What to Expect on FrostBoard Academy

    Two sides of the same page. Tutors, start at the top. Families, start where it says For Families. Nothing here is buried, and nothing here is dressed up.

    For Tutors

    Teaching on FrostBoard works like posting anything else here. Fill it out, publish it, get to work.

    Your profile posts the same day you finish it

    There is no application, no waiting list, and no committee reading your bio on a Tuesday. When the required fields are done and the Tutor Agreement is accepted, the profile publishes and families can find it that day.

    • A headline, a short bio, the subjects you teach, the communities you serve, and how you meet: online, in person, or both.
    • At least one active offering, so a family knows what they are actually booking.
    • A FrostBoard account that is 100 percent verified: ID, email, and phone.

    The full verification is not busywork. Messaging on FrostBoard requires all three, on both sides, so a profile published without them would be a listing nobody could reach.

    The first message always arrives inside FrostBoard

    Families do not get your inbox. They get a conversation thread on FrostBoard, and the person opening it is a parent, a guardian, or an adult student whose account is ID, email, and phone verified, same standard as yours.

    • You see a first name and last initial, and so do they.
    • You reply in the thread. Nothing you write there is published on your profile.
    • If the conversation is not a fit, you can say so and leave it. No penalty, no response-rate punishment for turning down work that is wrong for you.

    Make sure the message actually reaches you

    FrostBoard emails you when a family reaches out. That email comes from support@frostboard.com and shows up as Clint from FrostBoard. Add it to your safe senders before you publish, because the first message from a family is the one you do not want sitting in a folder for three days.

    • Gmail: check the Promotions tab. If the email landed there, drag it to Primary and choose yes when Gmail asks about future messages.
    • Outlook, Yahoo, and most others: add support@frostboard.com to your contacts or safe senders list.
    • Text notifications are available too. Turn them on in your notification settings if you would rather get a text than watch an inbox.

    Nothing about a message is sent in the email body itself. The email tells you there is something waiting, and you read it on FrostBoard.

    Your phone number is yours to give

    FrostBoard does not publish phone numbers, and a tutor profile has no public phone field at all. When you decide a family is a fit, you can share your number inside the conversation. That is your call and your timing.

    • Privacy: a public number on a tutor profile is a number that gets scraped, sold, and called at 10pm.
    • Child safety: first contact needs to run through a place where both people are identified.
    • Accountability: if something goes sideways, the conversation is on FrostBoard where it can actually be looked at.

    What the attestations are, and what they are not

    Before publishing, you affirm a short set of statements about yourself. They are statements you make, not checks FrostBoard runs.

    • They are not a background check. FrostBoard does not run background checks on tutors and does not order consumer reports about anyone.
    • They are not a badge. Attestations never appear on your profile, never rank you higher, and are never compared between tutors.
    • They are not a disqualification form. FrostBoard does not ask anyone to disclose a record and does not keep a record of one. You affirm the statements are true, or you do not publish.
    • They are binding. If it comes out that someone misrepresented any of it, the account is removed permanently and that person is not allowed back on FrostBoard.

    Families see the same honest sentence on every profile, word for word: it says what was checked and what was not. No tutor is presented as screened, because none are.

    Quality gets watched after you publish, not before

    Nobody stands between you and a live profile. That does not mean nobody is paying attention. FrostBoard keeps looking at published profiles, so a problem gets caught by the system instead of by a family.

    • Reports from members, especially anything involving a child's safety.
    • Pressure to move payment or contact off FrostBoard before an agreement exists.
    • Claims on a profile that stop matching reality, including credentials and experience.
    • Review patterns that do not look like real families writing about real sessions.

    If something crosses a line, the profile can be paused or suspended, and you are told the reason. This is written down here so a suspension is never the first time you hear that any of this was being watched.

    Pausing and stopping

    Alaska has seasons and so does a tutoring schedule. Fishing opens, a semester ends, a new baby arrives. Pause the profile and it drops out of the directory the same minute.

    • Paused: families cannot find you or start a new conversation. Conversations you already have stay open.
    • Unpause whenever you want. There is nothing to reapply for.
    • Done for good: remove the profile. Your FrostBoard account and the rest of what you do here stay exactly as they were.

    For Families

    Here is what happens after you find someone who looks right, and what FrostBoard did and did not do before that profile reached you.

    What happens when you message a tutor

    Your message opens a conversation on FrostBoard. It does not go to the tutor's personal email or phone, and yours does not go to them either.

    • Messaging a tutor takes a 100 percent verified account: ID, email, and phone. The tutor met the same bar before publishing.
    • The first time you message any tutor, there is a short acknowledgment to read and check. It shows up once, because every tutor here is under the same agreement.
    • You see a first name and last initial. The tutor sees the same of you. Phone numbers get traded inside the conversation, once you both want that.
    • Rates, scheduling, and payment are between you and the tutor. FrostBoard is not a party to that arrangement.

    A student under 18 does not start the conversation

    A parent or guardian opens it and stays on it. A minor cannot message a tutor on FrostBoard, and there is no path around that.

    • Tutors who work with minors say so on their profile. Tutors who only take adult students say that too.
    • Keep the adult on the thread even after lessons start. A tutor who wants to move the conversation to a private channel with a student is the exact thing this rule exists for.

    Do your own checking, then keep paying attention

    FrostBoard cannot guarantee anyone's safety. Nothing on this platform, and nothing in a tutor's profile, is a promise, an implied representation, or a guarantee that a tutor is safe, qualified, or a good fit for a particular student. FrostBoard strongly encourages every family to do its own due diligence before lessons start, and to keep paying attention after they do.

    • Interview the tutor. A ten-minute call tells you more than a paragraph does.
    • Ask for references, then actually call them.
    • Check the Alaska Sex Offender/Child Kidnapper Registry at sor.dps.alaska.gov. It is free and public. It is also not updated in real time, so treat it as one check among several, not as the whole answer.
    • For the first sessions, meet somewhere public or keep a parent in the room.
    • Keep the conversation on FrostBoard, so there is a record if anything needs looking at later.

    Reviews run both ways

    A tutor's reviews follow them across FrostBoard, so a tutor who is careless here is not starting fresh somewhere else on the platform. Tutors can also review the adult who engaged them.

    • That is on purpose. A review system that only points one direction turns into a weapon.
    • Write the review you would have wanted to read before you booked: what you needed, what happened, whether the tutor showed up ready.
    • Fake reviews, traded reviews, and reviews written to punish someone all end access. That applies to tutors and families alike.

    Why first contact stays on FrostBoard

    Because these conversations happen on FrostBoard, the patterns that matter are visible: a tutor steering someone off the platform, a report that repeats, a profile that stops matching what it claims. That visibility is the reason a report can actually go somewhere instead of into a void. It is also why first contact stays here, and it protects the tutor as often as it protects the family.

    What FrostBoard verified, and what it did not

    This is the whole list. Nothing is implied beyond the left column.

    What FrostBoard verified

    • Identity. A government ID was matched to a live selfie through a paid third-party check.
    • A working email address and a working phone number.
    • That the tutor accepted the Tutor Agreement and the content policy in it.
    • That reviews on the profile came from verified FrostBoard members.
    • That the account is a real, single, identified person, and that misrepresentation ends access permanently.

    What FrostBoard did not verify

    • Criminal history. FrostBoard does not run background checks and does not order consumer reports about anyone.
    • Registry status. Tutors affirm they are not on any sex offender or child kidnapper registry. FrostBoard does not confirm it.
    • Degrees, certificates, and teaching credentials. What a profile says about schooling is what the tutor wrote about themselves.
    • Years of experience, subject expertise, and the results a tutor describes.
    • Whether this tutor is the right fit for your student. That one is yours to judge.

    How to report something

    If something feels wrong, report it. You do not need proof and you do not need to be sure. A report that turns out to be nothing costs almost nothing. A report nobody made costs a lot.

    When it is more than a platform problem

    • Immediate danger: call 911.
    • Suspected child abuse or neglect in Alaska: call the Office of Children's Services at 800-478-4444, or email ReportChildAbuse@alaska.gov.
    • Suspected child sexual abuse has to be reported to BOTH the Office of Children's Services and law enforcement.
    • Report it to FrostBoard as well, so the account can be stopped from reaching anyone else.

    Questions people actually ask

    Does FrostBoard run background checks on tutors?

    No. FrostBoard verifies identity with a paid ID check and requires a verified email and phone. Tutors affirm they are not on any sex offender or child kidnapper registry and have no felony convictions for sexual offenses, crimes against children, or homicide. FrostBoard does not verify those statements and does not run background checks, which is why the same sentence appears on every tutor profile.

    How long does it take to get a tutor profile approved?

    There is no approval queue. A profile publishes when the tutor finishes it and accepts the Tutor Agreement, the same way a listing posts. What it does take is a 100 percent verified account: ID, email, and phone.

    Read the Tutor Agreement

    Do I need a teaching degree to tutor on FrostBoard?

    No. A college student who is genuinely good at chemistry and can explain it to a high schooler is a real fit here, and years of tutoring experience is its own field on the profile. Say plainly what you have and what you do not, and let families choose.

    Can a student under 18 message a tutor directly?

    No. A parent or guardian opens the conversation and stays on it. Tutors who work with minors say so on their profile.

    Why is there no phone number on a tutor's profile?

    FrostBoard publishes no phone numbers and a tutor profile has no public phone field. A number on a public profile gets scraped and abused, and first contact belongs somewhere both people are identified. Tutors share a number inside the conversation when they decide to.

    What happens if someone lies about their record?

    The account is removed permanently. That person loses access to all of FrostBoard, not just Academy, and is not allowed back under any name. Where it is appropriate, FrostBoard reports it to law enforcement as well.

    Can a tutor review a family?

    Yes. Ratings run both directions, and the review a tutor leaves follows that adult across FrostBoard the same way a tutor's reviews follow them.

    Does FrostBoard see my ID?

    The ID check is handled by a third-party service. FrostBoard receives confirmation of the result and does not store copies of ID documents. Tutors and families see a first name and last initial, never the document.

    What should I do if something feels wrong?

    Report it from the profile or from inside the conversation. If a child may be in danger, call 911. To report suspected child abuse or neglect in Alaska, call the Office of Children's Services at 800-478-4444, and if child sexual abuse is suspected, report it to law enforcement as well.

    The short version

    FrostBoard confirms who someone is, keeps first contact in one accountable place, and tells you exactly where the checking stops. The rest is a conversation between two identified people, which is how Alaska has always found a tutor, a mechanic, or a hand with the roof.