What is a Private Tutoring Agreement?
It is used by tutors, instructors, coaches and parents who want the terms recorded before work starts or money changes hands, rather than reconstructed from memory afterwards. Putting it in writing is what turns an understanding into something either side can rely on.
The form collects 13 details across 5 areas: parties and contact details, scope and deliverables, payment and financial terms, dates, timing and duration, and legal protections and risk. The entries describing the lessons do the most work, because every later clause about price, timing and completion refers back to them.
Where these agreements go wrong, it is usually prepaid blocks with no expiry and no refund position rather than a defect in the boilerplate. Private agreements between people who trust each other are the ones least likely to be written down and most likely to end a relationship when they go wrong. The written record is the point.
Fill in the form and the private tutoring agreement assembles as you type, so you can read the finished wording before you download it. The draft is a starting point built on standard contract structure — it is not legal advice, and for a high-value or unusual arrangement it is worth having an attorney check it against the rules in your state.
What matters most in a private tutoring agreement
Payment in advance for blocks
Prepaid blocks reduce chasing, but state the expiry period and what happens to unused sessions.
Cancellation notice needs to be realistic
Twenty-four hours is the norm. Without it, a tutor's diary is blocked by sessions that are cancelled on the morning and never paid for.
Where minors are involved
Record parental consent, emergency contacts and safeguarding arrangements. For in-person work with children, background checks are often expected or legally required.
When you need a private tutoring agreement
- When more than one person is involved: Where several people share the obligation, the private tutoring agreement should say whether they are liable together, separately, or both. That single word decides who can be pursued for the whole amount.
- When each session matters to someone else: Where a lender, insurer, landlord or regulator will want to see the arrangement, it needs to be written to be read by them, not only by the instructor and the client.
- When you already have the booked schedule and the cancellation terms: If there is a brief, plan, specification or schedule, attach it. An agreement that refers to a record nobody has attached is only half a record.
- When the arrangement will repeat: For a relationship that runs across several jobs or periods, agree the standing terms once and let each instance sit under them rather than renegotiating from scratch.
- When money changes hands: Record what the client owes, when each session falls due, and what follows a late payment. These are the clauses relied on most often and left vague most often.
- When either side may need an exit: Agree how the arrangement ends while both parties are still on good terms. Exit clauses negotiated during a dispute rarely favour anyone.
What to include in a private tutoring agreement
This generator collects 13 details. Here is what each group covers and why it matters when the document is relied on.
Parties and contact details
Name the instructor and the client as legal entities rather than as the people you deal with day to day. The individual you email is rarely the party that can be enforced against.
- Party A Name
- The full legal name of the first party. Where a party is a company, name the entity rather than an individual employee.
- Party A Address
- The first party's address for service of notices under the agreement.
- Party B Name
- The full legal name of the second party bound by the agreement.
- Party B Address
- The second party's address for notices and correspondence.
Scope and deliverables
The description of the lessons is what turns an extra request into a chargeable variation. Write it so that someone outside the arrangement could tell what is in and what is out.
- Purpose of Agreement
- Why the parties are entering into the agreement. This helps a court interpret ambiguous clauses in line with the parties' actual intent.
- Responsibilities
- What each party must do, provide or approve, allocated by name so no obligation is left unowned.
Payment and financial terms
Tie each payment to something observable — a delivered session, a date, or each session — rather than to a general sense that enough has been done.
- Amount or Property
- A precise description of the money or property being transferred, with quantities and identifying details.
- Payment Terms
- The invoicing cycle, payment window, accepted methods and consequences of non-payment.
Dates, timing and duration
Use calendar dates, not relative triggers. "On approval" cannot be located on a calendar, which means it cannot be used to show that anyone is late.
- Effective Date
- The date the agreement takes effect. This can differ from the signature date, and it is the date obligations start running from.
- Schedule
- The agreed timetable of dates, sessions or milestones.
- Notice Period
- How much warning a party must give before ending the agreement, and how notice must be delivered to count.
Legal protections and risk
These are the clauses nobody reads until something goes wrong, at which point they are the only clauses that matter.
- Default Terms
- What counts as a default, any cure period, and the remedies available to the non-defaulting party.
- Governing State
- The state whose law governs the agreement. Choose a state connected to the parties or the work, as a wholly unconnected choice may not be respected.
Completing this private tutoring agreement
Checking the consents
Where a landlord, lender, insurer or licensing body has to approve the arrangement, obtain that approval before each session rather than assuming it will follow as a formality.
Naming the instructor and the client properly
Use full legal names — the registered entity, not a trading name. These are the names that must match if the document is ever relied on in a dispute or filed with a registry.
Reading it as the other side would
Before signing, read the private tutoring agreement from the counterparty's position and look for anything you would exploit. If you find something, so will they.
Describing the lessons
The strongest version of this private tutoring agreement describes the lessons in terms someone outside the deal could check — quantities, sessions, dates and standards. Write it so a reader who was not in the room can tell whether it has been done.
Recording where this applies
If the parties are in different states, name which state's law applies and where any dispute would be heard. Adding one line now avoids a preliminary argument later.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Leaving the lessons loosely described. Write down what the lessons actually consists of, measured in sessions. A description that cannot be counted cannot be enforced, and it is the client and the instructor who end up arguing about the gap.
- Letting the lessons change without repricing. Where the scope of the lessons moves, the price and the timetable should move with it. Absorbing the first few changes sets the expectation that all of them are free.
- Leaving confidentiality out. Both sides usually see something they should not repeat. A short confidentiality clause that expressly survives the end of the agreement covers it.
- No record of what was handed over. List what passes between the parties and when. Reconstructing that list months later, from memory, is how honest people end up in genuine disagreement.
- Leaving out the governing law. Where the instructor and the client are in different places, naming the law and the forum in advance avoids a preliminary fight about where the dispute is even heard.
How to use this private tutoring agreement generator
- Fill in the form. Work down the 13 fields in order. The ones describing the lessons carry the most weight, so give them more than a few words — everything else in the document refers back to them. Nothing is sent to a server — the document is assembled in your browser.
- Read the preview. Check the preview against the booked schedule and the cancellation terms. Where the two disagree, the document is the version that will be relied on, so fix it here.
- Download and sign. Download in either format and circulate for signature. Diarise the dates the document creates, particularly anything that has to happen before each session.
Private Tutoring Agreement — frequently asked questions
What notice is needed to cancel a lesson?
Twenty-four hours is the widely accepted standard, with the session charged in full below that. State it plainly in the agreement and apply it consistently — a policy that is waived every time is not a policy, and it becomes very hard to enforce against the one client who repeatedly cancels.
Does anything survive after the private tutoring agreement ends?
Yes. What happens to unused sessions and prepaid credit continues past each session, and confidentiality obligations normally do too. Anything expected to survive has to say so expressly — an obligation that is merely assumed to continue generally does not.
What records should I keep alongside the private tutoring agreement?
The booked schedule and the cancellation terms, the signed document itself, and a contemporaneous note of anything agreed afterwards. Most disputes turn on what was agreed at the time, and the party who can produce a dated record is the party who wins that argument.
Which state's law should govern this private tutoring agreement?
Choose a state with a genuine connection to the parties or the subject matter — where a party is based, or where the work or property is located. A choice with no connection at all may not be respected, and for property or employment the local state's rules will often apply regardless of what the contract says.
How is notice properly given under this agreement?
Follow the notice clause exactly: use the stated method, send it to the address named in the agreement, and keep proof of delivery. Notice given informally — a text message, or an email to the wrong person — is frequently challenged, and a defective notice can leave the agreement running on.
Is a loan agreement between family members legally enforceable?
Yes. A loan between relatives is as enforceable as any other, provided the essentials are present: identified parties, a stated sum, a repayment obligation and signatures. Being related does not make it a gift — but without documentation, a court or tax authority may treat it as one.
What interest rate can I legally charge?
State usury laws set the ceiling, and it varies widely. Some states also treat loans differently depending on whether the lender lends regularly. Check your state's limit before setting a rate, since exceeding it can cost you the interest and occasionally more.
Is my information stored anywhere?
No. Everything you type is processed in your browser and the document is assembled on your own device. Nothing is transmitted to a server, saved to an account or shared, which is why closing the tab clears your entries.