Frequently asked questions

Yes — the Free plan supports one student with text activity logging, the state compliance summary, and a day counter. The paid Family plan unlocks up to 7 students, the attendance PDF, portfolio PDF, AI photo logging, weekly summaries, and the compliance Q&A.

No credit card required to start a Family or Microschool trial. After 7 days you choose whether to add a card to continue, or your account silently downgrades to the Free plan. All your data stays — you just lose access to the paid features until you upgrade.

Yes for any state that accepts a chronological record of activities with sample work. We include a cover sheet, monthly activity log with subject tags, and any photos you uploaded. Always confirm format with your evaluator or state homeschool association — some states (PA, MD, NY) prefer review in person but accept printed copies.

Varies by state. PA requires 2 years post-school-year. NY: "a reasonable period." Most evaluators recommend keeping the current school year plus the two prior. Anchor keeps your records for as long as your account is in use, so you can re-download anytime — but that retention obligation is ultimately yours, so export and keep your own copies of anything you may need years from now.

Nothing right away. Cancelling (or letting a trial lapse) moves you to the Free plan — your records stay put, you just lose the paid features and can't add more students. If an account isn't on a paid plan and goes unused for 120 days, we may deactivate it and delete it and its records at any time after that. Signing in resets the clock, and paid accounts are never subject to it. Export your records while your account is active and keep your own copies. If you've been deactivated and want back in, contact us; if the data hasn't been purged we may be able to restore it.

Flip a student to High School mode and you get weighted GPA, course tracking, an assignment gradebook, and a college-formatted transcript PDF. Works for current high schoolers and rising 9th graders.

Yes — click "Manage billing" under Settings to upgrade or downgrade anytime. Refunds are pro-rated.

In a managed Postgres database in the United States. Photos and PDFs live in encrypted object storage in the same region. We don't train AI models on your data. See the privacy page for details.

Snap a photo at /log and Anchor's AI describes what learning is happening, suggests subject tags, and picks an activity type. You always edit the suggestion before saving — Anchor never logs without your confirmation. See our privacy page for details on how we handle uploaded photos.

The Microschool plan is $5 per active student per month, with a 3-student minimum — so a six-student school pays $30/mo. It covers unlimited classes and sessions, enrollment + waitlist, ESA-formatted invoicing, and direct tuition deposits to your bank. Archived and graduated students stop billing, roster changes apply at your next invoice rather than mid-month, and you can pause billing over the summer and resume in one click.

Yes, if you want them to. Connect a Stripe account from Settings — about five minutes — and every tuition invoice you send carries a "Pay with card" button. Families pay from the email, Anchor marks the invoice paid as soon as the payment clears, overdue invoices send their own reminders, and the money goes straight to your own bank account: you're the merchant of record, not Anchor. Anchor takes a small platform fee on each tuition payment, on top of Stripe's own processing fees; you'll see the exact rate before you connect. It's optional — without it, invoicing runs in track-only mode, where you collect by Venmo, check, or Zelle and mark invoices paid yourself.

Not yet. CSV import is on the roadmap — email us if this would unblock you and we can prioritize.