Terms of Use

Welcome to the website of the Well-Trained Mind Academy (“WTMA” or “we” or “us” or “our” or “ours”), hereinafter referred to as “the WTMA Site.” The WTMA Site is operated by us as a portal where parents or guardians can purchase online courses and other services that we offer (collectively known as “Courses”). We assume that the person reading these Terms of Use is a parent or guardian of the student (“you”). 

BASIC CONDITIONS. These Terms of Use constitute a legally binding agreement between you and WTMA. These Terms of Use remain in full force and effect as long as you use the WTMA Site, as long as your child is taking Courses, or is registered to take Courses.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. We own all rights or have the right to use all the material in the WTMA Site, including all trademark rights in the WTMA name and logo, and all copyrights and other rights in the content that appears on the WTMA Site), as well as the contents of the books and other Courses offered for sale on the WTMA Site (“WTMA Content”. You may not copy any of the WTMA Content without our express written consent.

Our General Registration is the time during which families can enroll their student in any open seat of a given course on a first-come, first-serve basis. Our General Registration windows are as follows (subject to change at our sole discretion and without any advanced notice): 

We review all registrations for final approval, and in our sole discretion, we may deny registration for any and all courses at any time for any reason, subject to a refund of any tuition down payment where appropriate.

We provide a Grace Period during which we offer a full refund of tuition paid. The last day of this Grace Periods is as follows (subject to change at our sole discretion and without any advanced notice):

• You can only register students for a Course(s) during General Registration.
• You are responsible to read all Course descriptions and prerequisites carefully to determine course suitability. If you choose a Course that isn’t right for your child, and you do not realize this until after the Grace Period, we do not provide a refund. (See Payment, Withdrawals, and Refunds below.)
• Our courses have a listed appropriate grade and age range for student participation and content appropriateness (in our sole discretion). If you wish to register a student outside these age range guidelines, you will need to contact our support team to receive instructor approval. If you register your student and the student is outside the appropriate grade and age range, we may cancel your registration to the course at any time.

• We fill our Courses on a first-come, first-serve basis. Once a section is full, you may join the waitlist for your student. Your deposit payment for the course at checkout holds the student’s seat on the waitlist. You will receive confirmation of the student's position on the waitlist via email.

  • If a seat becomes available, we will automatically enroll the student in the class, and we will notify you by email.

  • If a seat does not become available by the end of the second week of courses in a semester, we will refund you the tuition down payment within two weeks after the close out of the wait list period. If you remove your student from a course waitlist, WTMA will refund you the tuition down payment within two weeks after you withdraw your student. In this situation, WTMA does not refund the Registration Fee.

• We will monitor Courses during the General Registration period and add new sections to existing Courses as waiting lists expand, at our sole discretion.

• Students may be enrolled in 1 section per course; 1 section of a course and on the waitlist for a second of the same course; or on the waitlist for up to two sections of the same course. The Administration reserves the right to remove a student from any duplicate enrollments or waitlisted sections and apply any payments towards another enrolled class.

Once registration is completed, we consider transfer requests on a case-by-case basis. You can request a transfer by logging into the Parent account and selecting “Transfer Request” from the left-hand menu, or by using this direct link to the Transfer Request form.

Please note that if you request in excess of 3 drops, re-enrollments, and/or transfers per student, we will charge the student account a $50 fee per change order. The additional per-change-request fee is incurred due to the additional Administrative work required to replace the student in Academy classes, adjust financial records, and cover excessive credit card processing fees.

Customers will be charged a 3% Convenience Fee to cover merchant credit card and debit card fees. Tuition refunds processed with a credit card or debit card will also be charged a separate 3% Convenience Fee, which will be deducted from the amount refunded. All Convenience Fees are nonrefundable.

• We only accept credit card payments.
• We must have a valid credit on file at all times through our payment gateway (please see our Privacy Policy if you have questions about how we retain your information)
• We have payment in full for any Course, or you may choose a semester or monthly payment plan.
• On-time payment is an essential condition of the Terms of Use at our sole discretion. We reserve the right to immediately terminate access to our Courses and any other related system for both you and your student once payments are past due. It is your sole responsibility to provide a valid and unexpired form of payment to us. If we limit access to the system because of past-due payments, we will only restore access once the account is up-to-date. We will drop Students from future classes if their accounts are not up-to-date by the last day of the month of the prior semester. We provide no refunds or future credits on partially paid courses once the refund period has passed.
• If your account is past-due at the time of exams, your student will not have access to a Course to participate in Exam Week. Remember that our policy requires students to complete all major assignments in order to receive a grade for a Course. If your student is unable to take an exam because of payment issues, your student will receive an incomplete for the class. No make-up exams will be offered in this situation.
• Any outstanding balances must be settled in order for a student to re-enroll in a specific course, and the Academy in general. 

If your state taxes online services, you will be charged the applicable sales tax.  If tuition is refunded for transactions which were subject to sales tax, then the sales tax will also be refunded. Our Help Center lists states where sales tax is charged. Please note that sales tax is subject to change without notice.

To officially drop a class, you must complete and submit the designated Drop Class Form. All submissions via the Drop Class Form are considered binding and final. Submissions made through other means (e.g., general email, by phone, or notifying an instructor) will not be processed.  Upon processing your drop request, you will receive a confirmation email indicating the change in your enrollment status. 

• We do not refund the Registration Fee regardless of when a student withdraws from a Course(s).
• Tuition Paid In Full Refunds:
• We will refund the entire tuition paid for a course if you withdraw your student before the end of the Grace Period.
• No refund on any tuition paid if you withdraw your student after the Grace Period (as listed above).
• Payment Plan Refunds:
• We will cancel and refund all tuition payments made if you withdraw your student before the end of the Grace Period.
• If a course is dropped after the withdrawal deadline, parents are responsible for any remaining balance on a student’s account.
• If your student is enrolled in additional classes, then WTMA will continue to charge, and you agree that we may charge your credit card until 100% of the tuition has been paid if you withdraw your student after the dates listed above.
• If your student is not enrolled in any additional courses, then WTMA will charge, and you agree that we may charge, your credit card for the tuition balance at the time of the withdrawal.

• Charter School or Third Party Reimbursement Refunds:
• You are responsible for any unpaid tuition if a withdrawal occurs after the Grace Period.
• If the charter school or third party will not pay the full amount of any course or fee, you agree that we may charge your credit card until 100% of the tuition balance has been paid.
• If a course is dropped after the withdrawal deadline, parents are responsible for any remaining balance on a student’s account.
• If your student is enrolled in additional classes, then WTMA will continue to charge, and you agree that we may charge your credit card until 100% of the tuition has been paid if you withdraw your student after the dates listed above.
• If your student is not enrolled in any additional courses, then WTMA will charge, and you agree that we may charge, your credit card for the tuition balance at the time of the withdrawal.

Only the Parent or Guardian listed on the student's account can request information or records pertaining to an individual student. The listed guardian may contact WTMA to add another authorized user to the account.

• We reserve the right to cancel any Course at any time prior to the start of the term for any reason.
• If we cancel a Course for which you registered your child, we will notify you in writing, we will refund all tuition paid back to the original payment method, or if that method is unavailable, by check or ACH payment.

• You must acquire textbooks and materials for any Course prior to the start of a term. These items are not included in any tuition or fees.
• We update the textbook lists in the course description when registration for a course opens, unless otherwise noted on the website.
• Under no circumstances are we responsible for any costs for any textbooks you purchased, even if they are non-returnable.
• Do not assume that a Course will use the same textbooks that it used in prior terms.

The content of any Course, including but not limited to all materials whether provided digitally or in print, as well as, but not limited to, all videos, images, audio files, problems, links, books, etc. are up to the sole discretion of the Course instructor. The syllabi and marketing materials provide a description of key materials and texts, but they are in no way exhaustive, given the needs of a dynamic, interactive environment. You are strongly encouraged to review any and all materials and ask any questions about course content prior to enrollment. All courses are provided “as is” and your disagreement with the course material will not result in either alteration of course material during the academic year, change in course requirements for students, or in a refund or financial credit for the course, after the Grace Period has ended. Instructors cannot tailor either course content or the course assignment schedule to the individual needs of students.

• Your student must have access to a desktop or laptop computer to attend class and to complete and upload assignments. Our system is not optimized for mobile device use.
• You should have, at a minimum, a hard line DSL or cable Internet connection. Use of a satellite connection or wireless hotspot may cause delays in video and audio transmission.
• Your desktop or laptop computer should have an up-to-date version of a Windows or macOS operating system released within the last three years. WTMA cannot guarantee full connectivity and a quality experience with mobile OS platforms and alternative operating systems like Linux. 
• For the most reliable experience, We require the use of Chrome® or Firefox® as a browser. While Safari® and Microsoft Edge® are alternatives, we do not recommend their suitability and reliability for the WTMA Site.
• A headset/mic combo. We require a headset to prevent feedback and echoes during audio transmission and for class participation. Please note that Bluetooth sets often vary in their quality and their compatibility with the WTMA Site, and a hardwired set is preferable. 
• Camera Access. While we do not require a camera for class participation, we do strongly encourage students to use their camera when required. Additionally, many instructors do assign presentations where students’ use of a camera (whether on the computer or through a device with recording capabilities) is requested. Please be aware of this requirement.
• For more details, view the latest browser requirements for Blackboard Collaborate.

Enrolled students are expected to attend class as scheduled. A student who misses more than 25% of any course will not be eligible to complete a Course. Within each Course, instructors will make students aware of their own attendance requirements. Each instructor will have their own attendance and lateness policy listed on their course syllabus and will explain clearly how absences or tardies will affect the overall course grade. Instructor policies will include how many times a student can substitute a delayed lecture with a live lecture per semester per course. Approved substitutions will not count towards the student's overall number of missed classes. Students are responsible for making up all missed work.

Students who plan to attend a mix of live and delayed sessions within a particular course must receive permission from the instructor prior to the beginning of the semester, and the instructor may deny such accommodation. Students attending both the live and delayed sections who miss more than 25% of the live sessions they are expected to attend will not be eligible to complete a course.

When a student has not met the attendance requirements for two consecutive weeks, and the instructor for the Course has made a minimum of two attempts to contact you, the WTMA administration will be notified. We will notify the guardian by email that their student is going to be changed to inactive in 4 business days if no response has been received. Once the student is marked inactive, they will lose access to their class. If it is past the refund deadline, payments will continue to be charged as per our policy. If you wish to reinstate your student as active, we will charge a $50 admin fee to the credit card on file.

• We will assign each student a Student I.D. that the student will use to log on to Courses. By default, the student’s full name is displayed in the live classroom to other students and the instructor.
• Any student may choose to modify the student’s real name and other personally identifying information (such as their self-chosen avatar) in their Blackboard profile settings. A student may not abuse this privilege. See “Interaction and Disputes between Students; Release” below. Please note that we reserve the right to revert any changes to names and avatars at our sole discretion.

• Your child and you may not (a) harass, abuse, stalk, or otherwise harm another student or a instructor, (b) contact, advertise to, solicit, or sell to any other student or a instructor, or (c) use the WTMA Site for any purpose other than to participate in Courses and work on collaborative assignments. If we are made aware that you or your child has violated these conditions, then, in addition to any other action that we may be legally entitled to take, we may, in our sole discretion, suspend your child from all Courses o and continue charging any payments still owed.
• You and your child are solely responsible for your child’s communication and interaction with any other student or any instructor, online or offline.
• If there is a dispute between your child and another student or an instructor, you can contact our customer service for assistance. However, if there is a dispute between your child and another student outside the WTMA site, we are under no obligation to become involved in any way at all.
• You hereby release WTMA, which includes its owners, its operators, its subsidiaries and its affiliates, and all officers, employees, agents, and successors of WTMA and all the above-mentioned related parties, in interest from claims, demands, and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind or nature—including, but not limited to any type of physical, mental, emotional, psychological harm up to and including bodily death—known or unknown, suspected and unsuspected, disclosed and undisclosed, arising out of or in any way related to such disputes and the use of the WTMA Site. 
• If you are a California resident, on behalf of both you and your child, you waive California Civil Code Section 1542, which says: “A general release does not extend to claims which the creditor does not know or suspect to exist in his favor at the time of executing the release, which, if known by him must have materially affected his settlement with the debtor.”

We expect a professional and academic environment grounded upon mutual respect among administrators, instructors, students, and guardians. Because respect is one of our core values, we reserve the right to terminate, temporarily or permanently, in our sole discretion, any relationship where guardians do not model this respect with the Academy.

The following is a list of behaviors that fail to model respect between guardians and the Academy. This list is not exhaustive and may be added to at our sole discretion. Failure to abide by this list is at our sole discretion to determine.

A violation of the code of conduct occurs when you:

• Repeatedly communicate disrespectfully to instructors and staff.
• Use unprofessional and/or inappropriate language in electronic and/or phone conversations with us.
• Using social media to disparage individual instructors or staff members.
• Persistently harass instructors.
  
• Examples include, but are not limited to, sending a barrage of emails, messages, or phone calls to instructors/administration, even after the instructor(s)/administration have addressed the guardian’s concerns.
• Interrupt or cause disruptions during live class sessions.
• Deliberately share false or misleading information about us.
• Impersonate someone else. Such examples include but are limited to:
• Creating fake identities, and/or pretends to be the student, in order to manipulate or deceive instructors, students, or administration, or to gain access to online spaces intended for students alone (live classrooms).
• Completing coursework for the student.
• Repeatedly question an instructor’s grading practices by, for example, challenging numerous grades the student has earned in the instructor's course, or by using emotional manipulation or other tactics to attempt to pressure an instructor into changing a student’s grade(s).
• Allow the student to use prohibited resources, calculators, AI, and Google, in order to complete work.
• Consistently rely on previously approved accommodations to justify the student submitting assignments after the specified deadlines or requesting unnecessary modifications to the course, even when deadlines have passed or accommodations have already been granted.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES. WE MAKE THE WTMA SITE AVAILABLE TO YOU “AS IS.” WTMA EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW ALL EXPRESS AND IMPLIED WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE WTMA SITE OR THE COURSES SOLD ON THE WTMA SITE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTIES ABOUT THE RESULTS YOUR CHILD MAY ACHIEVE IN ANY COURSE OR BY TAKING COURSES IN LIEU OF OTHER EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS. EVERY CHILD IS DIFFERENT, AND EDUCATIONAL COURSES AND APPROACHES THAT MAY WORK WELL FOR ONE CHILD MAY NOT WORK FOR ANOTHER CHILD, EVEN WITHIN THE SAME FAMILY. WE ALSO DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND RELATED TO THE RESULTS OF YOUR USE OF OR INTERACTION WITH THE WTMA SITE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTY THAT THE WTMA SITE WILL OPERATE CONTINUOUSLY OR ERROR-FREE ON YOUR OPERATING SYSTEM OR THAT CONTENT ON THE WTMA SITE WILL BE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE DISCLAIMER OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO SOME OF THE FOREGOING DISCLAIMERS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU INSOFAR AS THEY RELATE TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES. WTMA PROVIDES NO GUARANTEE OF UPTIME OR ACCESSIBILITY TO COURSES.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL WTMA OR ANY OF ITS OWNERS, SUBSIDIARIES OR AFFILIATES BE LIABLE FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES (EVEN IF WTMA OR SUCH SUBSIDIARY OR AFFILIATE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES) RESULTING FROM ANY ASPECT OF YOUR USE OF THE WTMA SITE, WHETHER THE DAMAGES ARISE FROM USE OR MISUSE OF THE WTMA SITE; YOUR INABILITY TO USE THE WTMA SITE; THE INTERRUPTION, SUSPENSION, MODIFICATION, ALTERATION, OR TERMINATION OF THE WTMA SITE; OR OUT OF ANY INFORMATION OR ADVICE RECEIVED THROUGH OR ADVERTISED IN CONNECTION WITH THE WTMA SITE OR ANY LINKS ON THE WTMA SITE. THESE LIMITATIONS SHALL APPLY TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. IN SOME JURISDICTIONS, LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY ARE NOT PERMITTED, SO SOME OF THE FOREGOING LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

INDEMNITY. You will indemnify and hold harmless WTMA, including its owners, its parent, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, and other partners and employees from any loss, liability, claim, demand, fees, and expenses, including reasonable attorney’s fees made by any third party (which means anyone other than you or WTMA) due to or arising out of your use of the WTMA Site, including, without limitation, any claim arising from your breach of these Terms of Use. This obligation will survive termination of this Agreement, which means that even after you stop using the WTMA Site and/or after your child stops taking Courses, you will still be bound.

CONSENT TO COLLECTION AND USE OF DATA. Our privacy policy, which you can read here (Privacy Policy), explains what personally identifying information is collected through the WTMA Site, how it is used, and who has access to it.

COPYRIGHT PROTECTION POLICY. If you believe that any content that you own has been posted on the WTMA Site without your permission, please provide our Copyright Agent (as denoted below) with the following information: an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest; a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed; a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the WTMA Site; your address, telephone number, and email address; a written statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf. Our Copyright Agent can be reached as follows: Susan Bauer, Well-Trained Mind Academy, 18001 The Glebe Lane, Charles City, VA, phone 844-986-9862, fax 804.829.5704, email [email protected].

GOVERNING LAW, JURISDICTION, AND TIME LIMIT ON CLAIMS. You agree that: (i) the WTMA Site is solely based in the Commonwealth of Virginia; and (ii) the WTMA Site is a passive Site that does not give rise to personal jurisdiction over WTMA, either specific or general, in jurisdictions other than the Commonwealth of Virginia. If you have any dispute with us, you will resolve the dispute under the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. You hereby submit to personal jurisdiction by and venue in the state and federal courts of Richmond, Virginia, or wherever WTMA deems appropriate jurisdiction in its sole discretion. Regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, you agree that any claim or cause of action arising out of or related to use of the WTMA Site or the Terms of Use must be filed within one (1) year after such claim or cause of action arose, or it will be forever barred.

MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS. We reserve the right, in our sole discretion: to refuse to process any order for Courses; reject any credit card or other form of payment; assist law enforcement in the prosecution of criminal liability or lawful investigation; and/or take whatever other actions we consider appropriate to address any action that we reasonably believe is or might be in violation of these Terms of Use.

ADDITIONAL TERMS. Our failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of the Terms of Use shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision. If a court of competent jurisdiction holds any provision of the Terms of Use invalid, the court should try to give effect to the parties’ intentions as reflected in the provision, and the other provisions of the Terms of Use will remain in full force and effect.

These Terms of Use were last updated on January 20, 2025.