A make-up class policy families accept, and your studio can afford

Every studio has a make-up policy, even the ones that never wrote it down. The unwritten version is whatever the front desk agreed to last time somebody asked nicely, and that is the version that causes the arguments.

A good make-up policy does two jobs at once. It tells families that a missed class is not money thrown away, which is what they are really worried about. And it protects your classes from filling up with extra bodies in week eleven, which is what you are really worried about. Most policies fail because they only do one of those jobs.

Below is the arithmetic first, because it decides how generous you can be, then a policy you can copy and adjust, then the parts that are easy to get wrong.

What a missed class actually costs

Start with what the family thinks they lost. Monthly tuition divided by the classes in the month. These numbers are an example; put your own in:

• Tuition: $88 a month for one 45-minute class a week
• Classes in a typical month: 4 (some months have 5; most studios price on the year and divide by 12, so call it 4.33)
• Value of one class to the family: $88 ÷ 4.33 = about $20

Now what a make-up costs you. Say the class runs with an instructor paid $35 for the slot and $25 of rent and utilities for the room's 45 minutes. That is $60 to run the class whether 8 or 12 children are in it. If a student drops into a class that has an empty spot, your extra cost is close to nothing: the room is heated and the teacher is paid already.

So the make-up is cheap for you and worth about $20 to the family, as long as it goes into a spare spot. The expensive case is the other one: a make-up that pushes a full class over capacity, so the teacher has thirteen children in a room set up for twelve and the paying regulars get less attention. That is the cost a policy is really managing. It is not money. It is the quality of the class your regular families pay for.

How many make-ups will you actually have to absorb?

Check this against your own registers. Suppose you have 150 students and, in a typical month, one in ten misses a class for a reason your policy covers. That is 15 make-ups a month. If you run 40 classes a week, there are about 160 classes in a month, so 15 make-ups is roughly one extra student in every tenth class. Spread out, that is nothing. Saved up and all used in the last two weeks before a show, it is two or three extra in the classes everyone wants.

That is why expiry and a per-term cap matter more than who qualifies. Families do not abuse make-ups on purpose. They just save them, the way people save gift cards, and then remember them all at the same time.

A policy you can copy

Adjust the numbers to your studio and paste it into your registration terms and your parent handbook. Keep it the same wording in both places.

Missed classes and make-ups. Tuition reserves your child's spot in a class for the term; it is not charged per class attended, so missed classes are not refunded or deducted. To make up a missed class, let us know before the class starts (email, the parent portal, or a message to the front desk). Each notified absence earns one make-up credit. Make-ups can be used in any class at the same level or one level below that has a spot open, within 30 days of the missed class, and up to 3 per student per term. Make-up credits have no cash value, cannot be transferred to another student, and do not carry over to the next term. Classes we cancel ourselves (weather, instructor illness, building problems) are always made up or credited to your account, and do not count towards the limit. Make-ups are not available in the final two weeks before a performance or grading, when classes are rehearsing set work.

Each part of that is there for a reason:

• “Tuition reserves a spot.” This sentence settles most disputes before they start. Families pay for a place in a class; the make-up is a goodwill extra, not a debt you owe.
• Notice before the class. This separates a planned absence from a no-show, and gives you a record. It also stops families claiming in May for a class they missed in February.
• Same level or one below. A beginner dropping into an intermediate class is no use to the child and slows the class down. One level below works for review; above never does.
• A spot open. This is the capacity rule from the arithmetic. Say it in the policy so the front desk does not have to make it up on the spot.
• 30 days and 3 per term. Together these stop credits building up. Thirty days is long enough for a family to find a class that suits them and short enough that the credits spread out. Choose your own numbers, but choose both.
• Studio cancellations are different. If you cancel, the family missed the class because of you. Always make it up or credit it, and keep it out of the cap. Mixing the two is the fastest way to lose goodwill.
• The blackout before a show. Rehearsal weeks are when classes are fullest and visitors are least useful. Saying so up front avoids a hard conversation in June.

The cases the policy does not cover

Write down what you do with these before somebody asks, even if the answer is “case by case”:

• Long illness or injury. A child out for six weeks with a broken arm cannot use six make-ups in 30 days. Most studios pause tuition or credit part of the month with a note from the family. Decide which, and whether you need a doctor's note. Treat it as separate from make-ups.
• Siblings. Credits belong to the student who missed the class. If you let a sibling use them, you have turned a make-up into a discount.
• Private lessons. A missed private lesson costs you the instructor's paid time. Usually this needs its own cancellation window (24 or 48 hours), not the group make-up policy.
• Families who never use them. That is fine. A policy that most families never need, but every family knows exists, has done its job.

Running it without a spreadsheet of IOUs

The policy only works if you can answer “how many does she have left, and when do they run out?” in ten seconds. On paper that means one sheet per student: date missed, date made up, which class. Look at it once a week and cross off anything past expiry.

In Prodigy Suite the policy lives in your settings, with the expiry in days and a cap per student. A student marked Out on the register earns a credit; a name left unmarked is still saved as absent but earns nothing, so a register the teacher did not finish does not give the whole class a free lesson. The front desk spends a credit by adding the child to another class's register, and parents see in their portal how many credits they have and when the first one expires. You can see how it looks in the demo studio.

Whatever you use, the part that matters is the same: families should be able to see their own balance without asking you. Most make-up arguments are really about a number nobody could check.

Rolling it out mid-year

1. Honour every make-up you have already promised, under the old terms, until the end of the current term.
2. Send the new policy in writing at least two weeks before it takes effect, with one sentence on why: “so that classes stay at the size you signed up for”.
3. Put it in the registration terms families agree to for the next term, so nobody can say they did not see it.
4. Brief the front desk and the teachers on the three questions they will get: does a missed class carry over, can my other child use it, and why can't I come to the Saturday class (it is full).

Questions