Frequently asked questions

Choose "Place an order," create or log into your account, and enter your school code — a short code your school's yearbook team shares (on order links or flyers) that unlocks your school's yearbook options. Don't have one, or your school isn't partnered with us yet? Ask your yearbook team for the code, or refer your school and we'll reach out to them.

Three things: auto-built myClass or myGrade pages with 35–60 photos relevant to your child from their classroom and grade, your child's name and photo on the cover, and the option to add two custom pages of your own. The pages are generated automatically — no design work needed from you.

Their myClass or myGrade pages are built from the photos your school uploads — so the honest answer is: it depends on what gets photographed. The pages pull candids from your child's own class and grade, which means the photos are relevant to them whether or not they're in every frame.

If a child was rarely photographed during the year, no software can invent those pictures. That's why we push schools so hard on collecting broadly, and why parents sending in photos makes a real difference.

Have photos from a class event? Send them to your yearbook coordinator.

No. The traditional yearbook is your school's full shared book, and every copy has the same shared pages, so your child is in those pages exactly as they would be in a personalized copy. The personalization upgrade (+$10) adds a separate section of myClass or myGrade pages built from 35–60 photos of your child's class and grade, plus your child's name and photo on the cover and the option to add two custom pages. Choosing not to add it removes nothing from the shared book.

Custom pages attach to a personalized book order. Add them while you're ordering, or later from the My Orders page — sign in with the one-time code we email you. For each book you can either upload a ready-made PDF, or upload 2–20 photos and we'll lay them out into a collage for you (enter the student's name and grade first). You can replace your pages anytime before your school's book approval date. Everything is uploaded in the app: once your pages are saved you'll see an on-screen confirmation, and a preview in My Orders — those two are your proof the pages are in. We also send a confirmation email as a courtesy copy.

Print and delivery take about 3 weeks. Regular orders ship in bulk to your school's yearbook team, who handle distribution. Summer orders ship to the address you enter at checkout. Summer orders: if a book hasn't arrived within 3 weeks of ordering, reach out and we'll look into it. Regular-season orders are delivered to the school about 3 weeks after the book is approved.

Yearbooks are print only — there's no digital, PDF, or flipbook copy for families.

Once a book enters production it's printed and sealed, so changes aren't possible. Refunds for incorrect personalization, misprints, or damage are handled case by case — email support@rethinkyearbooks.com with your order number, or contact your school's yearbook team for urgent issues.

Email support@rethinkyearbooks.com. For urgent issues you can also reach your school's yearbook team directly.

Yes. Rethink Yearbooks is a yearbook company that designs in Canva: you design the base book in Canva using our free templates and toolkits, with nothing proprietary to install or learn. Your whole committee can collaborate in real time, and you can bring in any freelance Canva designer for extra help. Short on time? We'll build your first draft for free — then your team edits it in Canva. Why Canva →

No. There is no order minimum and no multi-year term: you sign a one-school-year agreement, with no deposit, and we print only the books families order. We want you to return the following year because you believe in our offering and liked working with us. Invoices are payable by card or check before books go to print. Pricing and agreement terms →

The latest AI tech, put to work for your team — assistants designed to make you more efficient across the yearbook cycle, like choosing the best photos, spotting which classrooms or events are underrepresented, and flagging which orders are missing a portrait photo. More helpers are on the way.

No. Every family who orders gets the same shared school book, at the price your school sets, and personalization adds pages rather than replacing any. Families who choose the +$10 upgrade also get myClass or myGrade pages built from their child's own class and grade, and their child's name and photo on the cover. No child loses space in the shared pages because of what their family ordered. What no book can do is include a child who was never photographed, so tracking photo coverage with class rosters matters more than which edition a family buys.

The book approval date is the main deadline — it guarantees print and delivery within 3 weeks of that date. Every other date (for example, the photo deadline) is a recommended milestone. If books don't reach print in time, on-time delivery before the last day of school can't be guaranteed.

It's optional and you choose when to start and end it. Summer ordering closes no later than 30 June. The same link and school code switch to summer ordering automatically. Summer orders are the book's base price plus $5 — the fundraiser margin no longer applies — and ship straight to the buyer's home for a flat shipping charge of $9. Any custom pages must be uploaded at the time the order is placed, and an order can be canceled for a refund any time before it is sent to print; after that it goes into production and is non-refundable.

Email us and we'll confirm whether we're already an approved vendor for your district. If we're not yet on the list, we're happy to start the approval process and become an authorized vendor for you.

Most professional school photographers — Lifetouch, Dorian, and others — provide student portraits in PSPA format for the yearbook, even if you don't use their yearbook service. We can read whatever format your photographer shares and automatically generate the portrait pages.

Photos are collected in Google Drive folders (you can use what we set up or create one in your Google Drive) — one folder per event. If you'd like to gather photos from parents, we can provide a "request-only" upload link so families can add photos without seeing anyone else's submissions.

We build your book's first draft from your ladder, your template choice, our standard layouts, and automatic photo selection — free, for every school. Want specific photos in an event? Put them in a "favs" folder inside that event's folder before the photo deadline and we'll use yours instead of ours.

Once the draft is ready, the book is yours. Edit anything, as often as you like, in Canva. We're here for "how do I do that in Canva?" questions the whole way — we just don't make the changes for you, and we don't build custom layouts. The version you approve for printing is your call.

What First Draft is — and what it isn't

Student photos are used only to build your school's yearbook — never to train AI models. They're stored securely on U.S.-based servers and deleted before the next school year starts, typically August 1, so coordinators should download any photos they want to keep by July 1. Final yearbook files are kept longer so schools and families can reorder or reprint copies in the future. Families never see each other's custom pages, and our request-only upload links let parents contribute photos without seeing anyone else's submissions.

No. We do not use facial recognition, face matching, or any other biometric identification on student photos — not to build the yearbook, and not for anything else. If you have seen a third-party description saying otherwise, it is incorrect.

Each child's myClass and myGrade pages are built from how your school organizes its photos — by class, grade, and event — not by scanning or identifying anyone's face. Student photos are also never used to train AI models, are stored on U.S.-based servers, and are deleted before the next school year starts, typically August 1.

Usually not. Because the agreement covers one school year with no deposit, and we can build your first draft from photos you've already collected, schools can start with us partway through the year. As long as your book reaches print in time, we can deliver before the last day of school — tell us your date and we'll work backward from it.

You set the family price above your cost and keep the difference (a 5% third-party payment processing fee applies to money paid out to the PTA, and none if you put it toward more books) — most schools add $2–5 per book, so a 300-book sale raises roughly $600–$1,500 for your PTA. There's no upfront cost and no unsold-inventory risk, since families order and pay online and we only print what's ordered.

Yes. Approve your book for print at least 3 weeks before you need it, and we guarantee delivery before your last day of school; if we miss that, we make it right by reprinting or refunding the affected books. Every book is printed in the USA.