Terms & conditions.

1. Agreement to terms

These Terms and Conditions ("Terms") constitute a legally binding agreement between you and Xmission Tutors, Inc. ("Xmission," "we," "our," or "us") governing your access to and use of our website, platform, and related services (collectively, the "Services").

By accessing our website, completing an AI evaluation, submitting a tutor application, or otherwise using our Services, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, you must discontinue use of our Services immediately.

If you are using our Services on behalf of a minor child, you represent that you are the parent or legal guardian of that child and that you accept these Terms on their behalf.

2. About the platform

Xmission Tutors operates an online platform that connects families seeking academic tutoring with independent educators ("tutors") who provide in-person tutoring services. Xmission facilitates this connection but does not itself provide tutoring services.

Our Services include:

• A free AI-powered evaluation tool that generates personalised academic assessments for families
• A tutor discovery and matching system that connects families with tutors in their ZIP code
• An application and onboarding system for independent tutor educators
• Payment processing infrastructure that facilitates transactions between families and tutors
• Post-session parent brief communications

3. Terms for families

Eligibility

To use our Services as a family, you must be at least 18 years of age and have the legal capacity to enter into a binding agreement. By using our Services you represent that you meet these requirements.

AI evaluation

Our free AI evaluation is provided as an informational tool only. The evaluation generates a personalised academic assessment based on information you provide. It is not a substitute for professional educational assessment, psychological evaluation, or medical advice. You acknowledge that:

• The evaluation is based solely on information you provide and its accuracy depends on the completeness and accuracy of your responses
• Evaluation results are indicative only and do not constitute a diagnosis of any learning disability, disorder, or condition
• Xmission makes no guarantee that the evaluation will identify all learning gaps or accurately benchmark your child against any specific school's admissions criteria

Tutor introductions

When you request a tutor introduction, Xmission identifies tutors in your area who may be a suitable match based on your evaluation data and preferences. You acknowledge that:

• Xmission does not guarantee the suitability, competence, or performance of any tutor
• You are responsible for conducting your own due diligence before engaging any tutor
• The tutoring relationship is directly between you and the tutor — Xmission facilitates the introduction and payment but is not a party to the tutoring arrangement

Session booking and cancellations

Session scheduling is arranged directly between families and tutors. Families must provide at least 24 hours' notice to cancel or reschedule a scheduled session. A cancellation made with less than 24 hours' notice, or a failure to attend a scheduled session (a "no-show"), is treated as a forfeited session: the session is considered used, counts toward the applicable package, and the tutor is entitled to full payment for it as though the session had taken place. Consistent last-minute cancellations by a family may result in a tutor declining future introductions from that family.

Adult supervision

For any student under 18, a parent, legal guardian, or another responsible adult designated by the parent must be present on the premises for the entire duration of a session held at a private residence, in an open, common area of the home such as a living room, family room, or kitchen — never behind a closed door. For a session held at a public location such as a library or community center, a responsible adult need not remain in the room but must be reachable and within the same building for the duration of the session.

If a tutor arrives for a scheduled session and this requirement is not met, the tutor may decline to begin the session. The session is treated as a late cancellation under this Section, and the tutor is entitled to full payment as though the session had taken place. Xmission does not supervise sessions or verify compliance with this requirement in real time; compliance is the family's obligation.

4. Terms for tutors

Application and approval

To join the Xmission platform as a tutor, you must complete our application process, which includes credential verification, an AI-assisted assessment review, Stripe Express onboarding, and a Certn background check. Xmission reserves the right to accept or decline any application at its sole discretion and without obligation to provide a reason.

Background check requirement

All tutors are required to pass a Certn background check before activation. Results indicating a clear pass allow automatic activation; any other result is reviewed by Xmission on a case-by-case basis before a decision is made. Background check results are governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and you will be provided with all legally required disclosures and rights.

Platform obligations

As an active tutor on the Xmission platform, you agree to:

• Conduct all sessions in person at agreed-upon locations
• Decline to begin a session where the adult-supervision requirement in Section 3 is not met, and report the occurrence to Xmission
• Submit an accurate post-session brief within 24 hours of each completed session
• Maintain professional conduct in all interactions with students and families
• Notify Xmission promptly of any concern, incident, or safeguarding issue
• Not solicit families away from the Xmission platform for direct engagement during your active period and for 12 months following deactivation
• Maintain accurate availability and ZIP code information on your profile

Experience tier and rates

You self-select your experience tier (Standard, Premium, or Elite) at the time of application. Xmission may recommend a different tier based on your credentials but the final selection is yours. Your payout rate is determined by your selected tier as a percentage of the session rate set by Xmission for your ZIP code.

Weekly parent briefs

Submission of a post-session parent brief is a required platform obligation. Briefs must be factual, professional, and submitted promptly. Xmission uses your brief submission to generate a formatted parent communication. You retain responsibility for the accuracy of the content you submit.

Inactivity

If you have not completed a paid session within the preceding 90 days, Xmission may hide your profile from search results and new introductions. A hidden profile is not deleted — your background check status and platform history are retained, and your profile automatically reappears once a new session is booked or you request reactivation. Xmission will email you before hiding your profile.

Unresponsiveness

If Xmission attempts to reach you by email regarding your account, a family introduction, or a platform obligation, and receives no response after three separate attempts, Xmission may deactivate your account. Xmission will space these attempts a reasonable number of days apart and will state in the final attempt that deactivation may follow. You may request reactivation at any time by contacting Xmission and responding to the outstanding matter.

5. Independent contractor relationship

As an independent contractor, you:

• Are solely responsible for your own taxes, including self-employment tax
• Are not entitled to employee benefits of any kind, including health insurance, paid leave, or workers' compensation
• Control your own schedule, methods, and teaching approach within the standards set by these Terms
• Are responsible for complying with all applicable laws, including any licensing requirements in your jurisdiction
• Will receive a Form 1099 if your annual earnings through the platform exceed applicable thresholds

Tutors operating in California acknowledge and agree that Xmission has structured its platform in compliance with California Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) and the Dynamex standard. Xmission does not control the manner in which tutors perform their tutoring services, and tutoring services performed on Xmission's platform are outside the usual course of Xmission's business as a technology platform and marketplace.

6. Payments and fees

Family payments

Session fees are charged to families based on the rate established for the tutor's ZIP code and experience tier. Payment is processed through Stripe, our third-party payment processor. By providing payment information, you authorise Xmission and Stripe to charge the applicable session fees. All fees are quoted in US dollars.

Tutor payouts

Families pay for a package in full at the time of purchase. Your payout for that package is allocated to your Stripe Express account promptly after the family's payment clears, and is released according to Stripe's standard payout schedule. You are not required to deliver every session in a package before being paid. Payout amounts are calculated as your tier percentage (50%, 60%, or 70%) of the applicable session rate, and Xmission retains the remaining percentage as its platform fee.

Refunds

Refund requests by families must be submitted within 72 hours of a completed session and will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Xmission does not guarantee refunds but will investigate all reasonable complaints.

An approved refund applies only to sessions the tutor has not yet delivered. Sessions already delivered are not refundable to the family and are not recovered from the tutor. A session forfeited under the cancellation policy in Section 3 — including a late cancellation or no-show — counts as delivered and is not eligible for a refund.

Where a refund is approved, the corresponding portion of the tutor's payout is reversed automatically if funds remain available in the tutor's account. If those funds have already been paid out, the amount is instead recovered from the tutor's next scheduled payout(s). By accepting payment before the refund window has closed, tutors agree to this recovery process as a condition of being paid before all sessions in the package are delivered.

Background check fee

The cost of the Certn background check ($13.99) is not charged to you upfront — Xmission covers it. The fee is deducted once, from the payout on your first booked package, and is never charged again. If you are declined, do not complete onboarding, or never have a package booked, no fee is owed.

Referral payments

Referral bonuses and Campus Ambassador earnings are paid through Stripe Express according to the referral programme terms communicated during onboarding. Xmission reserves the right to modify referral programme terms with 30 days notice to active participants.

7. Standards of conduct

All users of the Xmission platform — families and tutors — agree to the following standards:

Prohibited conduct

You must not:

• Provide false, misleading, or inaccurate information to Xmission or to other users
• Use the platform for any unlawful purpose or in violation of any applicable law
• Harass, threaten, or intimidate any user, tutor, student, or Xmission staff member
• Share, publish, or disclose confidential information about other users obtained through the platform
• Attempt to circumvent the platform's payment system by arranging direct payment outside of Stripe
• Solicit students or families for tutoring services outside the platform during the restriction period described in Section 4
• Misrepresent your credentials, qualifications, or experience on your tutor profile
• Use automated tools, scrapers, or bots to access or collect data from the platform

Safeguarding

All tutors must adhere to appropriate safeguarding standards when working with minors. This includes maintaining professional boundaries, conducting sessions in appropriate locations, and promptly reporting any safeguarding concerns to Xmission and, where required by law, to relevant authorities. Xmission reserves the right to immediately deactivate any tutor about whom a safeguarding concern is raised, pending investigation.

8. Intellectual property

All content on the Xmission platform — including but not limited to text, graphics, logos, icons, images, the AI evaluation system, matching algorithms, and software — is the property of Xmission Tutors, Inc. and is protected by applicable intellectual property laws.

You are granted a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to access and use the platform for its intended purposes. This licence does not permit you to:

• Copy, reproduce, or distribute any platform content without our express written consent
• Modify, adapt, or create derivative works based on our content or technology
• Use our trademarks, logos, or brand elements without prior written permission
• Reverse engineer or attempt to extract the source code of any platform software

Content you submit to the platform (including tutor profiles, teaching philosophies, and post-session briefs) remains your intellectual property. By submitting content, you grant Xmission a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use, display, and distribute that content in connection with operating and promoting the platform.

Profile photo & likeness

If you provide a photo or a LinkedIn profile URL as part of your tutor application, you grant Xmission a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to retrieve, store, reproduce, and display that photo on your public tutor profile, tutor card listings, and related promotional materials on the Xmission platform, for as long as your tutor account remains active. Xmission may store a permanent copy of the image on its own systems rather than linking directly to the original source. You represent that you have the right to grant this licence and that use of the photo will not infringe any third party's rights. You may revoke this consent at any time by contacting Xmission, after which your photo will be removed and replaced with a default placeholder.

9. Disclaimers and limitations

No guarantee of outcomes

Xmission makes no representation or warranty that use of our Services will result in improved academic performance, admission to any school, or any other specific educational outcome. Academic outcomes depend on many factors outside our control, including student effort, family engagement, and school policies.

Platform availability

We strive to maintain continuous platform availability but do not guarantee uninterrupted access. We are not liable for any loss or damage resulting from platform downtime, technical errors, or service interruptions.

Third-party services

Our platform integrates with third-party services including Stripe, Certn, and Anthropic's Claude AI. Xmission is not responsible for the availability, accuracy, or conduct of these third-party services. Your use of these services is subject to their own terms and privacy policies.

Disclaimer of warranties

The Services are provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement. Xmission does not warrant that the Services will be error-free or that any defects will be corrected.

10. Limitation of liability

In no event shall Xmission's total liability to you for all claims arising from or relating to the use of our Services exceed the greater of (a) the total amount paid by you to Xmission in the three months preceding the claim, or (b) one hundred US dollars ($100).

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or the limitation of certain damages. If you reside in such a jurisdiction, some of the above limitations may not apply to you.

11. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Xmission Tutors, Inc., its officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from or relating to:

• Your use of or access to the Services
• Your violation of these Terms
• Your violation of any third-party right, including intellectual property rights or privacy rights
• Any content you submit to the platform
• Your provision of tutoring services (for tutors)
• Your engagement of a tutor (for families)

12. Termination

By you

Families may discontinue use of the platform at any time. Tutors who wish to deactivate their account should notify Xmission via email. Deactivation requests will be processed within 5 business days. Outstanding payment obligations survive deactivation.

By Xmission

Xmission reserves the right to suspend or terminate your access to the platform at any time, with or without notice, for any reason including but not limited to violation of these Terms, fraudulent activity, safeguarding concerns, or conduct that we determine is harmful to other users or the platform.

Tutors who are terminated for cause forfeit any pending referral bonuses and Campus Ambassador earnings accrued after the date of the conduct giving rise to termination.

Effect of termination

Upon termination, your right to access and use the platform ceases immediately. Sections that by their nature should survive termination — including Sections 8 (Intellectual Property), 10 (Limitation of Liability), 11 (Indemnification), and 13 (Dispute Resolution) — shall survive.

13. Dispute resolution

Informal resolution

Before initiating any formal dispute, you agree to contact Xmission at legal@xmissiontutors.com and attempt to resolve the dispute informally. Xmission will attempt to resolve disputes within 30 days of receiving written notice.

Binding arbitration

If informal resolution fails, any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services shall be resolved exclusively by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules. The arbitration shall take place in New York, New York, or via remote hearing. The arbitrator's decision shall be final and binding.

Class action waiver

You waive your right to participate in a class action lawsuit or class-wide arbitration. All disputes must be brought in your individual capacity and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class or representative proceeding.

Exceptions

Notwithstanding the above, either party may seek emergency injunctive or other equitable relief from a court of competent jurisdiction to prevent irreparable harm pending arbitration. Claims within the jurisdiction of small claims court may also be brought in that court.

14. Governing law

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. To the extent any dispute is not subject to arbitration under Section 13, you consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in New York County, New York.

15. Changes to these terms

Xmission reserves the right to modify these Terms at any time. When we make material changes, we will update the effective date at the top of this page and, where practicable, provide notice to active users by email or through the platform.

Your continued use of the Services after any changes to these Terms constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms. If you do not agree to the revised Terms, you must discontinue use of the Services.

Changes to the independent contractor provisions in Section 5 or the payment terms in Section 6 will be communicated to active tutors with at least 30 days notice before taking effect.

16. Contact us

If you have questions about these Terms or wish to report a violation, please contact us: