Live + blended classes
Native Daily / LiveKit sessions for the live half of the schedule; self-paced modules + assignments + reading for the rest. Attendance auto-captures per session. Recordings land in the course library.
LMS for schools
The LMS small schools actually get answered by
Canvas, Schoology, and Blackboard sell to districts. Google Classroom is free but pretends grading and parent reporting exist when they don't. Classentra is built for the small independent school that wants a real LMS — live + blended, gradebook, attendance, parent reports — without the six-month enterprise sales cycle.
K-12 pricing + parent/COPPA/FERPA notice
K-12 institutional pricing starts on the Team tier ($2,400/yr for up to 50 students). Parent-observer accounts, COPPA mode, FERPA DPA, and Clever/ClassLink rostering are available on the Company tier — talk to sales before rolling out below 13s or to a public district.
What small schools deal with
Built for districts; sold to nobody else
Most institutional LMS tools were designed for K-12 districts of thousands. The pricing, the onboarding, the integration list — all of it assumes a CIO, a procurement office, and a multi-year contract. A 120-student private school, a Montessori network, or an after-school academy doesn't fit. Sales asks 'how many districts?' and the call ends.
Google Classroom plugs that gap on paper. In practice it's an assignment dropbox glued to Drive. There's no real gradebook, no attendance trend, no parent-observer view, no certificate at year-end. Teachers stitch sheets, forms, and Calendly together and the head of school finds out something is broken when a parent emails.
Classentra fits the small-school operating shape. One workspace for live + blended classes, a real gradebook, auto-attendance from sessions, parent-readable reports, and a roster you can actually export. Sales picks up. Setup is in days, not quarters.
What you get
Six capabilities small schools actually need
Every feature below ships today. Parent-observer accounts, COPPA mode, FERPA DPA, and Clever/ClassLink rostering are Company-tier add-ons — talk to sales before rolling out to under-13s or a public district.
Real gradebook
Rubrics, weighted categories, manual overrides, mastery view per standard. Term reports export to PDF or CSV. Half the grading time on written subjects with AI-drafted feedback you review and send.
Parent-readable reports
Generate a clean per-term progress + attendance + behavior summary per student. Share via signed link (no parent account needed) or send as PDF. Parent-observer login + read-only portal is a Company-tier add-on.
Course library + materials
Course-level reading lists, lesson plans, slide decks, and external links. Drip-schedule by week or unlock manually. Search across every course you teach without hunting through a shared Drive.
Certificates with public verification
Issue branded year-end or course-completion certificates with a public verification URL per student. Parents share the link with the next school or a tutoring program — no PDF authenticity questions.
Roster + per-class messaging
Each class has a dedicated channel separate from your personal inbox. Announcements hit dashboard + email + in-app. Bulk-invite students by CSV at the start of term; revoke seats in two clicks if a family leaves.
How we compare
Classentra vs Canvas, Google Classroom, Schoology
| Capability | Classentra | Canvas | Google Classroom | Schoology |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sells to schools under 200 students | ✅ | ❌ | N/A (free) | ❌ |
| Public pricing | ✅ | ❌ (sales-gated) | Free | ❌ |
| Setup in days, not quarters | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Live video native | ✅ | ❌ (Zoom embed) | Meet handoff | ❌ |
| Real gradebook | ✅ | ✅ | ⚠️ basic | ✅ |
| Auto-attendance from sessions | ✅ | ⚠️ | ❌ | ⚠️ |
| Parent-readable per-term reports | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Certificate w/ public verify | ✅ | ⚠️ | ❌ | ⚠️ |
FAQ
Common questions from small schools
- Do you have parent-observer accounts and a parent portal?
- Parent-readable per-term progress + attendance reports ship today — generate a signed link per student and send by email; no parent account required. Dedicated parent-observer logins and a persistent parent portal are a Company-tier add-on (talk to sales). For most independent schools the signed-link flow is what families actually use.
- Are you COPPA / FERPA compliant for under-13 students?
- Classentra runs under our standard DPA (PIPEDA-aligned, GDPR-aligned) and signs a FERPA-compliant DPA on the Company tier. COPPA mode (no marketing emails to minors, parent-consent gating on signup, age-gated AI features) is a Company-tier toggle. For schools enrolling under-13s, please request the K-12 packet before signup so we can stand up the right configuration.
- Can we roster students from Clever or ClassLink?
- Clever and ClassLink rostering is a Company-tier add-on; bulk CSV invite ships on every tier (Team and up). For most schools under 200 students, the CSV invite + per-term refresh flow is faster than an integration. We pull Clever/ClassLink in when the operational shape warrants it.
- How is this different from Canvas or Schoology?
- Canvas and Schoology are designed for districts. Public pricing is gated behind a sales call, setup runs a quarter, and the contract assumes a CIO. Classentra is designed for the small independent school: public pricing, setup in days, live + blended natively, and a real gradebook without a six-month rollout. If you are buying for thousands of students across multiple campuses, Canvas may still be the right call.
- How is this different from Google Classroom?
- Google Classroom is an assignment dropbox glued to Drive. It is excellent for a single teacher who already lives in Google Workspace. It is not an LMS — there is no real gradebook, no attendance trend, no parent-readable report, no certificate. If your school needs the LMS workflow without the district price tag, Classentra fits where Google Classroom stops.
- Can we run this for a microschool or homeschool co-op?
- Microschools and learning pods fit well — the Team tier (up to 50 students) covers most micro-schools. Homeschool families running a co-op also work. We don't currently sell directly to individual homeschool parents (that's a future sister-product); for a co-op or micro-school selling enrollment to families, talk to sales.
Run your school on an LMS that picks up the phone
Team tier starts at $2,400/yr for up to 50 students. Set up in days. Talk to sales for COPPA / FERPA / parent-portal configuration.
Talk to sales
Public pricing · No multi-year contract · Your data exports in CSV.