How to Write a Tutoring Cancellation Policy (With a Template)

A student messages at 7:40: "So sorry, can't make it today." The lesson starts at 8. You kept that hour free, prepared the material, maybe turned down someone else who wanted the slot. Whether you get paid for that hour depends on what you and the student agreed before it happened.

A tutoring cancellation policy is that agreement. It is a few sentences the student or parent sees before the first lesson, and it answers what happens when a lesson is cancelled late or missed. Below is what to put in it, the numbers most private tutors use, and a template you can copy.

What a cancellation policy has to cover

Keep it short enough to read in a minute. Five points are enough:

1. Notice period. How many hours before the lesson a student can cancel or reschedule for free.
2. Late cancellation. What a cancellation inside that window costs.
3. No-show. What it costs when the student doesn't turn up and doesn't warn you.
4. Prepaid packages. Whether a missed lesson is taken from the package, what happens to unused lessons, and how long a package is valid.
5. Your own cancellations. What the student gets when you are the one who cancels.

Anything beyond that (illness, lateness, tech problems on online lessons) can be one line each, or left to judgment.

Late cancellation and no-show are two different things

A late cancellation means the student warned you, just too late to fill the slot. A no-show means you sat waiting and found out when the lesson was already over. The second one costs you more, so most policies charge more for it.

Common setups among private tutors:

The standard row is where most tutors start. Strict makes sense when your schedule is full and every free hour could have gone to someone else. Lenient works for young children, where parents often cancel because of sudden illness.

Pick one and use it for everyone. A rule you apply to some students and not others is the fastest way to an argument.

How cancellations work with prepaid packages

Packages make cancellations easier, because the money is already paid. The question is only what to count.

• Cancelled with notice: the lesson stays in the package and gets rescheduled.
• Late cancellation: part of one lesson's price is charged, by your percentage.
• No-show: the full lesson is charged.

Also say how long a package is valid, for example ten lessons within three months. Without that line, a student can "pause" a package indefinitely and come back half a year later expecting the old price.

A tutoring refund policy belongs here too. The usual approach: unused lessons are refunded if the student stops, minus lessons already taken and any late-cancellation charges. If you don't refund packages, write it plainly before the student pays.

When you are the one who cancels

A policy that only binds the student reads as one-sided. Add one line about yourself: if you cancel with less than 24 hours of notice, the student gets the next lesson free or a discount, and if you cancel with notice, you offer a new time within the same week. Parents notice this line, and it makes the rest of the policy easier to accept.

A tutoring cancellation policy template

Copy it and change the numbers to your own:

Send it before the first lesson, in writing, and ask for a short "OK" in reply. A message in the chat is enough. What matters is that the student saw it before the first charge, not after.

How to apply it without arguing every time

Most of the friction around cancellations comes from counting by hand. Late in the evening you try to remember when exactly the student wrote, how much half a lesson from a ten-lesson package is, and whether you already forgave them last month.

In Perlearn you set the rules once in your settings: how many hours before a lesson a cancellation counts as late, what percentage of the price a late cancellation and a no-show cost, and how close to a lesson students can still book it. When you sign up, you can start from a ready set (no charges, lenient, standard or strict) and adjust the numbers later.

When a lesson falls through, you mark it as a late cancellation or a no-show. Perlearn calculates the charge from the lesson price and your percentage. For a package, it uses the price of one lesson in that package. The charge goes to the student's account, next to their payment history, so there is nothing to recalculate at the end of the month.

The rules can also differ where you need them to:

• a package can have its own terms, for example a strict intensive exam-prep course alongside a lenient regular course;
• one student can get their own terms, for example a family with shift work that needs 12 hours of notice instead of 24;
• a minimum booking lead time stops students from booking a lesson at midnight for 8 the next morning, and a weekly cap stops one student from taking every free slot.

If you are still tracking payments in a spreadsheet, see how tutors track student payments without spreadsheets. It covers the other half of the problem: who paid, who owes and how many lessons are left.

Start with the next new student

You don't need to renegotiate with everyone at once. Send the policy to every new student before the first lesson, and to current students at the start of the next month or the next package. By the time a late cancellation comes up, the rule is already agreed, and all you do is mark the lesson.

You can create a free Perlearn account without a card and set your cancellation rules in a few minutes.