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PALS is a secular homeschool program in Pittsburgh, PA offered by PALS Enrichment Programs (PEP). PEP is a non-profit run by a Board of volunteer PALS parents who handle the administrative tasks related to our organization.

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No. This is not a drop off program and we require that a parent/guardian be in the building for the entire class day.

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Your first step will be obtaining your required clearances. After you’ve done this, you should email our New Family Liaison with the number of children in your family, their ages, and copies of your clearances. Then you’ll be added to the waitlist! Families are added to the waitlist in the order that they submit all clearances. Families will be notified around the end of our current semester with information regarding their position and whether or not they will be allowed to register for the following semester.

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As a volunteer organization, each adult that attends needs to have 1. PA Child Abuse Clearance, 2. PA State Police Criminal Record Check, and  3. FBI Criminal Background Check or eligible affadavit.  

• If you have NOT lived in Pennsylvania for at least 10 years, you are required to provide us with an FBI Criminal Background Check. If you have already obtained a FBI Criminal Background check since the time that you moved to Pennsylvania, you may provide us with a copy of that.  If you have never obtained an FBI Criminal Background check, please use the link below for IdentGo Fingerprinting Applicant Registration, choose Digital Fingerprinting, and enter the code 1KG6ZJ for DHS Volunteer https://www.identogo.com/locations/pennsylvania.
• If you have lived in Pennsylvania for at least 10 years, you can submit an affidavit attesting to that fact (this can be a previously used one for organizaitons like Scouts or your school district). Signing this affidavit affirms that you have lived in PA for at least 10 years and have not been convicted of a felony or any crime that would preclude volunteering with children in the last 5 years.

Once you have received your clearances, email a pdf copy of each to secretary@palsenrichment.org. These will be kept confidential. Clearances are valid for 5 years. The PA clearances need to be renewed after 5 years; the FBI Criminal Background Check does not need to be renewed if you can submit a written affadavit that you have lived continuously in Pennsylvania since you obtained the previous FBI Clearance Check and have not been convicted of a felony or any crime that would preclude volunteering with children since the date of your last FBI Clearance Check. 

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PALS rents 12 classrooms and a gymnasium inside of a church, covering almost four floors of the building. Unfortunately, the building has very limited accessibility; there are only stairs to get from one floor to another. Anyone with mobility concerns, especially regarding stairs, would be limited in participating on only the main floor of the building (M). This floor has four elementary-age classrooms and a nursery. Accommodations can be made for parents who have limited mobility by registering them for jobs on that floor. Unfortunately, children with limited mobility may not have a lot of class availability, especially older children as all of those classes take place on other floors. Please contact our New Family Liaison with questions about accessibility.

Sensory Concerns: our class days can be loud, especially for classes on the main floor (M) which overlooks our gymnasium. If you or your children struggle with loud noises, we recommend attending with ear plugs or headphones or arranging your schedule to avoid these classrooms.

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We rely on everyone doing their jobs to keep our program running smoothly. While we understand that everyone has planned vacations and will inevitably experience a spontaneous illness or emergency, chronic absences put a lot of work on the remaining families at PALS that also have their own responsibilities during the day. Classes can also be negatively affected when absences become routine. 

If you are unable to commit to attending more than half of our class days during a semester, we ask that you take a break and come back when life will allow you to attend our classes regularly.

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Children must be between 4-18 on the first day of classes (See Calendar).

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Yes! Our program is 100% run and supported by our parents! Parent jobs include teacher, assistant, Board member, substitute, field trip coordinator, and advisors. All families are also required to sign up for one community task (see below). You can see our job grid here for a list of jobs for the upcoming semester. If you have circumstances that will limit your ability to do jobs (such as a health condition or attending with children 3 and under), early communication with the Job Coordinator can ensure you get jobs that will work for you. 

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Community tasks are our set up and clean up tasks that cover four areas: setting up the building in the morning, setting up the lunchroom, cleaning up the lunch room, and cleaning the building at the end of our day. Since we all use the building, we are all responsible for taking care of it. Accommodations can be discussed with our Job Coordinator. 

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All families pay a Community Share Fee of $135 per semester as well as individual class fees. Class fees typically range from $0-15 per class but more material intensive classes may cost more. Parents are also required to register for jobs to complete their registration.

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Yes! Families can apply for a full or partial scholarship to cover their Community Share Fee. These are granted in the order they are requested when funds are available. Class fees are not included in the scholarship at this time. Please contact the Treasurer to apply.

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PALS offers enrichment classes intended to supplement your homeschool. Our classes cover subjects like gym, art, music, science, and more. A list of previously offered classes can be found here.

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Any adult is eligible to teach during their second semester at PALS. At the end of your first semester, you will be able to submit class proposals for the following semester. Children will vote for classes and then a committee of parents will work to create the Class Grid.

Our teachers make our program possible! Since we are a parent-run organization, we rely on parents to organize classes to offer to the rest of our community. Teaching also counts as a job and teachers get priority registration (See Calendar).