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| Red Tape |  It is recommended to check the tutoring laws in your state as well as the homeschooling laws. It is wise to check, though most states do allow parents to hire tutors full or part-time. Normally the parents still have to comply with the homeschool regulations. Actually, we "out source" quite a bit of our children's education: for instruction in a sport, fine arts, and a variety of interesting learning activities.
Check with your CPA about the best way to set up your business for tax purposes. If you set up a room in your home just for your business, there is sometimes a big tax break. In order to be eligible for daycare grants and tax breaks you may want to set up your business as a "home day care facility". A lot of good home day care providers also educate their charges. Speak with a few home daycare providers in your town.
Your CPA may advise that you set yourself up as a small business. It is good idea to check at your city hall on how to do this in your community. There are communities that are quite concerned about the street traffic and parking problems you might generate.
Speak with your insurance agent to find out if you need to upgrade your personal liability insurance if you intend to supervise others' children in your home for money. Should a child be injured in your home while you have accepted a fee for being responsible for them is considered quite different from a child who is there as a visiting friend.
If all this seems workable, you then become either a home day care center or a private school in the eyes of the legal system. If you are set up as "day care" and the children are of school age, then the parents should comply with the homeschooling notification procedure for your state. If you work as "private school" the parents need only to inform their previous school that their children are now attending a private school. As the head of the private school, you will need to send for their transcripts on letter head stationery. You have to follow all private school regulations regarding the keeping of attendance and performance records. You will also have to submit to a fire and building inspection in some localities. This may cause remodeling your home, providing boy and girl bathrooms, two exits to the room used for education, having a ramp for the handicapped. The list can get quite absurd for someone intending to have six healthy pupils quite used to sharing a family bathroom.
If starting your private business seems undaunting, consider become an employee of an umbrella school, a recreation department, library, charter school, learning center or distance learning program. Some of these hire local facilitators, and working for them would give you legal protections and a regular income that private tutoring wouldn't.
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