for the same amount. A card payment updates your balance immediately; a bank payment takes a few business days to settle.

If your co-op collects payments by cash or check, the Payments page will say so. In that case, pay your treasurer directly and ask them to record the payment on your account.

Note: If you have an outstanding balance, you won’t be able to enroll in new classes or sign up for paid events until it’s cleared. Pay what’s owed or contact your admin if you think a charge is wrong. The one exception is a payment plan: if your co-op offers them and you’re keeping up with yours, only a payment that has gone past its date holds you up.

The Paying Your Co-op Bills guide covers how to read your Payments page, what each charge type means, and how credits and refunds work.

Signing up for volunteer shifts

Most co-ops require families to complete a set number of volunteer shifts per term. The Volunteer page shows a progress bar toward the requirement. The solid part is credit you have earned by working shifts, and a lighter striped part shows shifts you have booked but not worked yet. Under the bar it says how many credits you still need to book, or “Enough shifts booked” once your signups cover the rest. Until your earned and booked credits together reach the requirement, your dashboard may also show a reminder of how many credits you still need. If something looks wrong, check with your co-op’s volunteer coordinator.

To sign up for a shift, go to Volunteer in the sidebar. Upcoming shifts are listed by date and role. Click Sign up on any that fits your schedule. You can also get there from the Calendar by clicking any volunteer shift pill, which takes you to that shift on the Volunteer page.

Tip: Sign up for your shifts early in the term. The most convenient spots fill up first. A quick look at the Volunteer page during your first week saves scrambling near the end of the term.

Changed plans? Open the Volunteer page and click Cancel signup on the shift, no need to go through your admin. The spot opens back up right away, so cancel as early as you can if you know you won’t make it.

Staying connected

Once you’re enrolled and set up, here’s where to find things day to day:

Announcements

Your co-op admin sends updates through the Announcements feed. Check it for schedule changes, reminders, and news. You’ll also get an email for each announcement unless you’ve opted out.

Calendar

Calendar (near the top of the sidebar) shows everything happening in the co-op — classes, events, registration windows, and volunteer shifts. Use it to plan your month. You can export events to Google Calendar, Outlook, or Apple Calendar.

Messages

Direct messages from admins, teachers, and other families show up in the message icon (bottom right on desktop, the toolbar on a phone, or a Messages button in the top bar on a tablet), with an unread badge when something’s waiting. Click the pencil icon to start a new conversation with anyone in your co-op. On desktop, turn on the Desktop notifications toggle (from the banner that appears the first time you open messages, or from My Profile) to get a browser notification for a new message while you have HomeschoolGo open in another tab.

A class your student is enrolled in can have its own ongoing conversation, holding the teachers, every enrolled family, and any student logins on the roster. Open the class from My Classes and click Message class to join it. The teacher starts it, so the button appears only once they have. A reply goes to everyone in the conversation, so anything meant for the teacher alone belongs in a direct message.

To send a photo or a file, click the paperclip next to the message box, in a direct message or a class conversation. It is there when you start a new message too, once you have picked who it goes to. Photos (JPG, PNG, GIF, and WebP) show up in the conversation as pictures. PDFs, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents, and ZIP files show up as a file to download. Each file can be up to 25 MB, you can attach up to 10 to one message, and a caption is optional. Only the people in that conversation can open them. Student logins can see attachments but can’t send them. If you don’t see a paperclip, your co-op has turned attachments off; anything already sent stays in the conversation.

Older versions of the iPhone and Android apps show a message with an attachment as text, such as “Sent a photo.” Update the app, or open the conversation on the website, to see the photo or download the file.

Web addresses in a message are clickable and open in a new tab, so a sign-up form or supply list someone sends you is one click away. To fix or remove something you sent, click the three-dot button beside your own message. Edit is there for 15 minutes after sending, and the message is then labeled Edited. Delete works any time and leaves “This message was deleted.” in its place for everyone in the conversation. Anyone who already got a notification or email about it may still have read it.

You can react to a message someone else sent with one of six reactions: Like, Love, Laugh, Wow, Sad, or Celebrate. On a computer, point at the message and the choices appear. On a phone or tablet, tap React under the message. You get one reaction per message: picking a different one replaces it, and picking the same one again removes it. Reactions show under the message, with a number once two or more people pick the same one. Nobody can see who chose them. A reaction doesn’t send a notification, and you can’t react to your own messages.

Click Select above your conversation list to clean up your inbox: pick one or more conversations and mark them read or unread, archive them, or delete them, all at once. Archived conversations move to their own Archived tab rather than disappearing, and after any of these actions a short “Undo” option appears if you change your mind. Deleting only removes a conversation from your own inbox — the other person keeps their copy, and it comes back to yours automatically if they send another message.

Forum

Community › Forum has channels for general co-op discussion and topics your admin sets up. A class may also have a channel of its own, which your co-op decides on class by class, so some of your student’s classes will have one and others will not. Where there is one, it is a good place to coordinate with other families and ask the teacher questions.

Student progress

Your dashboard home page shows a single Student progress card listing all of your students, with a quick summary of grades and attendance for the current term (once there’s something to show). For the full picture — all assignments, attendance detail, and transcripts — go to My Students in the sidebar. The academic progress guide explains what each section means.

Tip: If you’re ever unsure where something is, press Cmd+K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows) to open the command palette. Type what you’re looking for and jump directly to it.
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Still have a question? Head back to the Help & Support page or reach out to your co-op admin directly from the dashboard.