For Families

If you are a new or returning family to LDS, access information about fees, the academic year schedule, policies and procedures and links to our online lesson portal.

https://ldsociety.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/img-blob-4.svg https://ldsociety.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/200K_for_200Kids_blog_post_15nov2022.jpg

Welcome

We are so glad you are a part of the LDS community. This page will resource you throughout the year with the following:

  • Teachworks Login
  • Fees and Funding
  • Online Sessions Guide
  • Academic Year Calendar
  • FAQs
  • Policies

We encourage you to sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date with the LDS community. If you have questions that you can not find answers to below, please get in touch with our team at info@ldsociety.

Newsletter
https://ldsociety.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/img-blob-3.svg https://ldsociety.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Teachworks-Portrait.png

Teachworks

Teachworks is the scheduling and invoicing platform you use to access lessons, session snapshots, mid and end-of-year reporting, and invoices.

Log in to Teachworks

Fees and Funding

Fee Structure

Our household income sliding scale is outlined below for the 2023/24 academic school year. The image below shows the cost for students who attend two sessions a week in RISE One-to-one, RISE Now, RISE at Home, and RISE at School. (For students attending one session a week, halve the costs below.)

Click on the link below to learn about how we set our fees and sliding scale.

Learn More

Funding

LDS’ fees are covered by a combination of: 

  1. Fee payments by each family
  2. Grants, when a family is eligible 
  3. LDS’ internal bursary

We require families, where eligible, to apply for funding through individual grants to help cover the cost of their sessions. The funds from these grants ensure our internal bursary can go further and support more families.

If you’re not eligible to apply for the grants but you’re accessing our sliding scale, your fee rate is subsidized solely by LDS’ internal bursary. We raise these funds through non-governmental grants and fundraising. You’re not required to do anything else to access the fee level, but we strongly encourage you to engage with and amplify our fundraising efforts.

Learn more about grant funding to fund LDS’ services.

Funding

Learn More

See our FAQs below to learn more about fees. Please also refer to our policies and procedures above.

If your question is still not answered, please contact us.

FAQs

https://ldsociety.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/img-blob-1.svg https://ldsociety.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/headphones-coffee-and-study.png

Online Sessions Guide

LDS students receive one-to-one instruction virtually and in person. Please refer to the Online Session Guide and be set up for success with LDS’ online learning platform. It includes instructions on preparing for a session, support for troubleshooting during a session and related support after a session.

Online Session Guide
https://ldsociety.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/img-blob-4.svg https://ldsociety.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TeacherReadingToStudents.jpg

Calendar

For students to get the maximum benefit from the support they receive, continuity of service is key. LDS does not follow local school’s Professional Development (PD) days, so please consult our calendar for LDS-wide schedule updates.

Online Calendar Download Calendar

Frequently Asked Questions

See All

All programs at LDS start with an application so we can ensure a great fit between learners and instructors, and programs. An application does not guarantee a placement; it does start a thorough individualized intake process: 

  • Complete an application online via the Programs link on our site (feel free to give us a call if you have issues navigating our application form). In the application, you’ll provide information on location (including online), timing and other preferences. 
  • You will be asked to book an intake meeting to review your application and supporting educational documents about the learner. 
  • Our team then meets to find the best instructor match to meet the needs of the learner as well as meet the scheduling and location needs of the learner and family. 
  • We send you a placement offer that will be open for a certain period of time. You will confirm the placement and sign off that you’ve reviewed our policies and procedures. 
  • Your program schedule will be accessible in your Teachworks account.  
  • Once you begin the program, you’ll receive Session Snapshots, mid and end-of-year reports, and information about learning goals and objectives sent via your learner’s case manager. See more here about what’s included in our one-to-one program
  • If your child is unwell, please do not bring them to an in-person session. If your child stayed home from school that day, they should also be staying home from LDS. 
  • If a session can be moved online and completed that way, we will facilitate this. 
  • If a student is too unwell to do a session online or the student needs to miss the session for another reason, we will create a custom Take-Home Study Package for them so that learning and progress are not interrupted.  
  • LDS must receive at least one hour’s notice that a session cannot be attended in person or online. If LDS does not receive this notice, the session is a no-show and cannot be credited. A Take-Home Study Package is not created for a no-show. 

Because our instructor’s schedules are full and set for the year, we typically need to cancel the session and credit you the amount you would have paid. 

In some circumstances, we may be able to offer a make-up session at an alternate agreed-upon date and time.  

Please see this post for detailed information on how we aim to build fairness and equity into our fee structure. https://ldsociety.ca/2023-update-equity-fee-structure/ 

Structured, regular and repetitive academic interventions are critical to helping students with learning disabilities thrive. Continuity of service and regular exposure to the learning methods crafted for each student are crucial in ensuring maximum benefit is realized from our programs. 

As with many other activities and specialized programs you may enroll in, we match you with a specific instructor who is best suited to work one-to-one with your child based on their learning needs. We plan our staffing and programming around commitments for the entire academic school year and require families to make that commitment too. 

The calendar for the 2023-24 academic year, including statutory holidays, professional development days, and other breaks is live on our site. Access LDS calendar online or download a PDF calendar for the year on our Families page.

We’ve endeavoured to balance days and holidays throughout the year as best we can (challenging this year, given when some statutory holidays, as well as winter and spring breaks, fall) so that student session schedules even out throughout the year.

Monthly payments in September, March and June will be proportionally reduced to recognize start dates and the irregularity of the calendar in 2023-24 and ensure fees reflect that. Please note monthly payments are averaged throughout the school year to allow for predictable budgeting, they do not map to the actual number of sessions in any particular month.

https://ldsociety.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/img-blob-3.svg https://ldsociety.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/One-to-One.png

Policies

Please know that LDS truly values every one of the students and families we serve. We do our best every day to ensure each student is receiving the highest quality, customized education support that responds to their needs and strengths. We have a small but mighty team of professionals working to serve hundreds of students and families and ensure everyone is treated with the respect and care they deserve. We also go to great lengths to keep our operations as efficient as possible.

If you have a comment, concern or constructive idea about LDS, you are encouraged to reach out to our Executive Director Rachel Forbes any time at ED@ldsociety.ca. 

You can read the full digest of our policies including around attendance, behaviour, health, safety and more in the link below. This PDF will be updated as needed.

Policies

Discover Josh’s story.

Jennifer and Donna share their son’s story, and how working with LDS helped him realize his potential and discover his superpowers.

We believe that every individual should be empowered to achieve greatness their way.