# Rethink Yearbooks — full site text > Every published page of www.rethinkyearbooks.com as plain markdown, for answer > engines and any other reader that wants the prose without the page. The short > version, with answer-ready facts and comparisons, is at https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/llms.txt. - **generated from**: https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/sitemap.xml - **pages**: 21 ============================================================================== # Personalized Elementary School Yearbooks | Rethink Yearbooks - **url**: https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/ - **description**: Personalized elementary school yearbooks: 35–60 candids from each child's own class and grade, name on the cover, free first draft, printed in the USA. - **updated**: 2026-09-08 --- Personalized elementary school yearbooks # Every child shows up — not just twice. Most yearbooks show each kid in one or two photos. We automatically add extra pages in their book with 35–60 candids of their real class, grade, and friends — their whole year, not just picture day. For schools ### I run our yearbook program Get a quote, see a sample book, and let us draft your first book for free. Get a quote → — [Set up →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/set-up-school) or [book a 30-min walkthrough](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/meetingwithrethinkyearbooks) For families ### I'm ordering for my child Buy the traditional or personalized yearbook — and add optional custom pages. Place an order → New here? What's a school code? ★ myClass · Grade 3 Science lab Field trips Music Sports day Student council Walkathon Halloween Reading & writing Assembly Crafts myClass or myGrade · **35–60** candids relevant to them For schools & coordinators ## Built for the people who run the yearbook. Every other yearbook company hands a volunteer a design tool and says good luck. **We do the work instead:** send us a Google Drive folder, get back a finished first draft — free. You improve it further using the bunch of AI helpers we provide, fact-check and approve. Built for the coordinator who got voluntold. ### Canva-first design Design the whole book in Canva — the tool you already know. Free 50–80 page yearbook templates, real-time committee collaboration, and a Canva library with fresh designs constantly added by thousands of freelance designers. No software to learn ### Free first draft Short on time? Just share your Google Drive folder and we'll build your first draft for free — then your team edits it in Canva. **No other yearbook company does this.** You focus on collecting photos and fact-checking. [See how the free first draft works →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/first-draft) Free first draft ### Relevant content, automatically Not customization — automatic personalization. Each child's myClass and myGrade pages build themselves from the photos you've already collected: 35–60 of their own class and grade, no parent effort. Schools feel it in sales — one went from about a third of families buying to 65–70%. Families notice. Sales follow. ## Built on everything that works. Improved everywhere it matters. - **3 weeks** — Print & delivery turnaround - **No contracts** — No binding commitments, no deposits - **Yours** — Built-in fundraising margins - **Dashboard** — Live orders & tracking, toolkits, templates, notifications, etc. - **Online** — Families order & pay online - **Support** — Knowledge base, chat agent and email support for all order and personalization related queries - **Late photos** — Add photos all the way to book seal date - **On-time guarantee** — Delivered before your last day of school if approved for printing 3 weeks before that, or we make it right - **Made in the USA** — Every book printed in the United States - **AI helpers** — Best-photo picks, under-photographed-class report & missing-portrait flags, live in your dashboard Front covers, too — start from a template, or feature a student's winning artwork at no extra cost. **No big switch to sell your committee on.** You still run the traditional yearbook you already know — personalization is an optional **+$10 upgrade** families add, and most do. They want more than a portrait: **35–60 photos of their child** with the friends and classmates they spend the year with — school moments they never got to see. Get a quote The problem we fix ## Two photos isn't a year of memories. A common yearbook goal is to ensure every child appears in the portrait pages and at least one candid photo. But with only **300–400 candid photo spots** available in a typical 60–80 page yearbook—and the challenge of manually tracking hundreds of students—it's nearly impossible to do inclusively without making photos too small to enjoy. Rethink solves this by automatically creating personalized myClass and myGrade pages with **35–60 photos** of each child's classmates, teachers, and memories, all at a size that's actually worth viewing. [See the full math →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/the-yearbook-photo-gap) ~5,000 photos a school collects each year ~450 candid photo slots in a typical 80-page book — shared across **every** student 1–2 photos of the average child that make it – **even that is out of reach by hand** 35–60 photos of their own class or grade, shown **automatically** For families ## Three ways your child gets seen. For $10 over the base book, the upgrade builds two things automatically — 35–60 myClass or myGrade photos and your child's name and photo on the cover — and unlocks 2 optional custom pages you can fill yourself, or skip. Good to know Two different things, often mixed up: Personalization is automatic — we build your child's class, grade, and cover pages for you. Custom pages come with that same upgrade — 2 optional pages you fill with your own photos from home, or skip. The personalization happens automatically; the custom pages are yours to add only if you want to. Photo & name on the cover Your child's name and photo on the cover — front or back, chosen by your school's yearbook team. Their book, with their name on it. Automatic myClass or myGrade pages AI-built pages with 35–60 photos of their own class & grade — field trips, in-class activities, recess, and the friends they spend the year with. Automatic Custom pages The optional extra, separate from the automatic personalization — two pages you fill with your own photos from home, designed in Canva or uploaded. Optional Love this and want it at your child's school? Email [admin@rethinkyearbooks.com](mailto:admin@rethinkyearbooks.com?subject=Bring%20Rethink%20Yearbooks%20to%20my%20school) with your school's name (and coordinator, if you know them) — we'll reach out to your yearbook team and send you a thank-you offer. How it works ## Four steps. Most of it runs itself. You collect the photos and design in Canva. The personalization happens automatically — no extra layout work from the school or families. STEP 01 ### Collect & upload Gather photos from families, teachers, and volunteers in a shared Google Drive folder — one per event, grade, and class. Free cloud storage STEP 02 ### Design in Canva Build the base book in Canva from our free templates — or let us create the first draft for you. Free first draft STEP 03 ### AI personalizes For families who upgrade, myClass and myGrade pages assemble themselves from the photos you've already collected. Runs automatically STEP 04 ### Print & deliver Orders run through your school's online store that we provide. We print in the USA and deliver in about 3 weeks. Keep ordering open into summer. Free shipping to school Student privacy ## Student photos, handled with care. The question every yearbook team wants to know — answered plainly. - **No facial recognition.** We do not use facial recognition, face matching, or any other biometric identification on student photos. Pages are built from how your school organizes its photos — by class, grade, and event — not by identifying faces. - **Never used to train AI.** Photos are used only to build your school's yearbook. - **Stored in the U.S.** All data is kept on secure U.S.-based servers and deleted before the next school year starts, typically August 1. Final yearbook files are retained longer so schools and families can reorder or reprint copies in the future. - **Kept between families.** Families never see each other's custom pages. - **Private uploads.** Request-only links let parents contribute photos for the school yearbook without seeing anyone else's. ✦ Canva-first design ## If you can drag and drop, you can design a yearbook. No clunky proprietary software. You design in Canva — millions of people already do — and we handle the personalization and printing. 1 #### Intuitive from minute one Start from our free Canva templates and toolkits. Drag, drop, done — no training, no manuals. 2 #### Integrated portrait builder Student portraits import directly from your photographer's PSPA files — names, grades, and homerooms read automatically — and the class portrait pages build themselves at print quality. 3 #### Thousands of designers, on tap Because it's Canva, you're never locked in. Hand the template to any of thousands of freelance Canva designers, or your most creative parent volunteer. 4 #### Built to collaborate Your whole committee designs the same book together — real-time edits, comments, and approvals in one place. Request a sample First Draft ## Share your Google Drive folder. We draft the book. Short on time? Our designers build your first draft from the Google Drive folder and the requirements you share with us up front — then you review, fact-check and improve it further and approve it for print. It's a hands-off service **no other yearbook company offers**. [What First Draft includes — and what it doesn't →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/first-draft) ### Which means you won't have to: - Sub-select, upload and drag-drop hundreds of photos - Learn new design software - Understand layouts, backgrounds, stickers, and fonts - Wrestle with print specs like bleed, gutter, and margins How we compare ## Big-company features, without the big-company baggage. We're the only school yearbook that automatically personalizes each child's class and grade pages — here's how the rest compare. | | Rethink | Treering | Lifetouch | Jostens / Herff Jones / Balfour | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Automatic class/grade personalization | 35–60 more relevant photos | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | | Per-student cover (name + photo) | Included | ✕ | +$5 name / +$7 photo | Name only, paid | | We draft your first book for you | Free | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | | Canva-first (no proprietary software) | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | | Family custom pages | 2 free with upgrade | 2 free | ✕ | ✕ | | No multi-year contract | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | | Families order online | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Comparison based on publicly listed competitor offerings, current as of July 2026. Vendors change their plans — details may vary. [See the full Rethink Yearbooks vs. Treering comparison →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/vs-treering) Pricing ## Clear for families. Custom for schools. Schools set the base book price; we keep the upgrades simple and flat. No contracts, no deposits. For schools ### What's included in your quote Softcover books — from $20 Free Canva templates + toolkits — $0 Free first-draft design — $0 Online store + dashboard — $0 Bulk shipping to school — $0 Set the family price — build in fundraising — Yours Get a quote Books start around $20/copy, priced by page count, with no order minimum — you set the family price. No deposits, no binding contracts. Invoices payable by card or check before print. For families ### What you'll pay Traditional yearbook — Set by school Personalization upgrade **BEST VALUE** — +$10 Hardcover upgrade — +$9 Summer book price — +$5 Summer ship-to-home — ~$8–9 Place an order Order and pay online by card. Summer orders cost $5 more, ship to your home for a flat ~$8–9 (one rate covers multiple books in the same order), don't include fundraising, and need any custom pages uploaded when you place the order. Built-in fundraising Turn your yearbook into a fundraiser: set the family price above your cost and keep the difference (minus a 5% third-party payment processing fee) — most schools add **$2–5 per book**. On 300 books that's **$600–$1,500** for your PTA, with zero upfront cost and no unsold-inventory risk (families order and pay online). [See how yearbook fundraising works →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/fundraising) Results, in their words ## What changes when every child is in the book. “ Students and teachers were thrilled to see so many photos of their own class. We went from about a third of families buying a yearbook to almost 65–70% this year — our first year back from the pandemic. — Mitchell T., Teacher & Yearbook Coordinator, Santa Clara, CA “ Traditionally the designing falls on teachers and parent-volunteers. With Rethink, all we did was collect class photos and advertise sales — the books came back beautiful and personalized, so kids see themselves and their classmates far more often. — Adrienne K., Teacher & Yearbook Coordinator, Vargas Elementary, Sunnyvale, CA “ This is incredible — like magic. Rethink made sure every kid is included, when we used to have hundreds of leftover photos we struggled to fit into the book. — Mrs. Smith, Principal “ Most vendors just hand you software. Rethink built the book for us, curated our photos, and felt like my co-editor. The majority of our families upgraded to the class-personalized version and loved seeing their child on the back cover. — Vivian C., Parent & Yearbook Coordinator, Dilworth Elementary, Cupertino, CA “ I'd normally skip the yearbook since it hardly has any photos of my child — the first one I've actually wanted to buy. So many photos of him and his friends. I love it! — Brooke H., Parent “ I've never had a yearbook this personalized for any of my kids. My son loved seeing not just himself but his whole classroom. Wish every school did this. — Erica J., Parent Questions, answered ## The things people ask us most. **How do I order, and what's a "school code"?** 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. **What does the personalization upgrade actually add?** Three things: auto-built myClass and 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. **How do I add custom pages?** 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 print deadline — there's no email step, everything is uploaded in the app, and you'll see an on-screen confirmation with a preview link once it's saved. **When will my yearbook arrive?** 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. If a book hasn't arrived within 3 weeks of ordering, reach out and we'll look into it. **Is there a digital or PDF version?** Yearbooks are print only — there's no digital, PDF, or flipbook copy for families. **Can I get a refund or make a change after ordering?** 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. **How do I get help?** Email support@rethinkyearbooks.com. For urgent issues you can also reach your school's yearbook team directly. **What software do we design in?** Canva. You design the base book in Canva using our free templates and toolkits — 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. **Are we locked into a contract?** No. There are no binding multi-year contracts and no deposits. 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. **What are the AI helpers?** 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. **What are the deadlines?** The book approve date is the main deadline — it guarantees print and delivery within 3 weeks of that date. Every other date (for example, the photo seal date) 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. **How does summer ordering work?** It's optional and you choose when to start and end it. The same link and school code switch to summer ordering automatically. Books are priced $5 higher to cover fulfillment costs, ship straight to the buyer's home for a shipping charge of about $8–9, and no fundraising margin is collected on summer orders. 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. **Are you an approved vendor for our district?** 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. **How do you get portrait photos from our school photographer?** 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. **How do we get photos to you?** 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. **What's included in the free first draft?** 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 seal date 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](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/first-draft) **How do you protect student photos?** 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. 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. **Do you use facial recognition on student photos?** **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. **It's mid-year — is it too late to switch to you?** Usually not. Because there are no contracts or deposits, 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. **How does yearbook fundraising work?** You set the family price above your cost and keep the difference (minus a 5% third-party payment processing fee) — 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. **Do you guarantee on-time delivery?** Yes. As long as your book reaches print by the agreed cutoff — about 3 weeks before you need it — we guarantee delivery before your last day of school, or we make it right. Every book is printed in the USA. **Is there an order minimum?** No. We print the quantity your families order, whatever that number is, and because families order and pay online there's no risk of unsold inventory above that. Make every child seen ## Switch your yearbook in one conversation. No contract. No deposit. Free first draft. Printed in the USA and delivered on time — guaranteed. Get a quote — [Book a 30-min walkthrough](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/meetingwithrethinkyearbooks) New · Your first book is free ## The school year is one chapter. What about the rest of it? Most of us documented the first few years of our first child's life and then got busy. LifeChapters turns a year of the photos already in your library into a book about one child — twelve months, twelve chapters, in the order it happened. From the team behind Rethink Yearbooks. [Join the waitlist](https://www.lifechapters.ai/?utm_source=rethink&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ry_homepage) One free digital book per account · No card · Printing optional ============================================================================== # Elementary School Yearbooks That Include Every Kid - **url**: https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/elementary - **description**: An elementary school yearbook where every child gets pages of their own — 35–60 candids from their real class and grade. From $20, free first-draft design. - **updated**: 2026-09-08 --- Elementary school yearbooks # Elementary yearbooks where every child shows up. Rethink builds each child's own class and grade pages automatically — 35–60 candid photos from their real class and grade — so every child gets pages of their own. Designed in Canva, printed in the USA, delivered in about 3 weeks. No contracts. Get a quote + a sample → — [Book a 30-min walkthrough](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/meetingwithrethinkyearbooks) ### What makes a Rethink elementary yearbook different Most elementary yearbooks show each child in just one or two photos, and “personalized” usually means a couple of blank pages a parent has to fill in. Rethink is the only elementary yearbook that **automatically** builds every child's myClass and myGrade pages — 35–60 candid photos of that child's own class, grade, and friends — plus their name on the cover. No manual effort, and every child gets pages of their own. (We can only use the photos your school collects, so the more everyone shares, the more of every child appears.) The essentials ## Everything an elementary coordinator asks. Price From $20softcover, per copy — you set the family price Turnaround 3 weekson-time delivery guaranteed Design In Canvafree templates, or we draft it free Fundraising $2–5 / bookbuilt-in margin for your PTA Minimum Nonewe print what families order Printed In the USAno contracts, no deposits Ordering Onlinefamilies order & pay; no unsold stock Privacy Protectednever used to train AI; US-stored How it works ## Four steps. Most of it runs itself. STEP 01 ### Collect & upload Gather photos from families, teachers, and volunteers in a shared Google Drive folder. STEP 02 ### Design in Canva Build the base book from our free templates — or let us create the first draft for free. STEP 03 ### AI personalizes For families who upgrade, each child's class and grade pages assemble automatically. STEP 04 ### Print & deliver We print in the USA and deliver in about 3 weeks — on time, guaranteed. Elementary yearbook questions ## Answers for coordinators & PTAs. **Which yearbook company includes every kid automatically?** Rethink Yearbooks. It auto-builds each child's class and grade pages — 35 to 60 candids from their own classroom and grade — so every child gets pages of their own without any parent effort. **How much does an elementary school yearbook cost?** Softcover books start around $20 per copy and are priced by page count. Your school sets the family price and can add $2 to $5 per book for fundraising. The automatic personalization upgrade is +$10 over the base book. **Is there an order minimum?** No. We print the quantity your families order, whatever that number is, and because families pay online there is no risk of unsold inventory above that. **Do you guarantee delivery before the last day of school?** Yes. As long as the book reaches print by the agreed cutoff, about three weeks out, on-time delivery is guaranteed or we make it right. Every book is printed in the USA. **How is this different from Treering?** Treering gives each student two blank custom pages a parent must fill in; Rethink builds every child's class and grade pages automatically. [See the full comparison →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/vs-treering) Trusted by elementary schools across California and Texas since 2020 “We went from about a third of families buying a yearbook to almost 65–70% this year.” — Mitchell T., Teacher & Yearbook Coordinator, Santa Clara, CA Make every child seen ## Bring Rethink to your elementary school. No contract. No deposit. Free first draft. Printed in the USA and delivered on time — guaranteed. Get a quote — [Book a 30-min walkthrough](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/meetingwithrethinkyearbooks) ============================================================================== # Rethink Yearbooks vs. Treering — Elementary Yearbooks - **url**: https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/vs-treering - **description**: Treering gives each student two blank custom pages a parent must fill in. Rethink builds every child's class and grade pages automatically — 35–60 photos. - **updated**: 2026-09-08 --- Comparison # Rethink Yearbooks vs. Treering Both are modern, online, contract-free yearbook services. The core difference for an elementary school: **who fills the personalized pages**. With Treering, a parent has to. With Rethink, it happens automatically for every child. Get a quote + a sample → ### The one difference that matters most Treering doesn't build per-child class and grade pages at all — what it calls "personalization" is really **customization**: two blank custom pages each family logs in to fill themselves (extra pages cost more). If a family does nothing, nothing personalized prints — and at an elementary school, that's most families. Rethink **automatically** builds every child's own **myClass and myGrade pages** — 35–60 candids from their own class and grade — so every child gets pages of their own with zero parent effort. Custom pages? The upgrade includes 2 optional ones you fill yourself — a separate feature from the automatic personalization. Feature by feature ## Rethink Yearbooks vs. Treering, side by side. | | Rethink | Treering | | --- | --- | --- | | Automatic myClass / myGrade pages (per-child class & grade) | 35–60 photos, automatic | Not offered | | Every child gets pages of their own, no parent login | Yes | ✗ | | Per-student cover (name + photo) | Included | ✗ | | Family custom pages | 2 with upgrade | 2 free (more cost extra) | | [We draft your first book for you](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/first-draft) | Free | ✗ | | Design tool | Canva — no proprietary software | Own online software | | Order minimum | None | None | | Multi-year contract | None | None | | Built-in fundraising | $2–5/book, you set price | Yes | | Printed in the USA | Yes | Yes | | Turnaround | ~3 weeks, on-time guarantee | ~3 weeks | | Online quote in 1 business day, no sales call | Yes | Yes | Comparison based on publicly listed Treering offerings, current as of July 2026. Vendors change their plans — please verify current details. [Signs it’s time to switch →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/switch-yearbook-company) · [vs. Jostens](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/vs-jostens) · [vs. Lifetouch](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/vs-lifetouch) Being straight with you ## When Treering might fit better. If your school is very small and can't reach a 100-book run, Treering's no-minimum print-on-demand may suit you better. And if what you want is a parent-driven scrapbook where each family builds their own child's pages by hand, that's exactly Treering's model. Rethink is built for the opposite: schools that want **every** child personalized automatically, without relying on parents to log in. Common questions ## Switching from Treering. **What is the best Treering alternative for elementary schools?** Rethink Yearbooks, if you want every child personalized automatically. Treering relies on parents to fill blank custom pages; Rethink builds each child's class and grade pages for them. **Can we switch to Rethink mid-year?** Usually yes. There are no contracts or deposits, and we can build your first draft from photos you have already collected. As long as the book reaches print in time, we guarantee delivery before your last day of school. **Is Rethink more expensive than Treering?** Rethink softcover books start around $20 and you set the family price, adding $2 to $5 for fundraising. Both let families order and pay online, so neither leaves you with unsold inventory. Trusted by elementary schools across California and Texas since 2020 “We went from about a third of families buying a yearbook to almost 65–70% this year.” — Mitchell T., Teacher & Yearbook Coordinator, Santa Clara, CA Relevant content, automatically ## See a Rethink sample next to your Treering book. Get a quote + a sample — [Book a walkthrough](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/meetingwithrethinkyearbooks) ============================================================================== # How to Make an Elementary School Yearbook in 4 Steps - **url**: https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/how-it-works - **description**: Make a personalized elementary yearbook in 4 steps: collect photos in Google Drive, design in Canva or get a free first draft, print in the USA in 3 weeks. - **updated**: 2026-09-03 --- How it works # Four steps. Most of it runs itself. You collect the photos and (optionally) design in Canva. Personalization happens automatically, and our team can even draft the whole book for you — free. Printed in the USA, delivered in about 3 weeks. [Get a quote + a sample →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/#quote) STEP 01 ### Collect and upload photos Gather photos from families, teachers, and volunteers in a shared Google Drive folder — one per event, grade, and class. We can provide request-only upload links so parents contribute without seeing each other's photos. STEP 02 ### Design in Canva (or let us draft it free) Build the base book in Canva from our free templates — or share your Drive folder and our design team builds your complete first draft for free. No other yearbook company does this. [How the free first-draft design service works →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/first-draft) STEP 03 ### AI personalizes each child For families who upgrade, each child's myClass and myGrade pages assemble automatically — 35–60 photos of their own class and grade, no manual layout and no parent effort. STEP 04 ### Print and deliver, on time Orders run through your school's online store. We print in the USA and deliver in about three weeks; on-time delivery before your last day of school is guaranteed when the book reaches print by the cutoff, or we make it right. Who does what ## You fact-check. We do the busywork. ### What Rethink handles so you don't have to: - Building each child's personalized class & grade pages - Drafting your first book from your Drive folder (free) - Print specs — bleed, gutter, margins, portrait pages - Your online store, orders, tracking, and bulk shipping to school Questions ## How it works, answered. **How long does it take to make a yearbook with Rethink?** Print and delivery take about three weeks. Photos can be added all the way to the book seal date, and on-time delivery before your last day of school is guaranteed when the book reaches print by the cutoff, or we make it right. **Do we have to design the yearbook ourselves?** No. You can design in Canva from free templates, or share your Google Drive folder and Rethink's design team builds your complete first draft for free — you just review and approve it. [More for elementary schools →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/elementary) **What do families have to do?** Families order online and choose between a traditional yearbook or a personalized edition. Personalized books automatically include each child's own myClass and/or myGrade pages, featuring photos of their classmates and grade-level memories. Families can optionally upload two custom pages with their own photos and messages from home using our free Canva template. Make every child seen ## See how simple your yearbook can be. Get a per-book quote and a sample — no contract, no deposit, free first draft. [Get a quote + a sample](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/#quote) — [Book a 30-min walkthrough](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/meetingwithrethinkyearbooks) ============================================================================== # Yearbook Fundraising for Elementary Schools & PTAs - **url**: https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/fundraising - **description**: Turn your yearbook into a PTA fundraiser: set the family price above cost and keep the difference (minus a 5% third-party payment processing fee). Most schools add $2–5 a book — $600–$1,500 on 300 books. - **updated**: 2026-09-03 --- Yearbook fundraising # Turn your yearbook into a fundraiser. Set the family price above your cost and keep the difference (minus a 5% third-party payment processing fee). Most schools add **$2–5 per book** — on 300 books that's **$600–$1,500** for your PTA, with zero upfront cost and no unsold-inventory risk. [Get a quote + a sample →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/#quote) The math ## What your school keeps. | Margin you add | 200 books | 300 books | 400 books | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | +$2 / book | $400 | $600 | $800 | | +$3 / book | $600 | $900 | $1,200 | | +$5 / book | $1,000 | $1,500 | $2,000 | You can apply this fully towards any books you purchase, or cash out minus a 5% payment-processing fee. Why it's low-risk ## No deposits. No unsold books. ### How it stays risk-free for your school: - Families order and pay online — you never front the money - Only ordered books are printed — no leftover inventory - No contracts, no deposits — invoices payable before print - You set the price — the margin above cost is yours to keep Questions ## Yearbook fundraising, answered. **How does yearbook fundraising work?** You set the family price above your cost and keep the difference (minus a 5% third-party payment processing fee). Most schools add **$2 to $5 per book**, so a 300-book sale raises roughly **$600 to $1,500** for the PTA — with no upfront cost and no unsold-inventory risk, because families order and pay online and only ordered books are printed. Fundraising margins apply to regular-cycle orders only — not summer ship-to-home orders. **Is there any upfront cost or risk?** No. There are no contracts or deposits, families pay online at checkout, and only ordered books are printed — so your school is never left holding unsold inventory. **How much can our PTA raise on the yearbook?** It depends on your margin and volume. At $3 per book on 300 books you raise about $900; at $5 per book on 400 books, about $2,000. You choose the family price; Rethink prints only what's ordered. **Do you charge transaction or platform fees to the school?** Schools set the family price and keep the margin above the book cost. Invoices are payable by card or check before print; there are no binding contracts or deposits. Fund your school ## Price your book and fund your PTA. No contract. No deposit. Free first draft. You set the price and keep the margin. [Get a quote + a sample](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/#quote) — [Book a 30-min walkthrough](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/meetingwithrethinkyearbooks) ============================================================================== # Yearbook Photo Gap: How Much of the Book Is Your Child's? - **url**: https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/the-yearbook-photo-gap - **description**: In a traditional yearbook the average child appears in 1–2 photos. Rethink gives each child 35–60 candids from their own class and grade — their real year. - **updated**: 2026-09-03 --- The photo gap # How much of the yearbook is actually your child’s year? In a traditional school yearbook, the average child appears in just **1–2 photos** — and the other seventy-odd pages are somebody else’s year. A Rethink yearbook builds every child **pages of their own**: 35–60 candids from their real class and grade, filled with the people they actually spent the year with. [Get a quote + a sample →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/#quote) Side by side ## Traditional yearbook vs. Rethink. | | Rethink | Traditional yearbook | | --- | --- | --- | | Photos from the child’s own class & grade | 35–60 | a handful | | What's shown of each kid | Their class, grade, field trips, activities & friends | A portrait, maybe a class shot | | Every child gets their own pages | Yes — automatically | No — one shared book; quieter kids often left out | | Photos the school collects that get used | Hundreds more per class | A small fraction | | Extra work for parents | None | — | Counts reflect Rethink's myClass/myGrade personalization — 35–60 candids drawn from each child's own class and grade — versus a typical printed elementary yearbook. Traditional books print a school-wide cross-section, so any individual child appears only a handful of times. How often a particular child appears in their own pages depends on how often they were photographed. Do the math ## The industry's own goal is 3 photos per kid. Most books can't hit it. Yearbook advisers are taught a simple coverage rule: **every student should appear at least three times**. It's a widely-cited best practice — and at a real elementary school, it's nearly impossible. Take a 900-student school with an 80-page book. Even if half of it (40 pages) is candid photos at ~10–12 per page, that's roughly **400–480 candid slots for 900 children** — and a good book spreads them to stay inclusive. The average child lands **well under one candid photo**, on top of a single portrait. Even the 3× goal is out of reach. Rethink's myClass and myGrade pages add **35–60 candids from that child's own class and grade** — because we build each child's book from the same pile of photos, instead of squeezing every student into one shared book. The 3× rule is impossible in a shared book for one reason: there is a fixed number of slots and a whole school competing for them. When every child has pages of their own, that ceiling disappears. Why incumbents can't match it ## The big companies print one book for the whole school. Traditional yearbook companies are built on printing thousands of **identical** books at scale — that's their entire cost structure. Personalizing each child's pages would mean a **different book for every student**, which their print model isn't set up to do. Rethink prints digitally, so every child's book can be their own — at no extra cost to the school. It's not a feature they're slow to add; it's one their economics are built to avoid. Questions ## The photo gap, answered. **How many photos of each child are in a typical school yearbook?** In a traditional school yearbook, most children appear in only **one or two photos** — usually a portrait plus, at most, one class group shot. Traditional books aim for a cross-section of the whole school, so any individual child shows up rarely. **How many photos are on my child's own pages?** Each child's myClass and myGrade pages carry **35 to 60** candids drawn from their own class and grade — field trips, in-class activities, events, and everyday moments. How many of those a particular child is personally in depends on how often they were photographed; the pages are built from the photos the school collects. **Why do most kids barely appear in their yearbook?** Schools collect thousands of photos each year, but a traditional yearbook only has room to print a small cross-section — so hundreds of photos of each child go unused, and quieter kids are often left out. **How does Rethink include more photos of every child?** Rethink automatically builds each child's own myClass and myGrade pages from the photos the school already collected, so every student's book is filled with photos of their real class and grade — with no extra work for parents or the yearbook team. [See how it works for elementary schools →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/elementary) Every child, seen ## Give every child a book about their own year. See a sample book with one child's real class and grade pages — no contract, no deposit, free first draft. [Get a quote + a sample](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/#quote) — [Book a 30-min walkthrough](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/meetingwithrethinkyearbooks) ============================================================================== # What First Draft is — and what it isn't | Rethink Yearbooks - **url**: https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/first-draft - **description**: Our complimentary First Draft service builds your yearbook's first draft free — what it covers, what it doesn't, and the two dates that matter. - **updated**: 2026-09-03 --- Rethink Yearbooks · Service overview # What First Draft is — *and what it isn't* A complete, printable first draft of your yearbook, built for free, so your team can spend its hours on the one thing no algorithm can do. Previously called “done-for-you.” Every yearbook coordinator we've ever met is short on the same thing: time. Two jobs compete for it — collecting the photos, and designing the book. Only the first one truly requires you. First Draft takes the second as far as it can go without you. Here's the deal. We take your ladder and your template choice and we build you a complete first draft of your book — for free — so that the hours you would have spent dragging photos into boxes go somewhere better. Namely: chasing down the parent who has the entire field trip on their phone. Reminding the third-grade team that nobody photographed the science fair. Getting more and better photos into the drive. That's the whole point. The draft is not the finish line. It's the head start. What it is - **Complimentary** No add-on, no tier, no upsell. Every school gets the option to choose it. - **Built from what you give us** Your ladder sets what pages exist and in what order. Your template choice sets the look. From there we apply standard layouts and let our algorithm pull the strongest photos for each event. - **Yours to override** Drop a folder named `favs` inside any event folder and we'll use those photos instead of ours — for one event, for a dozen, for all of them. Must happen before the photo seal date. - **Shaped by your preferences** After the photo seal date we're available to meet with you and capture what a template can't tell us: how many photos you like on a page, whether you have a font preference, anything else that shapes the feel of the book. - **Backed by Canva support** Once the draft is in your hands we're still here for “how do I do that?” — swapping a photo, moving a text box, adding a page. Ask us anytime. What it is not - **Not a custom design service** First Draft uses standard layouts. That constraint is exactly what lets us offer it to every school at no cost. → Prefer to DIY? Build it yourself in Canva, starting from one of our templates or any of Canva's thousands. - **Not unlimited revisions by us** You get unlimited revisions. You just make them. → Change anything, as often as you like, in Canva after the draft lands. - **Not a guarantee we picked the right photos** Our algorithm picks for quality, variety and coverage — sharp, well lit, spread across the class. What it can't pick for is meaning. It doesn't know the science fair was the year's big deal, or that the shot families will hunt for is the retiring teacher's last day. → Two levers, both before the seal date. `favs` sets which photos we use. Your ladder sets how much room an event gets. - **Not our sign-off on your book** The book you approve for printing is your book. We can't be the last set of eyes on your school's yearbook, because we don't know which kid is missing or which name is misspelled. You do. → First Draft gives you something to review. It doesn't move the reviewing onto us. ## The two dates that matter Two gates shape your calendar: the **photo seal date**, and the day you **approve for print**. Almost every question we get comes down to which side of one of them you're standing on. ### Before This is your window to collect photos. Upload photos. Build `favs` folders for any event where you want specific shots. Get your ladder settled. Anything you want the draft to reflect has to be in place now. Photo seal date ### After The book is drafted and handed to you. We build the draft, and then you take over. Edit freely in Canva. Bring us your how-to questions. Approve it for print when it's right. ### Before Make as many changes as you like. Change photos, pages, or layouts in your Canva project. There is no limit and no deadline other than this one. Approve for print ### After The book is queued for printing. Personalized pages and covers are generated, and your dashboard shows the ETA — delivery within three weeks. ## Why the name change When it was called done-for-you, the name promised more than we could sustainably deliver. Some schools reasonably heard “unlimited revisions and any customization you want,” and that version of the service doesn't scale to a free offering. Renaming it to First Draft is us being accurate. It is a first draft: a real, complete, printable book that saves your team days of work, handed to you at the point where your judgment starts mattering more than our automation. So take the head start. Then go get more photos — that's the part only you can do. Questions about First Draft? [support@rethinkyearbooks.com](mailto:support@rethinkyearbooks.com) ============================================================================== # Best Yearbook Companies for Elementary Schools (2026) - **url**: https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/best-elementary-yearbook-companies - **description**: Jostens, Lifetouch, Treering, Shutterfly, Herff Jones and Rethink compared for elementary schools: contracts, minimums, software, and who designs the book. - **updated**: 2026-09-03 --- Comparison hub · 2026 # The best yearbook companies for elementary schools Most “best yearbook company” lists are written for high schools with a yearbook class and a budget. This one is written for an elementary PTA volunteer who has a few evenings a week and a last day of school to beat. We make one of these products, so read the tables and check the claims — we have tried to be straight about where the other six are genuinely better. [Get a quote + a sample →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/#quote) ## The short version Six dimensions decide this for an elementary school: whether you have to sign something, whether there is a minimum, what software your volunteers have to learn, whether each child gets anything of their own, who actually does the design work, and how much margin the book leaves for the PTA. Everything else is cover finishes. Table 1 ## What you are committing to. Contracts, minimums, published pricing and fundraising margin — the questions to answer before anyone touches a page. | Company | Contract or deposit | Minimum order | Pricing published online | Fundraising margin | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rethink Yearbooks | None | None — prints only what is ordered | Yes, with an instant quote | School sets the family price; most add $2–5 a book | | Jostens | Agreement signed with a rep; terms vary by school | Set inside your quote | No — quoted by a rep | Set inside your quote | | Lifetouch | Often written alongside a picture day agreement | Set inside your quote | No — quoted by a rep | Set inside your quote | | Treering | None | None — prints only what is ordered | Yes | School sets the family price | | Shutterfly | None | None | Yes | Limited — consumer-style checkout | | Herff Jones | Agreement signed with a rep; terms vary by school | Set inside your quote | No — quoted by a rep | Set inside your quote | | School Annual | Terms set in the online order | Set inside your order | Partly — online sign-up, quoted specifics | Set inside your order | Compiled from publicly available vendor information, current as of August 2026. Rep-sold vendors publish very little, so “set inside your quote” is the honest answer rather than a criticism — ask your rep for the minimum, the term length and the deposit in writing. Vendors change their plans; please verify before you sign. Table 2 ## How the book actually gets made. Software your volunteers have to learn, what each child gets, who does the design labour, and how long printing takes. | Company | Design software | Personalization model | Who designs the book | Print + delivery | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rethink Yearbooks | Canva — nothing proprietary to learn | myClass + myGrade pages built automatically: every child gets pages of their own, carrying 35–60 candids from their own class and grade | Your team — or First Draft builds the first draft free, then your team edits it in Canva | About 3 weeks, with an on-time delivery guarantee | | Jostens | Proprietary (Yearbook Avenue) | One identical book for the whole school | Your committee, with rep support and a large template library | Varies by plan and press date | | Lifetouch | Proprietary online tool | One identical book; portraits flow straight in from picture day | Your committee, with rep support | Varies by plan and press date | | Treering | Browser-based tool, built for volunteers | Two custom pages per student that a parent logs in and fills; extra pages cost more | Your committee | Varies; commonly a few weeks | | Shutterfly | Consumer-style photo book editor | One identical book for everyone | Your committee, usually one or two people | Varies by product and shipping choice | | Herff Jones | eDesign, paired with Canva | One identical book for the whole school | Your staff, backed by the deepest adviser training in the category | Varies by plan and press date | | School Annual | Vendor templates, ordered online | One identical book for the whole school | Your committee | Varies by plan and press date | “Personalization model” means what a given child gets that no other child gets. A photo count anchors to a child’s class and grade, not to the child: Rethink’s myClass and myGrade pages carry 35–60 candids drawn from that child’s own class and grade. How often any particular child appears in those photos depends on how often they were photographed — which is a job for the people holding the cameras, at every vendor on this list. Being fair about it ## What each company is genuinely good at. A comparison that only attacks is not worth reading. Every vendor here is the right answer for some school. ### Jostens The scale is real. Decades of adviser resources, the widest range of covers and finishing options, and a rep who will physically come to your school when something goes wrong. Best for: large schools, districts that require a national vendor ### Herff Jones The best yearbook education in the business — curriculum, workshops, and real training for a student staff. If yearbook is a class at your school, that is worth more than a price difference. Best for: schools teaching yearbook as journalism ### Lifetouch If Lifetouch already shoots your picture day, the portrait handoff is genuinely seamless. No portrait file to chase, no name mismatches to fix, one vendor and one point of contact. Best for: schools already under a picture day agreement ### Treering Honest published pricing, no minimum at all, and a browser tool a volunteer can actually learn in an afternoon. Prints only what families order, and plants a tree per book. Best for: small schools that cannot risk unsold copies ### Shutterfly The lowest-commitment option on the list. If you have forty children in a preschool and want a book without a vendor relationship, a familiar consumer editor is exactly the right tool. Best for: preschools and very small books ### School Annual Printing and templates through an online sign-up rather than a full rep-led process. A middle path for a school that wants the big printer without the sales cycle. Best for: schools that want Jostens without the meetings ### Rethink Yearbooks — and where we do not fit We are built for one case: an elementary or K–8 school where an unpaid coordinator wants published pricing, no contract, Canva rather than a proprietary editor, and every child getting pages of their own automatically — 35–60 candids from their own class and grade, with no parent logins and no blank pages. Where we are the wrong answer: if you run a high school journalism program that wants a full professional design suite and adviser curriculum, Herff Jones or Jostens will serve you better. If your district mandates a national vendor, that decision is not really yours to make. Best for: elementary and K–8 schools run by volunteers How to choose ## Five questions, in this order. - 01**How many books will you actually sell?** Under a hundred, minimums decide this for you. Over two hundred, minimums stop mattering and margin starts to. - 02**Who is going to do the design work, by name?** If the answer is “me, somehow,” weight this above everything else on the page. Design hours are the reason coordinators burn out and quit. - 03**Are you already tied to picture day?** Bundled agreements are convenient and they are also the thing that quietly stops you shopping. Find out whether yours can be separated. - 04**What does the PTA need the book to raise?** Work out the per-book margin first, then see which vendors let you set the family price. - 05**When is your last day of school?** Count back the printing time, then count back again for proofing. That is your real deadline, and it is earlier than you think. [The coordinator’s guide walks the whole calendar →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/yearbook-coordinator-guide) Go deeper ## Head-to-head detail. The tables above are the summary. If you are down to a shortlist, these compare one vendor at a time, including the cases where they beat us: [Rethink vs. Jostens →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/vs-jostens) [Rethink vs. Lifetouch →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/vs-lifetouch) [Rethink vs. Treering →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/vs-treering) [Signs it is time to switch vendors — and how to do it mid-year →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/switch-yearbook-company) Still working out what you are buying? [How elementary yearbooks work at Rethink](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/elementary), [what First Draft is and is not](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/first-draft), and [our published pricing](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/pricing). Common questions ## Choosing a yearbook company, answered. **Which yearbook company is best for an elementary school?** It depends on what is scarce at your school. If time is scarce, pick a vendor that will design your first draft for you and that publishes its pricing. If money is scarce, pick one with no minimum so you print only what families order. If your school already has a picture day agreement, the vendor that shoots your portraits is often the least work. Rethink is built for the first case: elementary and K-8 schools run by a volunteer. **Do yearbook companies require a contract or a deposit?** Some do. Rep-sold vendors such as Jostens, Herff Jones and Lifetouch generally work from a signed agreement, and picture day is sometimes bundled into it. Online vendors such as Treering, Shutterfly and Rethink do not use binding multi-year contracts or deposits. Read your current agreement before you assume you are locked in for another year. **What is the minimum order for a school yearbook?** It varies by vendor. Treering, Shutterfly and Rethink have no minimum and print only what is ordered. Rep-quoted vendors set the minimum inside your quote, so ask for it in writing. **Can we switch yearbook companies mid-year?** Usually yes, as long as you are not inside a signed term. There is no design file to migrate, because you start again from the photos you have already collected. Check your current agreement first, then confirm your new vendor can still print and deliver before your last day of school. No rep, no contract ## See what your school’s book would cost. A per-book quote and a sample with one child’s real class and grade pages — no contract, no deposit, free first draft. [Get a quote + a sample](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/#quote) — [Book a 30-min walkthrough](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/meetingwithrethinkyearbooks) ============================================================================== # Custom & Personalized Yearbooks: What the Words Actually Mean - **url**: https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/custom-yearbook-pages - **description**: Four vendors call four different things “personalized” — from two blank pages to a different book for every child. What each level really is, what it costs, and how to tell which one you are being sold. - **updated**: 2026-09-03 --- Yearbook basics # What people mean by a custom yearbook — and what they should mean Four companies will tell you their yearbook is personalized and mean four different things, from two blank autograph pages to a section built for each child. The word does no work on its own. Here is what each level actually is, what it costs, and the one question that tells you which one you are being sold. Two words get used interchangeably and should not be. **Custom** describes the shared book — the cover, the theme, the layouts, which pages exist at all. Everyone gets the same custom book. **Personalized** describes what changes between one family’s copy and the next. A yearbook can be elaborately custom and not personalized in any respect, and most elementary yearbooks are exactly that. The confusion is not accidental. Personalization is the more appealing word and the harder thing to build, so it gets stretched to cover things that are not it. When you are comparing quotes, the difference is worth about ten dollars a book and a great deal of disappointment in April. The four levels ## Everything sold as “personalized”, in order of how much actually changes. **What differs between one family’s copy and the next** | Level | What it is | What differs per copy | Typical cost | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 01 | Autograph pages | Nothing. Blank pages are identical; the child fills them in by hand after printing. | Included | | 02 | Name on the cover | One line of foil or print. The interior is identical for everyone. | $4–8 | | 03 | Parent-built pages | Two to four pages the family designs and uploads themselves, in the vendor’s editor, before a deadline. | $8–15 | | 04 | Generated pages | A section built for that child from photos of their own class and grade — no work by the family, no editor, no deadline to miss. | +$10 at Rethink | Levels one to three are common. Level four is not, and the reason is that it is a sorting problem rather than a design problem: somebody has to know which photographs contain which class, and then lay out a different section for every child who ordered one. That is the part most vendors leave to parents, which is what level three is. The question to ask ## One sentence that settles which level you are being sold. **“If a family orders and does nothing else, how many pages of their copy are different from the copy next door?”** The answer is a number. Zero means autograph pages. Zero-but-the-cover means level two. “Up to four, if they build them” means level three, and the honest follow-up is what share of families actually finish them — at most schools it is well under half, because it is a homework assignment handed to a parent in March. Any answer above zero that does not require the family to open an editor is level four. There are not many of those. What it looks like ## A personalized elementary book, page by page. The shape most elementary schools land on is a shared book with a personalized section bound into it. Nothing about the shared book changes; the section is the part that differs. - **Pages 1–8, shared.** Cover, title page, principal’s letter, staff. Identical in every copy. - **Pages 9–36, shared.** Grade spreads, events, field day, the school play. Identical in every copy. - **Pages 37–44, personalized.** Built for this child from 35–60 candids of their own class and grade, laid out as collages rather than a portrait grid. - **Pages 45–48, shared.** Autographs and the back cover. Identical again. Worth being precise about the middle section, because it is the claim most often overstated in this industry: those 35–60 photographs are drawn from the child’s **own class and grade**. How often any individual child appears in them depends entirely on how often the school photographed that child. A vendor promising a fixed number of pictures *of your child* is promising something no vendor controls. What can be promised is that every child who orders gets pages generated for them, from the photographs their school actually took. [Why some children barely appear →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/the-yearbook-photo-gap) Making your own ## If you were thinking of doing it yourselves. For a school of eighty children this is genuinely reasonable, and some do it well every year. Before committing, know which part is the work. It is not the design. Canva and the vendor editors have made layout close to free, and a parent with taste can produce a book that looks better than the catalogue templates. The work is the photographs: collecting them from fifteen phones, working out which class each one shows, noticing in March that the second grade has four hundred pictures and the fourth grade has thirty, and chasing that down. Then proofing, then print procurement at a quantity no printer wants to quote, then handing the right book to the right family. Schools that make their own yearbook and then stop almost never cite the design as the reason. [The coordinator’s guide →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/yearbook-coordinator-guide) — [How to plan the pages →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/yearbook-ladder) Questions ## Custom and personalized yearbooks, answered. ### What is a personalized yearbook? A personalized yearbook is a yearbook where some or all of the pages differ from copy to copy, so the book a family receives is not identical to the one next door. The word covers a wide range in practice. At the shallow end it means two blank pages at the back for autographs. At the deep end it means a section built for each child from photos of their own class and grade. Both get called personalized, which is why it is worth asking a vendor exactly which one they mean before comparing prices. ### What is the difference between a custom yearbook and a personalized yearbook? Custom usually describes the shared book: the cover, the theme, the layouts and which pages exist. Every family gets the same custom book. Personalized describes what changes between copies. A yearbook can be heavily custom and not personalized at all, which is the most common arrangement in elementary schools. ### How much does a personalized yearbook cost? At Rethink, personalization is a $10 upgrade over the base book, and a hardcover is $9 more. Families choose whether to take it, so a school can offer personalized copies without committing every family to the higher price. Other vendors bundle personalization into a higher per-book price or a page-count minimum, so compare the all-in family price rather than the headline one. ### Can every child have their own pages in the yearbook? Yes. At Rethink every child whose family orders a personalized copy gets pages generated for them, drawn from 35 to 60 candids of their own class and grade. How often any individual child appears in those photos depends on how often the school photographed them, which is why the coordinator guide spends so much time on photo coverage. ### Do personalized pages make the yearbook late? They should not. Personalized sections are generated from the photos the school has already uploaded, so the work happens after the photo deadline and before print, in the same window a traditional book spends in proofing. What makes books late is missing photos, not personalization. ### Can we make our own yearbook instead of using a company? You can, and for a very small school it sometimes makes sense. What you are taking on is layout, photo sorting, proofing, print procurement and per-family fulfilment. Most elementary coordinators who try it once move to a vendor the following year, not because the design was hard but because collecting and sorting the photographs was. ### What does personalization look like in an elementary yearbook? Typically a section of four to eight pages bound into the middle or back of the shared book. The shared pages are the same for everyone: cover, staff, events, grade spreads. The personalized section is where that child's class and grade candids appear, laid out as collages rather than a grid of portraits. ## See what a personalized copy looks like before you decide. We will build your school’s first draft free, from photos you already have, so the comparison is your book rather than a sample of somebody else’s. [Get a quote + a sample](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/#quote) — [Book a 30-min walkthrough](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/meetingwithrethinkyearbooks) ============================================================================== # What Is a Yearbook Ladder? (With a Worked Example) - **url**: https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/yearbook-ladder - **description**: A yearbook ladder is the page-by-page plan of your book. What goes on it, how to build one, and a worked 60-page elementary example you can copy. - **updated**: 2026-09-03 --- Yearbook basics # What is a yearbook ladder? It is the page-by-page plan of your book. One row per page: the page number, what goes on it, and which class or event it belongs to. That is the whole idea. Everyone in yearbooks says “ladder” like you already know, so here it is properly explained, with a worked 60-page example you can copy. A pile of eleven hundred photos is not a book. A ladder is the thing that makes it one. Before the ladder, you have a folder. After the ladder, you have page 22, and page 22 is the science fair, and someone owes you science fair photos. The name comes from how it used to be drawn: a tall column of numbered rungs, one per page, left page and right page paired up as they will be when the book is open. Nobody draws it on paper any more. A spreadsheet is fine. A shared doc is fine. The format does not matter; having one does. Why it exists ## Three jobs the ladder does that nothing else does. 01 ### It sets your page count Yearbooks are priced by page count, and printers accept page counts in multiples. You cannot get a real quote, or a real budget, until the ladder tells you how long the book is. 02 ### It is your shopping list Every row with no photos behind it is a job. If the ladder says the fall festival gets a spread and nobody photographed the fall festival, you find out in October instead of April. 03 ### It settles arguments early Every year someone wants four pages for the thing their child does. The ladder makes that a decision made once, in a meeting, rather than a negotiation that runs until the print deadline. Building one ## How to build a ladder for an elementary book. Do it in this order. It takes about an hour with two people and a list of the year’s events. - **Start from the year, not the photos.** Write down every grade, every specialist class, and every event the school actually held. You are describing the year first and rationing pages second. - **Pick a target page count.** Most elementary books land between 40 and 80 pages. Take a rough guess now; you will correct it at the end. - **Give the fixed sections their pages first.** Title page, principal’s welcome, staff, and one block per grade. This is usually more than half the book, and it barely changes year to year. - **Ration the rest by how much the event actually generated.** A spread is two pages and roughly twenty photos. Field day earns that. The one assembly nobody photographed does not. - **Add the back matter people forget.** Autograph pages, dedications, sponsor thank-yous. These get remembered two days before the deadline, when adding them means reprinting the ladder. - **Round to a page count your printer accepts.** Pages are printed on both sides of a folded sheet, so counts come in multiples — usually four. Ask, then absorb the difference into the autograph pages, which will happily take them. - **Put a name in the owner column.** A section with no name attached is a section nobody is collecting photos for. Worked example ## A 60-page elementary ladder you can copy. One K–5 school, six grades, a normal set of events. Change the section names to yours and the page ranges will mostly still work. **Example ladder — 60-page K–5 softcover** | Pages | Section | What goes on it | Photos come from | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Title page | School name, year, mascot, one strong whole-school photo | Coordinator | | 2–3 | Welcome | Principal’s letter, a note from the PTA, the year in one paragraph | Office | | 4–7 | Staff | Teachers by grade, specialists, office, aides, custodial, crossing guards | Office + picture day | | 8–11 | Kindergarten | Class portrait panels plus classroom candids | K teachers, room parents | | 12–15 | 1st grade | Class portrait panels plus classroom candids | 1st grade room parents | | 16–19 | 2nd grade | Class portrait panels plus classroom candids | 2nd grade room parents | | 20–23 | 3rd grade | Class portrait panels plus classroom candids | 3rd grade room parents | | 24–27 | 4th grade | Class portrait panels plus classroom candids | 4th grade room parents | | 28–33 | 5th grade | Panels, candids, baby photos, promotion ceremony | 5th grade committee | | 34–35 | Field day | Full spread — the highest photo yield of the year | PE teacher, parent volunteers | | 36–37 | Fall festival | Costumes, booths, the cake walk | PTA events lead | | 38–39 | Science fair | Boards, presenters, judging | Science fair chair | | 40–41 | Winter performance | Stage shots plus backstage candids | Music teacher | | 42–43 | Field trips | One panel per grade’s trip | Chaperone parents | | 44–45 | Spirit days | Crazy hair, pajama day, decades day | Room parents | | 46–47 | Clubs | Garden, chess, choir, student council | Club leads | | 48–49 | Specials | Art, music, library, PE, technology | Specialist teachers | | 50–51 | Book fair & read-a-thon | Reading buddies, the fair, the totals | Library volunteer | | 52–53 | Reserved: personalized pages | Each child’s own myClass and myGrade pages, generated per book | Built automatically from the shared drive | | 54–55 | Dedications | Retiring staff, thank-yous, sponsor logos | Coordinator | | 56–59 | Autographs | Signature space — and your slack if the page count needs rounding | — | | 60 | Back matter | Colophon, credits, who made the book | Coordinator | Add a fifth column for status — not started, photos in, laid out, proofed — and the ladder doubles as your project tracker for the whole year. The highlighted row is the one that behaves differently: on a personalized book those pages are generated per child rather than laid out once, but they still take up their slot on the ladder, so reserve them like any other section. Learn from ours ## Five ladder mistakes we see every year. - **Building the ladder from the photos you have.** Do it the other way round. If you only plan pages for events that were photographed, the year quietly shrinks to whatever a few enthusiastic parents happened to attend. - **Forgetting the back matter.** Autographs and dedications are remembered late, and by then the page count is set and the quote is signed. - **Ignoring the spread.** Pages are read in pairs. An event that starts on an even page and ends on the next odd page is split across a page turn, which is exactly the wrong place for the two best photos. - **Leaving the owner column blank.** An unowned section is an unphotographed section. It is not a formatting detail; it is the whole reason to build a ladder in the first place. - **Treating it as final.** A ladder changes all year. What should not change after your photo seal date is the page count — that is what your quote and your printer are working from. Why we keep asking for it ## Your ladder is what First Draft is built from. Short on time? We’ll build your first draft for free — then your team edits it in Canva. That draft is built from exactly two things you give us: your ladder and your template choice. The ladder decides which pages exist, in what order, and how much room each event gets. From there we apply standard layouts and our algorithm pulls the strongest photos for each event. Which is why a vague ladder produces a vague book. If the ladder gives the science fair half a page, the science fair gets half a page, however big a deal it was. If you want particular photos used, drop a folder named `favs` inside that event’s folder before the photo seal date and we use those instead. First Draft is not a custom design service, it is not revisions made by us, and it is not our sign-off — you approve the book for print. [Read exactly what it is and is not →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/first-draft) Common questions ## Ladders, answered. **What is a yearbook ladder?** A yearbook ladder is the page-by-page plan of the book. Each row is one page: the page number, what goes on it, and which class or event it belongs to. It is the document that turns a pile of photos into a book, and it is what your page count and your printing cost are based on. **How many pages should an elementary yearbook be?** Most elementary yearbooks land between 40 and 80 pages. Work the page count out from the ladder rather than the other way around: count the grades, the events you actually photographed and the back matter, then round up to a page count your printer accepts. **Do yearbook pages have to be a multiple of four?** Usually yes. Pages are printed on both sides of a sheet that is then folded and bound, so page counts come in multiples, most often four. Ask your printer for the exact number before you finish the ladder, because adding one page can mean adding four. **When should the yearbook ladder be finished?** Aim for a rough ladder by the end of the first term and a settled one before your photo seal date. The ladder is what tells you which events still have no photos, so it is most useful early, while there is still time to send someone with a camera. First yearbook? The ladder is step three of about nine. [The first-time coordinator’s guide](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/yearbook-coordinator-guide) covers the rest of the calendar, and [the vendor comparison](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/best-elementary-yearbook-companies) covers who prints it. Bring us your ladder ## Send the ladder. Get a book back. A per-book quote and a sample — no contract, no deposit, free first draft built from your ladder. [Get a quote + a sample](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/#quote) — [Book a 30-min walkthrough](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/meetingwithrethinkyearbooks) ============================================================================== # The First-Time Yearbook Coordinator’s Guide - **url**: https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/yearbook-coordinator-guide - **description**: What the job really involves: a month-by-month timeline, how to collect photos from parents and teachers, and the two dates that gate everything. - **updated**: 2026-09-03 --- Guide · For the coordinator who got voluntold # The first-time yearbook coordinator’s guide Most people reading this did not volunteer. Somebody left, somebody looked at you, and now there is a yearbook. Here is the whole job laid out: what it actually involves, what happens in which month, and the two dates that decide everything else. The job ## What you actually signed up for. Four jobs, and they are not equal. - **Collect the photos.** The hard one. It runs all year, it depends on other people, and nobody can do it for you. If you only get one thing right, get this one right. - **Plan the book.** Decide how long it is and what goes on each page. This is the ladder, and it is an hour of work that saves you a month. [What a ladder is, with a template →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/yearbook-ladder) - **Make the pages.** The part everyone dreads and the only part that can genuinely be handed off, either to a volunteer who enjoys it or to a vendor that drafts it for you. - **Sell it and ship it.** Announce the order window, chase the families who mean to order and forget, and hit two deadlines. Notice what is not on that list: being a designer. You are a project manager with a camera problem. Coordinators burn out when they let the design work eat the collecting time, because design has a visible deadline and collecting does not. Start here ## The two dates that gate everything. Before you plan anything else, fix these two days on a calendar. Work backwards from the last day of school, because that is the only date you cannot move. **Approve for print.** Printing and delivery take about three to four weeks. Set this at least a month before the last day of school, and add a buffer if you want books in hands for the promotion ceremony rather than the week after it. **Photo seal date.** The day the collecting stops and the pages get built. Put it four to six weeks before you approve for print, so there is real time to lay out, proofread and fix what you find. Every question you will have this year comes down to which side of one of those two dates you are standing on. Say both dates out loud in every email you send from October onwards. People do not believe deadlines they have heard once. The calendar ## Month by month, August to June. Shift it to fit your school year. The shape holds: collect early and constantly, decide the book once, then protect the last eight weeks for proofing. August ### Pick a vendor and set the dates Get a quote, check the minimum order, and find out whether last year’s agreement rolls over automatically. Then fix your two dates and put them in the school calendar before the school calendar fills up. [Comparing vendors →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/best-elementary-yearbook-companies) September ### Set up photo collection and recruit Build the shared drive folders before the first event, not after it. Announce the yearbook at back-to-school night while every parent is in one room, and leave with names, not goodwill. Ask each grade for one photo person. October ### Picture day, and the first real photo push Confirm how portraits reach your yearbook, in what format, and who sends them. Meanwhile the fall events start producing photos, so the folder-per-event habit gets its first test. Sketch the ladder this month while the year is still theoretical. November ### Settle the ladder and run the first coverage check Lock the page count, because the price and the printer depend on it. Then print the class rosters and tick off every child you have a photo of. The list of unticked names is the most useful document you will make all year. December ### Winter events, and a mid-year audit The winter performance is a large photo yield and one of the few evenings where the whole school shows up. Before break, look at the ladder and mark every section with no photos behind it. Send that list to the teachers who own those sections. January ### Open ordering and start building pages Retakes are in and portraits are complete, so open the order window. This is also the month to start laying out, or to hand the draft off. Chase your unticked names now, while there are still four months of school left to photograph them in. February ### Fill the gaps deliberately By now you know exactly which grades under-photograph and which teachers never send anything. Go to them in person. A five minute conversation gets more photos than a fourth reminder email. March — gate 1 ### Photo seal date Last call, sent three times: two weeks out, one week out, the day before. After this, collecting stops and building starts. Anything you want reflected in the book has to be in the drive by now, including any folders of specific shots you want used. April ### Proofread, twice, by two people Names, names, names. Every complaint a coordinator hears is about a misspelled name, a missing child, or a photo of the wrong class. Read the roster against the pages rather than reading the pages. Then have somebody who was not involved read it cold. May — gate 2 ### Approve for print The book you approve is the book that arrives. Then it prints and ships in about three to four weeks. Use the wait to plan distribution: who hands them out, on which day, and what happens for families who did not order. June ### Hand out books, then hand over notes Give the school a signing afternoon rather than a backpack delivery. Then write one page for next year’s coordinator: which teachers sent photos, which events under-delivered, what you would do differently. That page is the actual gift. Getting help ## Recruit for small named jobs, not “the yearbook”. Nobody volunteers for an unbounded commitment. Almost everybody will say yes to a job with a name, a scope and an end date. ### Grade captains One parent per grade who nudges their grade’s teachers and room parents after each event. This is the single highest-value role and the easiest to fill, because it is small. Ask: “Can you chase 1st grade photos after events? Ten minutes a month.” ### Event photographer Someone assigned to each big event in advance, so field day is not covered by whoever happened to bring a phone. Give them the ladder row so they know what the pages need. Ask: “Can you shoot field day? One morning, in May.” ### Proofreader Someone who was not involved in building the book, reading it cold against the class rosters. Best done by a person with no children in the school, if you can find one. Ask: “Two hours in April, checking names.” ### Orders and money Whoever already handles PTA money. Selling the book is a different skill from making it, and pairing them in one person is how coordinators end up doing a hundred hours. Ask: “Can you own the order window and the reminders?” One rule that saves the whole year: never accept help in the form of “let me know if you need anything.” Reply immediately with a specific job. The offer expires within about a day. The hard part ## Collecting photos from parents and teachers. This is the job. Everything else on this page is easier than this, and every yearbook that disappoints people disappoints them here. - **One folder per event, made before the event.** Not one folder called Yearbook Photos. A parent who has forty field trip photos will upload them to a folder named after the field trip and will not sort anything into anything. - **Use request-only upload links.** A link that lets people add photos without seeing, downloading or deleting what anyone else added. It removes the privacy objection and it removes the accidental delete. We run this on Google Drive folders, one per event, with upload-only links. - **Ask within a day or two of the event.** While the photos are still on the home screen of the phone. A request four months later loses to whatever else is on that phone. - **Send the link, not the instructions.** One line, one tappable link, no login. Every extra step costs you photos, and the parent with the best shots of the year is often the one least willing to make an account. - **Ask teachers differently from parents.** Teachers have the classroom photos nobody else has, and the least time. Ask for a specific window, offer to come and take the phone for five minutes, and ask through the office when email fails. - **Say what you need, not “send photos”.** “We have nothing from the 3rd grade science fair” gets a reply. A general call for photos does not. - **Take blurry over nothing.** A soft phone photo of a child who is in no other picture is worth more than another sharp shot of the school gate. If your vendor selects photos automatically, keep one lever in your pocket: a folder of the specific shots you want used for an event. At Rethink, a folder named `favs` inside any event folder tells us to use those instead of ours, as long as it is there before the photo seal date. Coverage ## Making sure the quieter kids get photographed. Some children are in the middle of every photo taken at your school. Others are not in any, and it is rarely because anyone excluded them. They are the ones reading at the edge of the field, or away that week, or simply not the kind of child a camera turns towards. No software fixes this, and be suspicious of any vendor that suggests otherwise. Page generation and photograph presence are two different promises. A personalized book can guarantee that every child gets pages of their own; it cannot guarantee that a child appears in the photos on them, because those pages are built from the photos your school actually collected. Whether a particular child was photographed is decided months earlier, by somebody at your school holding a phone. So make it a tracked task, the same way you track anything else: - **Print the rosters in November.** Paper, on a clipboard, in the yearbook folder. Tick a name when you see a usable photo of that child. - **Read the unticked list in January.** Not May. January leaves you four months of school to fix it, and every one of those months has events in it. - **Hand the list to the teacher, not the parent.** A teacher can catch a child at something they are good at. That is a better photo than one taken because somebody was on a list. - **Aim for at least three usable photos per child.** That is the long-standing coverage standard in the yearbook world. Whether a shared book has room to print them all is a separate question — but you should have collected them either way. - **Check the ordinary days too.** Coverage skews to events, and the children who do not attend evening events are exactly the ones who go missing. Photograph a normal Tuesday. [Why the three-photo standard is nearly impossible in a shared book →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/the-yearbook-photo-gap) Choosing a vendor ## What a first-time coordinator should actually ask. - **Is there a contract, a term, or a deposit?** And does it renew by itself if you say nothing? Find out before September, not in May. - **What is the minimum order?** Some vendors have none and print only what families order. Others set it inside the quote. If your school sells under a hundred books, this decides the shortlist for you. - **Who does the design work, by name?** If the answer is “our software makes it easy”, the answer is you. - **What is the last date you can approve, and what happens if you miss it?** Get the printing and delivery window in writing, then work back from your last day of school. - **Is picture day bundled in?** Convenient, and also the reason many schools never shop the yearbook. Ask whether the two can be separated. - **What does each child get that is theirs?** A portrait and a class photo, blank pages a parent has to fill in, or pages generated for them automatically. [The vendor comparison, with those answers in a table →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/best-elementary-yearbook-companies) · [Signs it is time to switch →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/switch-yearbook-company) Where we come in ## If the design half is what you are dreading. Short on time? We’ll build your first draft for free — then your team edits it in Canva. First Draft works from your ladder and your template choice, applies standard layouts, and lets our algorithm pull the strongest photos for each event. What it is not: a custom design service, unlimited revisions made by us, or our sign-off on your book. You approve it for print, because we cannot know which child is missing or which name is spelled wrong. You can. The point of it is the hours it gives back. Those hours belong in the drive, chasing the parent who has the entire field trip on their phone. [Exactly what First Draft is and is not →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/first-draft) · [How it works for elementary schools →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/elementary) Common questions ## First-year questions, answered. **What does a yearbook coordinator actually do?** Four things: collect photos, plan the book page by page, sell it to families, and hit two deadlines. Designing pages is the part most people expect and the part that can be handed off. Collecting photos is the part that cannot, because nobody outside your school can go and take them. **When should we start working on the yearbook?** Work backwards from the last day of school. Printing and delivery take about three to four weeks, so set your approve-for-print date at least a month before that day, then set your photo seal date four to six weeks before you approve. Everything else fits in front of those two dates. **How do we get parents and teachers to send photos?** Make one folder per event and ask for photos within a day or two of the event, while people still have their phones out. A request-only upload link lets people add photos without seeing or deleting anyone else. One general call for photos at the end of the year gets almost nothing. **How do we make sure the quieter kids end up in the yearbook?** Print the class rosters and tick off names as photos come in. It is a paper problem, not a software problem. Around January, look at who still has no tick beside their name, and ask their teacher to catch them doing something they enjoy. You did not ask for this job ## Let us take the design half. A per-book quote and a sample — no contract, no deposit, free first draft. You go get the photos. [Get a quote + a sample](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/#quote) — [Book a 30-min walkthrough](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/meetingwithrethinkyearbooks) ============================================================================== # How Much Does a School Yearbook Cost? Real 2026-27 Prices | Rethink Yearbooks - **url**: https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/yearbook-cost - **description**: What a school yearbook actually costs: roughly $20-$35 a copy for elementary softcover. Every Rethink price published in full - personalization +$10, hardcover +$9, no setup fee, no minimum. - **updated**: 2026-09-03 --- Yearbook cost # How much does a school yearbook cost? For an elementary school, roughly **$20–$35 a copy** for a softcover book. Page count moves that number more than anything else, because a yearbook is priced by the page. Below is every number we charge, published, so you can compare us against a quote you already have. [Get an instant quote →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/#quote) — [See the pricing page](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/pricing) The short answer ## Four things move the price. Only one of them is big. Coordinators are usually handed a single number and no way to interrogate it. It comes apart into four parts, and they are not the same size. 1. **Page count.** The largest factor by a distance. A yearbook is priced by the page, so an 80-page book and a 40-page book are not close. Decide the page count before you compare quotes, or you are comparing two different products. 2. **Cover and binding.** Softcover is the default. A hardcover is **+$9** a book here, and it is a per-family choice rather than a school-wide one. 3. **Upgrades families choose.** Automatic personalization is **+$10**. A child’s name on the cover is **+$5**; name and photo is **+$7**. Each is optional and each is charged to the family who wants it. 4. **How it ships.** Free in bulk to the school during the regular cycle. A summer order costs **+$5** on the book and about **$8–$9** to ship to a home, with one rate covering several books in the same order. **What does not move it: quantity.** We print digitally, so a 120-book school pays the same per copy as a 900-book school. On an offset press — which is what the large vendors run — quantity is exactly what moves the number, which is why their quotes start with a print run you have to commit to. Every number ## What we charge, in full. Published rather than quoted. Compare it line by line against whatever you are holding. | Item | Rethink price | Who pays it | | --- | --- | --- | | Softcover book | from $20 | Family, at the price the school sets | | Automatic personalization — myClass + myGrade pages | +$10 | Family, optional | | Hardcover upgrade | +$9 | Family, optional | | Child’s name on the cover | +$5 | Family, optional | | Name *and* photo on the cover | +$7 | Family, optional | | Summer ordering window | +$5 | Family, optional | | Summer ship-to-home | ~$8–9 | Family — one rate covers several books in an order | | Bulk shipping to the school | $0 | — | | Setup fee | $0 | — | | Deposit | $0 | — | | Canva templates and toolkits | $0 | — | | First Draft — we design your first version | $0 | — | | Minimum order | None | We print what families order | The base softcover price depends on your page count and comes back in the quote — that is the one number we cannot publish as a single figure without it being wrong for most schools. Everything above it is flat and is what you see here. Prices are for the 2026–27 season. Worked example ## A 300-book elementary school. Say your cost comes back at **$22** a softcover copy. You set the family price at **$26**, which is a $4 margin — squarely in the range most schools choose. 300 families order. The gross margin is **$1,200**. The 5% third-party payment processing fee comes off that, leaving the PTA roughly **$1,140**. The school paid nothing up front, signed nothing, and printed no book that nobody bought. A family that wants the personalized edition in hardcover with their child’s name on the cover pays $26 + $10 + $9 + $5 = **$50**. A family that wants the plain softcover pays **$26**. Both are in the same print run, because the books are printed digitally and no two of them have to be identical. [More on yearbook fundraising →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/fundraising) The awkward question ## Why you cannot find anyone else’s prices. You have probably noticed that searching for yearbook prices returns quote forms rather than numbers. That is not an oversight and it is not shyness. Jostens, Herff Jones and Lifetouch sell through commissioned representatives, and rep pricing is set per account. Publishing a list would remove the ability to quote two schools differently for the same book — so the list does not exist. It is a rational decision for a business built that way, and it is also why the only reliable way to compare those vendors is to make each of them put the **per-book price, the minimum and the term length in writing**, and then read them side by side. We publish because we are not sold that way. There is no rep and no per-school negotiation to protect. [See how seven vendors compare on contracts, minimums and margin →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/best-elementary-yearbook-companies) Questions ## Yearbook cost, answered. **How much does a school yearbook cost?** For an elementary school, expect roughly $20 to $35 per copy for a softcover book. The single biggest factor is page count, because the book is priced by the page. At Rethink, softcover books start around $20 per copy and the school pays nothing to set up — no deposit, no contract and no minimum order. The upgrades are flat and published: automatic personalization is +$10, hardcover is +$9, a name on the cover is +$5 and a name with a photo is +$7. **What actually changes the price of a yearbook?** Four things, in order of how much they move the number: page count, because books are priced by the page; cover and binding, where a hardcover upgrade is +$9 at Rethink; the upgrades families choose, such as +$10 personalization or +$5 for a name on the cover; and how the book ships, which is free in bulk to the school during the regular cycle and about $8 to $9 for a summer ship-to-home order. Quantity does not change the per-book price at Rethink, because the books are printed digitally rather than run off on an offset press. **How much does the school itself pay for a yearbook program?** At Rethink, nothing. There is no setup fee, no deposit, no binding contract and no minimum order. Families order and pay online, and only the books that are ordered are printed, so the school never carries unsold inventory. Some vendors work the other way round, quoting a print run the school commits to in advance and invoicing for overruns. **Why can I not find yearbook prices online?** Because most of the large vendors are sold through commissioned representatives, and rep pricing is set per account. Publishing a price list would collapse the ability to quote different schools differently, so Jostens, Herff Jones and Lifetouch quote rather than publish. It is a business-model decision rather than an oversight, which is why asking for a written per-book price, the minimum and the term length is the fastest way to compare vendors. **How much can a school raise on top of the yearbook?** The school sets the family price above its own cost and keeps the difference, minus a 5% third-party payment processing fee. Most schools add $2 to $5 a book. On a 300-book sale that is roughly $600 to $1,500 for the PTA, with no upfront cost and no unsold-inventory risk. **Is a hardcover yearbook worth the extra cost?** For an elementary keepsake that a family will keep for twenty years, usually yes — at Rethink the hardcover upgrade is +$9 per book. It is a per-family choice rather than a school-wide one, so a school can offer both and let each family decide, and the families who want the cheaper book are not subsidising the ones who want the durable one. **What does a yearbook cost per page?** There is no single per-page figure to quote honestly, because the base book price is set per school from its page count and specification, and comes back in the quote. What is fixed and publishable is everything on top of it: personalization +$10, hardcover +$9, cover name +$5, cover name with photo +$7, summer book +$5 and summer ship-to-home about $8 to $9. Published, not quoted ## Get your number in about a minute. Tell us your page count and roughly how many books, and we’ll send a real per-book price and a sample — no sales call, no contract, no deposit. [Get a quote + a sample](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/#quote) — [Book a 30-min walkthrough](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/meetingwithrethinkyearbooks) ============================================================================== # The Easiest Yearbook Software for Parent Volunteers | Rethink Yearbooks - **url**: https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/yearbook-software-for-volunteers - **description**: The easiest yearbook design software for volunteer parents is Canva - free, browser-based, already familiar, and collaborative. Or skip designing: Rethink builds your first draft free. - **updated**: 2026-09-03 --- Answer # What is the easiest yearbook software for parent volunteers? **Canva.** It is free, it runs in a browser, most volunteers have already used it for a flyer or a class party invitation, and four people can work on the same book at once. Rethink Yearbooks uses Canva instead of a proprietary editor for exactly that reason — and if nobody on your committee wants to design at all, we build your first draft free and you edit it from there. [Get a quote + a sample →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/#quote) — [See the free First Draft service](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/first-draft) Why that is the answer ## The software is not what you are trying to learn. A yearbook coordinator at an elementary school is almost never a designer. She is a parent who was asked in September, has a job, and has until roughly February. The question behind “what is the easiest software” is really **how little of my time will this take** — and the tool is only one part of that answer. Most vendors answer it with a proprietary editor: a browser tool built by that company, used for nothing else, and learned from scratch every time the committee turns over. It is not that these are badly made. It is that a volunteer spends her first week learning the software instead of building the book, and does it again next year with a new parent. Canva inverts that. It is the tool she has probably already used for the winter concert flyer. Rethink supplies free templates already sized for the printed book — 8.5″ × 11″, with bleed and margins correct — so the work is choosing photos and typing names, not learning an interface. What “easy” actually means ## Five questions to ask any yearbook vendor. They cut through demos faster than a feature list does. 1. **Have my volunteers used this tool before?** If the honest answer is no, budget a week of somebody’s life for it, every year, forever. 2. **Can four people edit at once?** A yearbook run by a committee where only one person can be in the file is a yearbook that depends entirely on that person’s calendar. 3. **Are the templates already the right size for print?** Bleed, margin and trim are where a volunteer-made book goes wrong invisibly — it looks fine on screen and comes back with a name cut off. 4. **Who does the first draft?** The hardest part of a yearbook is the blank page, not the last 10%. Ask whether you are handed a tool or handed a draft. 5. **What happens when the coordinator changes?** Boards turn over every year or two. A tool nobody else knows is a handover problem waiting to happen. [The first-time coordinator’s guide →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/yearbook-coordinator-guide) Side by side ## What each vendor makes a volunteer learn. | Vendor | Design tool | Already familiar? | Who builds the first draft | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Rethink Yearbooks | Canva | Usually yes | We do, free | | Treering | Treering’s own editor | No | Your team | | Jostens | Jostens’ own software | No | Your team, with rep support | | Lifetouch | Lifetouch’s own software | No | Your team, with rep support | | Herff Jones | Herff Jones’ own suite | No | Your team, with adviser curriculum | | Shutterfly | Shutterfly’s photo-book editor | Sometimes — consumer product | Your team | A proprietary editor is not only a learning cost, it is a switching cost: a committee that has learned one vendor’s tool and has a book inside it faces learning a second tool and starting the layout again. Worth asking any vendor whether your design leaves with you. Vendors change their tools — please verify before you sign. The option nobody offers ## Or don’t design it at all. The easiest software is the one you barely open. Rethink’s **First Draft** service builds your school’s complete first version at no cost — from your ladder, your template choice, standard layouts and algorithmic photo selection. Your team opens it in Canva and changes what it wants. We answer Canva questions; we do not make the edits for you. But the blank page — which is the part that stalls volunteer committees in January — is gone before you start. **No other yearbook company does this.** [How First Draft works →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/first-draft) Questions ## Yearbook software for volunteers, answered. **What is the easiest yearbook design software for parent volunteers?** Canva. It is free, it runs in a browser, most volunteers have already used it for a flyer or a class party invitation, and several people can work on the same page at the same time. Rethink Yearbooks uses Canva rather than a proprietary editor for exactly that reason: the software is not the thing you are trying to learn, the yearbook is. If nobody on the committee wants to design at all, Rethink's First Draft service builds your complete first version free and you edit it in Canva from there. **Do I need design experience to make a school yearbook?** No. What a volunteer actually needs is a page plan, a set of templates that already look right, and somewhere to put the photos. Design experience mostly saves time rather than making the difference between a good and a bad book. The two things that genuinely decide how the book turns out are how many photos the school collected and whether someone kept the ladder up to date. **Is Canva good enough for a real printed yearbook?** Yes, when the templates are built for the trim size and the printer takes the file. Rethink supplies free Canva templates sized for an 8.5 by 11 inch book with the bleed and margins already correct, so a volunteer is choosing photos and typing names rather than worrying about whether the design will print. The book is then printed in the USA on 80 lb premium colour paper. **Why do yearbook companies make you use their own software?** Because a proprietary editor is a switching cost. Once a committee has learned one vendor's tool and has a book inside it, moving to another vendor means learning a second tool and starting the layout again — so the editor quietly does some of the work of a contract. It is worth knowing that this is a feature of the arrangement rather than a technical necessity, and worth asking any vendor whether you can take your design with you. **How long does it take a volunteer to learn to make a yearbook?** In Canva, an afternoon is usually enough to be productive, because most of the interface is already familiar. In a proprietary editor, expect the first week to go on the tool rather than the book. The honest measure is not how long the software takes to learn but how much of the volunteer's total time it eats — for most elementary committees, collecting and sorting photos is the real work and the design tool should get out of the way. **What if nobody on our committee wants to design the yearbook?** Then do not. Rethink's First Draft service builds the school's complete first draft at no cost, from your ladder, your template choice and the photos you have collected. Your team opens it in Canva and edits what it wants to change. No other yearbook company designs the first draft for free. **Can several parents work on the yearbook at once?** In Canva, yes — it is real-time collaborative, so a committee of four can be in different sections of the same book at the same time, and there is no file to email around or single laptop that holds the only copy. That matters more than it sounds: the most common way a volunteer-run yearbook goes wrong is that one person holds everything and then has a busy fortnight. Built for the voluntold ## Free templates, and a first draft you didn’t make. See a real sample book and the Canva templates behind it — no contract, no deposit, no software to learn first. [Get a quote + a sample](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/#quote) — [Book a 30-min walkthrough](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/meetingwithrethinkyearbooks) ============================================================================== # Rethink Yearbooks vs. Jostens — Elementary Yearbooks - **url**: https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/vs-jostens - **description**: Jostens is rep-sold and quote-gated, built for big high schools. Rethink publishes pricing, personalizes each child's class and grade pages, drafts free. - **updated**: 2026-09-03 --- Comparison # Rethink Yearbooks vs. Jostens Jostens is a category giant built for large high schools and sold through commissioned reps. For an elementary yearbook run by a volunteer, the differences that matter are transparency, per-child personalization, and how much work lands on you. [Get a quote + a sample →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/#quote) ### The difference that matters for an elementary school Jostens (like most legacy vendors) prints one identical book for the whole school and hands your committee design software, with pricing quoted through a rep after a call. Rethink publishes its pricing online, automatically builds **each child's own class and grade pages** (35–60 candids from that child's class and grade), and our team builds your first draft for free. [See what the free first-draft design includes →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/first-draft) Feature by feature ## Rethink Yearbooks vs. Jostens, side by side. | | Rethink | Jostens | | --- | --- | --- | | Automatic per-child personalization | 35–60 photos, automatic | Not offered | | Per-student cover (name + photo) | Included | — | | We design your first draft for you | Free | ✗ | | Public pricing + instant online quote | Yes | Quote via rep | | Sales rep / phone call required | No | Typically yes | | Design tool | Canva — no proprietary software | Proprietary software | | Built for | Elementary / K–8 | Strong in large high schools | | Printed in the USA | Yes | Yes | | Turnaround | ~3 weeks, on-time guarantee | Varies | Comparison based on publicly listed Jostens offerings, current as of July 2026. Vendors change their plans — please verify current details. Being straight with you ## When Jostens might fit better. If you run a large high school with a student-journalism program, a dedicated yearbook class, and a big budget — or your district requires a national brand — Jostens' scale and traditions are a genuine fit. Rethink is built for the opposite: elementary and K–8 schools where an unpaid coordinator wants every child personalized automatically, transparent pricing, and the design work done for them. Common questions ## Switching from Jostens. **Is Rethink a good Jostens alternative for elementary schools?** Yes, if you want per-child personalization, transparent online pricing, and the design done for you. Jostens is rep-sold with quote-gated pricing and prints one identical book for the whole school; Rethink automatically builds each child's class and grade pages and can design your first draft free. **Can we switch from Jostens mid-year?** Usually yes. Rethink has no contracts or deposits and can build your first draft from photos you've already collected. As long as the book reaches print in time, on-time delivery before your last day of school is guaranteed. **How much does Rethink cost compared to Jostens?** Rethink softcover books start around $20 and pricing is published online; you set the family price and can add $2–5 per book for fundraising. Jostens pricing is typically quoted through a rep. More comparisons: [vs. Treering](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/vs-treering) · [vs. Jostens](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/vs-jostens) · [vs. Lifetouch](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/vs-lifetouch) · [Switching vendors](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/switch-yearbook-company) Relevant content, automatically ## See a Rethink sample next to your Jostens book. See a per-book quote and a sample — no contract, no deposit, free first draft. [Get a quote + a sample](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/#quote) — [Book a 30-min walkthrough](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/meetingwithrethinkyearbooks) ============================================================================== # Rethink Yearbooks vs. Lifetouch — Elementary Yearbooks - **url**: https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/vs-lifetouch - **description**: Lifetouch bundles the yearbook with picture day and prints one book for everyone. Rethink personalizes each child's pages and works with any photographer. - **updated**: 2026-09-03 --- Comparison # Rethink Yearbooks vs. Lifetouch Lifetouch is best known for picture day, and its yearbook usually rides along as part of that bundle. The tradeoff is a one-size-fits-all book and vendor lock-in. Rethink personalizes each child's pages and works with whatever photographer you already use. [Get a quote + a sample →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/#quote) ### The difference that matters for an elementary school Lifetouch's yearbook is typically tied to its picture-day bundle, and every student gets the same book. Rethink builds **each child's own class and grade pages** automatically, puts the child's name on the cover, and reads portrait photos from any photographer (Lifetouch, Dorian, and others) — so you're never locked into one vendor for both. Feature by feature ## Rethink Yearbooks vs. Lifetouch, side by side. | | Rethink | Lifetouch | | --- | --- | --- | | Automatic per-child personalization | 35–60 photos, automatic | Not offered | | Works with any photographer's portraits | Yes (PSPA from any provider) | Tied to Lifetouch | | Per-student cover (name + photo) | Included | — | | We design your first draft for you | Free | ✗ | | Public pricing + instant online quote | Yes | Bundle / rep | | Picture-day bundle lock-in | None | Typical | | Canva-first (no proprietary software) | Yes | ✗ | | Printed in the USA | Yes | Yes | | Turnaround | ~3 weeks, on-time guarantee | Varies | Comparison based on publicly listed Lifetouch offerings, current as of July 2026. Vendors change their plans — please verify current details. [How our free first-draft design service works →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/first-draft) Being straight with you ## When Lifetouch might fit better. If you want a single vendor to handle both picture day and the yearbook and you don't need per-child personalization, the Lifetouch bundle is convenient. Rethink is for schools that want every child's book personalized automatically and prefer to keep their photographer choice open — we read portraits from whoever shoots your picture day. Common questions ## Switching from Lifetouch. **Is Rethink a good Lifetouch alternative for elementary schools?** Yes, if you want per-child personalization and no picture-day bundle lock-in. Lifetouch prints one identical book tied to its bundle; Rethink automatically builds each child's class and grade pages and works with any photographer's portraits. **Do we have to leave Lifetouch for picture day to use Rethink?** No. Rethink reads student portraits in standard PSPA format from Lifetouch, Dorian, and others, so you can keep your picture-day photographer and still get a personalized book. **Can we switch to Rethink mid-year?** Usually yes — no contracts or deposits, and we can draft your book from photos you've already collected, with on-time delivery guaranteed when it reaches print by the cutoff. More comparisons: [vs. Treering](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/vs-treering) · [vs. Jostens](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/vs-jostens) · [vs. Lifetouch](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/vs-lifetouch) · [Switching vendors](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/switch-yearbook-company) Relevant content, automatically ## See a Rethink sample next to your Lifetouch book. See a per-book quote and a sample — no contract, no deposit, free first draft. [Get a quote + a sample](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/#quote) — [Book a 30-min walkthrough](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/meetingwithrethinkyearbooks) ============================================================================== # Signs It's Time to Switch Your School Yearbook Company - **url**: https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/switch-yearbook-company - **description**: Switching yearbook companies? The signs it's time, what to check first — no contract, mid-year is fine, keep your photographer — and how the switch works. - **updated**: 2026-09-03 --- Switching vendors # Signs it's time to switch your yearbook company. You can switch — even **mid-year**. No contracts, no deposits, and you don't have to start over. Here are the signs, and what to check first. [Get a quote + a sample →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/#quote) The signs ## You've outgrown your current vendor if… ### Signs you've outgrown your current yearbook company: - You're doing 100+ hours of volunteer work with little help - The "design software" feels like a second full-time job - Most kids barely appear — the average child gets 1–2 photos - Your rep only calls to renew the contract, not to support you - You can't get a straight price without a sales call - You're locked into a multi-year contract or a deposit - Picture day and the yearbook are bundled, so you can't shop either Before you switch ## Three things that make it easy. No contract needed Switch freelyRethink uses no binding contracts or deposits Mid-year is fine Start anytimewe draft from photos you've already collected Keep your photographer Any providerwe read portraits in standard PSPA format A mid-year switch leans on our free design service — [see what the free first draft includes →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/first-draft) Why coordinators switch to Rethink ## Less work. Every child gets pages of their own. Every other yearbook company hands a volunteer a design tool and says good luck. Rethink does the work: our team builds your first draft for free, then you improve it further with the AI helpers we provide, fact-check, and approve. Each child's **myClass and myGrade pages build themselves** — 35–60 photos of their own class and grade, so every child gets pages of their own. Transparent pricing, no rep, no contract, printed in the USA, delivered on time. Compare directly: [vs. Treering](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/vs-treering) · [vs. Jostens](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/vs-jostens) · [vs. Lifetouch](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/vs-lifetouch) Common questions ## Switching, answered. **Can I switch yearbook vendors mid-year?** Usually yes. Rethink has no contracts or deposits, and we can build your first draft from photos you've already collected. As long as the book reaches print in time, on-time delivery before your last day of school is guaranteed. **Is it hard to switch yearbook companies?** No. There's no software to migrate — you collect photos in a Google Drive folder and Rethink builds your first draft for free — then your team edits it in Canva. We also read student portraits in standard PSPA format from any school photographer. **Am I locked into a contract with my current vendor?** Check your agreement, but many elementary yearbook arrangements are year-to-year. Rethink itself uses no binding contracts and no deposits, so switching to us doesn't lock you in either. Make the switch ## Switch your yearbook in one conversation. No contract. No deposit. Free first draft. Delivered on time — guaranteed. [Get a quote + a sample](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/#quote) — [Book a 30-min walkthrough](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/meetingwithrethinkyearbooks) ============================================================================== # Yearbook Pricing — Families & Schools | Rethink Yearbooks - **url**: https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/pricing - **description**: Rethink Yearbooks pricing: personalization +$10, hardcover +$9, summer ship-to-home ~$8–9. Schools: $0 setup, no contracts, built-in fundraising margins. - **updated**: 2026-09-03 --- Pricing # Simple, transparent pricing. Schools set the base book price; we keep upgrades flat and transparent. No contracts, no deposits. Questions? [See the FAQ](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/faq). For families ### What you'll pay Traditional yearbook — Set by school Personalization upgrade **BEST VALUE** — +$10 Hardcover upgrade — +$9 Summer book price — +$5 Summer ship-to-home — ~$8–9 Place an order Order and pay online by card. Free shipping during the regular yearbook cycle. Summer orders cost $5 more, ship to your home for a flat ~$8–9 (one rate covers multiple books in the same order), don't include fundraising, and need any custom pages uploaded when you place the order. For schools ### What's included in your quote Softcover books — from $20 Free Canva templates + toolkits — $0 Free first-draft design — $0 Online store + dashboard — $0 Bulk shipping to school — $0 Set the family price — build in fundraising — Yours Get a quote Books start around $20/copy, priced by page count, with no order minimum — you set the family price. No deposits, no binding contracts. Invoices payable by card or check before print. Already with another vendor and otherwise a good fit? Tell us what you pay now and we’ll see what we can do. Built-in fundraising Turn your yearbook into a fundraiser: set the family price above your cost and keep the difference (minus a 5% third-party payment processing fee) — most schools add **$2–5 per book**. On 300 books that's **$600–$1,500** for your PTA, with zero upfront cost and no unsold-inventory risk. On-time guarantee Approve your book by the agreed print cutoff — about **three weeks** before you need it — and we guarantee delivery **before your last day of school**. If we miss it, we make it right. That is an express commitment in our [terms](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/terms-and-conditions), not a marketing line. How we compare ## Big-company features, without the big-company baggage. Where Rethink stands next to the traditional yearbook vendors. | | Rethink | Treering | Lifetouch | Jostens / Herff Jones / Balfour | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Automatic class/grade personalization | 35–60 more relevant photos | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | | Per-student cover (name + photo) | Included | ✕ | +$5 name / +$7 photo | — | | We draft your first book for you | Free | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | | Canva-first (no proprietary software) | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | | Family custom pages | 2 with upgrade | 2 free | ✕ | ✕ | | No multi-year contract | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | | Families order online | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Comparison based on publicly listed competitor offerings, current as of July 2026. Vendors change their plans — details may vary. [What the free first-draft design service includes →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/first-draft) Make every child seen ## Ready to price out your school's book? No contract. No deposit. Free first draft. Get a per-book quote and a sample — no call required. [Get a quote + a sample](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/#quote) — [Book a 30-min walkthrough](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/meetingwithrethinkyearbooks) ============================================================================== # Yearbook FAQ — Families & Coordinators | Rethink Yearbooks - **url**: https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/faq - **description**: Rethink Yearbooks FAQ: personalization, custom pages, delivery, pricing, ordering, district approval and photo collection — for families and coordinators. - **updated**: 2026-09-03 --- Help center # Frequently asked questions Answers for families and yearbook coordinators — search, filter by topic, or switch tabs. Can't find it? [Book a meeting](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/meetingwithrethinkyearbooks). **How do I order, and what's a "school code"?** 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. **What does the personalization upgrade actually add?** Three things: auto-built myClass and 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. **Will my child be in 35–60 photos?** Their myClass and 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. **How do I add custom pages?** 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 print deadline — there's no email step, everything is uploaded in the app, and you'll see an on-screen confirmation with a preview link once it's saved. **When will my yearbook arrive?** 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. If a book hasn't arrived within 3 weeks of ordering, reach out and we'll look into it. **Is there a digital or PDF version?** Yearbooks are print only — there's no digital, PDF, or flipbook copy for families. **Can I get a refund or make a change after ordering?** 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. **How do I get help?** Email support@rethinkyearbooks.com. For urgent issues you can also reach your school's yearbook team directly. **What software do we design in?** Canva. You design the base book in Canva using our free templates and toolkits — 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. **Are we locked into a contract?** No. There are no binding multi-year contracts and no deposits. 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. **What are the AI helpers?** 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. **What are the deadlines?** The book approve date is the main deadline — it guarantees print and delivery within 3 weeks of that date. Every other date (for example, the photo seal date) 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. **How does summer ordering work?** It's optional and you choose when to start and end it. The same link and school code switch to summer ordering automatically. Books are priced $5 higher to cover fulfillment costs, ship straight to the buyer's home for a shipping charge of about $8–9, and no fundraising margin is collected on summer orders. 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. Setup & logistics **Are you an approved vendor for our district?** 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. **How do you get portrait photos from our school photographer?** 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. **How do we get photos to you?** 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. **What's included in the free first draft?** 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 seal date 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](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/first-draft) **How do you protect student photos?** 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. 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. **Do you use facial recognition on student photos?** **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. **It's mid-year — is it too late to switch to you?** Usually not. Because there are no contracts or deposits, 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. **How does yearbook fundraising work?** You set the family price above your cost and keep the difference (minus a 5% third-party payment processing fee) — 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. **Do you guarantee on-time delivery?** Yes. As long as your book reaches print by the agreed cutoff — about 3 weeks before you need it — we guarantee delivery before your last day of school, or we make it right. Every book is printed in the USA. Make every child seen ## Bring Rethink to your elementary school. No contract. No deposit. Free first draft. Get a per-book quote and a sample — no call required. [Get a quote + a sample](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/#quote) — [Book a 30-min walkthrough](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/meetingwithrethinkyearbooks) ============================================================================== # Book a Meeting — Rethink Yearbooks - **url**: https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/meetingwithrethinkyearbooks - **description**: Book a brief meeting with Rethink Yearbooks to see real samples, watch the automatic personalization and Canva workflow, and get pricing for your school. - **updated**: 2026-09-03 --- Book a meeting # See a real personalized yearbook in 30 minutes. Bring your questions — you'll leave with a page-count quote, a sample to share with your PTA, and an understanding of the process and timeline. No contract, no deposit, no obligation. - ✓ A walkthrough of the dashboard and how the automatic personalization works - ✓ A price for your page count — and how families order online - ✓ A sample book, plus answers on deadlines, privacy, and switching mid-year Not ready for a call? [Get a quote by email instead →](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/#quote) Trusted by elementary schools across California and Texas since 2020 “We went from about a third of families buying a yearbook to almost 65–70% this year.” — Mitchell T., Teacher & Yearbook Coordinator, Santa Clara, CA 30 minutes, by video — the conferencing link is emailed with your confirmation. Can't find a time that works? Email [support@rethinkyearbooks.com](mailto:support@rethinkyearbooks.com) and we'll sort one out. ============================================================================== # Privacy Policy | Rethink Yearbooks - **url**: https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/privacy-policy - **description**: Privacy Policy for Rethink Yearbooks personalized school yearbook services. - **updated**: 2026-09-03 --- # Privacy Policy Effective July 1, 2026 Rethink Yearbooks provides this Privacy Policy to inform you of our policies and procedures regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personal information we receive from users, including teachers, administrators, students, parents, and third party vendors to whom the school may grant access to www.rethinkyearbooks.com (the "Services"). This Privacy Policy applies only to information that you provide to us through the Services. Unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy, terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same meanings as in our [Rethink Yearbooks Terms of Service](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/terms-and-conditions) (the "Terms"). As used in this policy, the terms "using" and "processing" information include using cookies on a computer, subjecting the information to statistical or other analysis and using or handling information in any way, including, but not limited to collecting, storing, evaluating, modifying, deleting, using, combining, disclosing and transferring information within our organization or among our affiliates within the United States or internationally. ## Information Collection and Use Our primary goals in collecting information are to provide and improve our Services, features and Content, to administer your membership and to enable users to enjoy and easily navigate the Services. ### Personally Identifiable Information - When you place an order or register as a Member and when you choose to create your own profile web page we will ask you for personally identifiable information. This refers to information about you that can be used to contact or identify you ("Personal Information"). We use your Personal Information mainly to provide the Services and administer your inquiries. Personal Information includes, but is not limited to, your name, phone number, email address and home and business postal addresses, the name of school you are affiliated with, grade, and other personal information. - We also collect the other information that you provide as part of registration and the administration and personalization of your profile web page (e.g., without limitation, zip code (on its own) and other individual preferences) ("Non-Identifying Information"). - We use your Personal Information (in some cases, in conjunction with your Non-Identifying Information) mainly to provide the Services, complete your transactions, and administer your inquiries. - Certain Non-Identifying Information would be considered a part of your Personal Information if it were combined with other identifiers (for example, combining your zip code with your street address) in a way that enables you to be identified. But the same pieces of information are considered Non-Identifying Information when they are taken alone or combined only with other non-identifying information (for example, your viewing preferences). We may combine your Personal Information with Non-Identifying Information and aggregate it with information collected from other Rethink Yearbooks Users to attempt to provide you with a better experience, to improve the quality and value of the Services and to analyze and understand how our Services are used. We may also use the combined information without aggregating it to serve you specifically, for instance to deliver a product to you according to your preferences or restrictions. - Information from partners: We do not collect information from other companies with whom you have a relationship ("Partners"). - Information from other sources: We do not obtain information from other sources. - When placing an order, families enter the child's full name directly (rather than selecting from a school roster) to improve accuracy and help protect student information. ## Log Data When you visit the Services, whether as a Member or a non-registered user just browsing (any of these, a "Rethink Yearbooks User"), our servers automatically record information that your browser sends whenever you visit a website ("Log Data"). This Log Data may include information such as your computer's Internet Protocol ("IP") address, browser type or the web page you were visiting before you came to our Services, pages of our Services that you visit, the time spent on those pages, information you search for on our Services, access times and dates, and other statistics. We might use this information to monitor and analyze use of the Services and for technical administration of the Services, to increase our Services' functionality and user-friendliness, and to better tailor it to our visitors' needs. We also use this information to verify that visitors to the Services meet the criteria required to process their requests. We do not treat Log Data as Personal Information or use it in association with other Personal Information, though we may aggregate, analyze and evaluate such information for the same purposes as stated above regarding other Non-Identifying Information. ## Children The Services are directed to schools, school coordinators, teachers, and parent or guardian volunteers — that is, to adults. We do not knowingly allow children under 13 to create their own accounts or to use the Services independently. A child under 13 may be involved with the Services only through an account managed by a parent or legal guardian, or through a school-managed account, and only with the involvement, supervision, and approval of that adult. This approach is consistent with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA); the parental-consent process is described in our Terms and in "Child Protection" below. ### Child Protection School is responsible for confirming receipt of valid parental consent forms for each child before providing an access code, and for providing parent users access to their child's account and profile, so that the parent user may review, modify, or delete any Personal Information pertaining to the student user contained in the account and profile. Please see our Terms for a full description of the parental consent process. Parents have the right to refuse further collection, use, and/or disclosure of their child's Personal Information by notifying School. If a parent user does not consent or rescinds such consent, School shall immediately remove all photos of that child from the content uploaded on our services to create the personalized yearbooks. This will ensure that such child's information is no longer accessible through the Services. In any case, however, Rethink Yearbooks may provide any collected information to third parties who use it to provide support for the internal operations of Rethink Yearbooks. ## Cookies Like many websites, we use "cookies" to collect information. A cookie is a small data file that we transfer to your computer's hard disk for record-keeping purposes. We use cookies for two purposes. First, we may utilize persistent cookies to save your registration ID and login password for future logins to the Services. Second, we may utilize session ID cookies to enable certain features of the Services, to better understand how you interact with the Services and to monitor aggregate usage by Rethink Yearbooks Users and web traffic routing on the Services. Unlike persistent cookies, session cookies are deleted from your computer when you log off from the Services and then close your browser. We do not use third-party advertising cookies, and we do not allow third-party advertisers to place or read cookies on your browser through the Services. You can instruct your browser, by changing its options, to stop accepting cookies or to prompt you before accepting a cookie from the websites you visit. If you do not accept cookies, however, you may not be able to use all portions of the Services or all functionality of the Services. ## Phishing Identity theft and the practice currently known as "phishing" are of great concern to Rethink Yearbooks. Safeguarding information to help protect you from identity theft is a top priority. We do not and will not, at any time, request your credit card information, your account ID, login password, or national identification numbers in a non-secure or unsolicited e-mail or telephone communication. For more information about phishing, visit the Federal Trade Commission's websites. ## Information Sharing and Disclosure We use the information you provide only to produce and deliver the yearbook. We do not disclose your information to any third parties or sell our data. Images uploaded by parent/family users are not shared with the school or other parents and families using our services. Images provided by the school to use our Services to create the yearbooks are also not shared with other parents and families. Access to ordering a yearbook is an invitation-only site designed to service only school community members. Uploaded student photos are used solely to design, produce, and print the school's yearbook. We never use uploaded photos to train artificial intelligence or machine-learning models, and we do not sell, license, or otherwise make uploaded photos available for that purpose. ## Data Retention We keep information only as long as we need it. Uploaded student photos are stored securely on servers located in the United States and are deleted before the start of the next school year — typically by August 1 following the season for which they were submitted. Final yearbook files are retained longer so that schools and families can reorder or reprint copies; those files contain the photos selected into the printed book. Account and order records (such as your name, contact details, and purchase history) are retained for as long as needed to provide the Services, support your account, resolve reprint or fulfillment issues, and meet our legal, tax, and accounting obligations. When information is no longer needed for these purposes, we delete or de-identify it. As noted in "Changing or deleting your information," we may retain a limited archived copy of records where required by law or for legitimate business purposes; any such archived copy is kept only as long as that purpose requires. ## Service Providers We may employ third party companies and individuals to facilitate our Services, to provide the Services on our behalf, to perform Services-related services (e.g., without limitation, maintenance services, database management, web analytics and improvement of the Services' features) or to assist us in analyzing how our Services are used. These third parties have access to your Personal Information only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose. ## Compliance with law and law enforcement Rethink Yearbooks cooperates with government and law enforcement officials and private parties to enforce and comply with the law. We will disclose any information about you to government or law enforcement officials or private parties as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate to respond to claims and legal process (including but not limited to subpoenas), to protect the property and rights of Rethink Yearbooks or a third party, to protect the safety of the public or any person, or to prevent or stop activity we may consider to be, or to pose a risk of being, any illegal, unethical or legally actionable activity. ## Business Transfers Rethink Yearbooks may sell, transfer or otherwise share some or all of its assets, including your Personal Information, in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets or in the event of bankruptcy. You will have the opportunity to opt out of any such transfer if the new entity's planned processing of your information differs materially from that set forth in this Privacy Policy. ## Changing or deleting your information - If you no longer want to receive certain communications from us via email or text message, please email us ([admin@rethinkyearbooks.com](mailto:admin@rethinkyearbooks.com)) with a note that you wish to unsubscribe from service-related correspondence from us, such as messages relating to your account transactions. - If you would like us to delete your account or your record in our system, please email [admin@rethinkyearbooks.com](mailto:admin@rethinkyearbooks.com) with a request that we delete your Personal Information from our database. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to honor your request, and deletion is permanent. We may retain a limited archived copy of your records only as required by law or for legitimate business purposes, as described in the "Data Retention" section above. ## Security Rethink Yearbooks is very concerned with safeguarding your information. We employ administrative, physical and electronic measures designed to protect your information from unauthorized access, and our platform runs on secure, industry-standard cloud infrastructure. We will make any legally required disclosures of any breach of the security, confidentiality, or integrity of your unencrypted electronically stored "personal data" (as defined in applicable state statutes on security breach notification) to you via email or conspicuous posting on this Services in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay, insofar as consistent with (i) the legitimate needs of law enforcement or (ii) any measures necessary to determine the scope of the breach and restore the reasonable integrity of the data system. ## California Privacy Rights (CCPA/CPRA) Second Innings LLC (dba Rethink Yearbooks) is based in California and provides the Services to California schools and families. If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, gives you the following rights regarding your personal information, subject to certain exceptions: - **Right to know and access.** You may request the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you, the sources of that information, the purposes for collecting it, and the categories of any parties with whom we share it. - **Right to delete.** You may request that we delete personal information we have collected from you, subject to legal exceptions (for example, information we must keep to complete a transaction or comply with law). - **Right to correct.** You may request that we correct inaccurate personal information we maintain about you. - **Right to opt out of sale or sharing.** We do not sell your personal information and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. Because we do not engage in these activities, there is nothing for you to opt out of; if this ever changes, we will update this policy and provide the required opt-out mechanism. - **Right to non-discrimination.** We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights. **How to exercise your rights.** To make a request, email us at [admin@rethinkyearbooks.com](mailto:admin@rethinkyearbooks.com). For your protection, we will take reasonable steps to verify your identity before acting on a request, which may include confirming information already associated with your account or order. An authorized agent may submit a request on your behalf if the agent provides proof that you have authorized them to act for you and we are able to verify your identity directly; we may deny a request from an agent who cannot demonstrate authorization. ## Agreement and changes By using the Services, you agree to the current Privacy Policy and Terms, to which this Privacy Policy is incorporated. Rethink Yearbooks reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify, discontinue or terminate the Services or to modify this Privacy Policy, at any time. If we modify this Privacy Policy, we will post the modification on the Services or provide you with notice of the modification. A notice and request for consent will be provided to parents if there are material changes to policies regarding the collection, use, or disclosure of a child's Personal Information. We will also indicate when such terms are effective at the top of the page. By continuing to access or use the Services after we have posted a modification or have provided you with notice of a modification, you are indicating that you agree to be bound by the modified Privacy Policy. If the modified Privacy Policy is not acceptable to you, your only recourse is to cease using the Services. ## Contacting Rethink Yearbooks For questions specifically about this Privacy Statement, or our use of your personal information, cookies or similar technologies, please contact our privacy office by email at [admin@rethinkyearbooks.com](mailto:admin@rethinkyearbooks.com). The data controller of your personal information is Second Innings LLC. Please note that if you contact us to assist you, for your safety and ours we may need to authenticate your identity before fulfilling your request. Questions? Email [admin@rethinkyearbooks.com](mailto:admin@rethinkyearbooks.com). Effective July 1, 2026. ============================================================================== # Terms and Conditions | Rethink Yearbooks - **url**: https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/terms-and-conditions - **description**: Terms of Service for Rethink Yearbooks personalized school yearbook services. - **updated**: 2026-09-03 --- # Terms of Service Effective July 1, 2026 Rethink Yearbooks allows schools and school administrators ("School"), and parents to create and offer personalised yearbooks through the Rethink Yearbooks website and software (the "Services"). The following terms and conditions ("Terms") govern the access and use of the Services and constitute a binding legal agreement between you, as a user of the Services, and Rethink Yearbooks. Your access to and use of the Services is conditioned on your compliance with these Terms. By accessing and/or using Services you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you are a parent volunteer, you are agreeing to these Terms on behalf of yourself, your child(ren) and your school to use the Services. If you do not agree with these Terms, you may not use the Services. If you are a school administrator or teacher, these Terms apply to your use of the Services, unless your School has agreed to different or supplementary terms in a separate written agreement with Rethink Yearbooks. ## Privacy All personal information that you provide is subject to our [Privacy Policy](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/privacy-policy), which governs our collection and use of your personal information. You understand that through your use of the Services you consent to the collection and use (as set forth in the Privacy Policy) of this information. As part of providing you the Services, we may need to provide you with certain communications, such as service announcements and administrative messages. These communications are considered part of the Services and your Account, which you may not be able to opt-out from receiving. ## Access Codes In order to access the Services, you must receive an access code from your School. If you are a parent, your access to and use of the Services will be subject to privileges and restrictions set by your School. If you have problems accessing a Rethink Yearbooks account set-up with a third party access code we recommend you check with the School that provided you with the related access code. Rethink Yearbooks will have no responsibility to you or any other third party for your inability to access or use the Services related to such an account and disclaims any liability related thereto. ## Orders, Pricing and Payment Families place orders and pay online by credit or debit card through the school's ordering link. After signing in (or creating an account), a family enters the school code to see the yearbook options available to them. The price of the traditional yearbook is set by the school. Optional upgrades include personalization (+$10) and, where the school offers it, a hardcover upgrade (+$9). Summer ship-to-home books are priced $5 above the regular family price and include a shipping charge (approximately $8–9, based on the delivery address, with a flat rate covering multiple books in a single order); fundraising margins are not collected on summer orders. Schools may configure fundraising margins or early-bird pricing on regular-cycle orders; individual discount or promo codes are not available unless a school configures them. For schools, the yearbook is quoted based on page count, with no deposits and no binding multi-year contract. Coordinator invoices may be paid by credit card or check and must be paid before books go to print. ## First Draft Rethink Yearbooks provides a complimentary first-draft design service ("First Draft"). Using the School's ladder, template selection, standard page layouts, and algorithmic photo selection, Rethink Yearbooks creates an initial draft of the School's yearbook. The School may override algorithmic photo selection for any event by placing its selected photographs in a folder named "favs" within that event's folder before the photo seal date. Following the photo seal date, Rethink Yearbooks will meet with the School to record its stated preferences and will apply them where its standard layouts and templates allow. First Draft is limited to standard layouts and templates. It does not include custom design, custom layouts, or revisions performed by Rethink Yearbooks. Once the draft is delivered, the School retains full editorial and creative control and may make unlimited changes in Canva. Rethink Yearbooks will respond to questions regarding how to use Canva features but will not make changes to photographs, layouts, or designs on the School's behalf. The School is solely responsible for reviewing and approving the yearbook before it is submitted for printing, including the accuracy and completeness of all names, photographs, and other Content. First Draft does not transfer that responsibility to Rethink Yearbooks. Rethink Yearbooks provides First Draft at no charge and may modify or discontinue it at any time. A plain-language overview of First Draft is available at [rethinkyearbooks.com/first-draft](https://www.rethinkyearbooks.com/first-draft). That overview is provided for reference only; the terms of this agreement govern. ## Personalization and Custom Pages The optional personalization upgrade includes the child's name and photo on the cover (front or back, chosen by the school's yearbook team) and automatically generated class and grade memory pages. Families who purchase the upgrade may also create up to two optional custom pages and submit them through the Custom Pages area of their profile before the school's deadline — either by designing in the provided Canva template and uploading a PDF, or by uploading up to twenty JPEG or PNG photos to generate a collage. A confirmation email is your proof that an upload was received; custom pages should be submitted only through the Custom Pages link, not by email. During the summer ordering cycle, any custom pages must be uploaded at the time the order is placed and cannot be added or replaced afterward. Yearbooks are print only; no digital, PDF, or flipbook version is provided to families. Personalized pages are generated from photographs supplied by the School. The number and content of photographs available for any individual student depend on what the School uploads, and Rethink Yearbooks does not warrant that any particular student will appear in a specified number of photographs. ## Shipping and Delivery Printing and delivery take approximately three weeks, which is the only firm deadline; all other dates are recommended milestones configured by the school. Books are printed in the United States. Regular-cycle orders ship in bulk to the school's yearbook team, who manage distribution; summer-cycle orders are processed for print immediately and shipped to the address entered at checkout. If a book has not arrived within three weeks of the order being placed, please contact us so we can look into it. **On-time delivery commitment.** Provided that the school's yearbook reaches print by the agreed print cutoff date (which the school confirms during the ordering process), we guarantee that regular-cycle books will be delivered before the school's last day of school. If, having met that cutoff, we fail to deliver on time, we will make it right by reprinting or refunding the affected books, at our election. This is an express, bounded commitment and operates as an exception to the general warranty disclaimer and the limitation of liability below. Except for the on-time delivery commitment above, all shipping and delivery dates are estimates only. We are not liable for delays that fall outside the conditions of that commitment, including delays caused by late content or approvals, orders that miss the agreed print cutoff, incorrect shipping addresses, carrier or customs delays, or events beyond our reasonable control. ## Changes, Cancellations and Refunds Once a book enters production it is printed and sealed, and no changes are possible — including to the order, personalization, shipping address, or custom pages. For summer ship-to-home orders, an order may be canceled for a full refund any time before it is sent to print; after that the book goes into production and is non-refundable. Refunds for incorrect personalization, misprints, or damaged books are handled on a case-by-case basis; contact support by email, or, for urgent issues, your school's yearbook team. For a missing book on the regular cycle, or for missing or incorrect photos or content, contact the school's yearbook team, since books are delivered to the school and content is collected and uploaded by school volunteers. Rethink Yearbooks' role is limited to the ordering platform, printing, and on-time delivery (together with the personalization upgrade), and not to content accuracy. ## Support and Scope Support for families is provided by email at [admin@rethinkyearbooks.com](mailto:admin@rethinkyearbooks.com); support for coordinators is provided at [admin@rethinkyearbooks.com](mailto:admin@rethinkyearbooks.com). There is no phone support for families; coordinators may receive phone help on a case-by-case basis for time-sensitive matters, and email is always the first line of support. Rethink Yearbooks produces yearbooks only — not directories or other custom book projects — and serves all school types from preschool through high school. ## The school obligations The following terms apply to school administrators and teachers, regarding the School's obligations related to the Services. The School is responsible for ensuring that its and any other user's use of the Services under Rethink Yearbook's agreement with the School will not violate any applicable U.S., state, or foreign law or regulation, including without limitation, applicable privacy laws. The School will be solely responsible (and the School hereby agrees that Rethink Yearbooks is not responsible) for compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and the Child Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), including without limitation, by limiting access to the Services to those student users from whom the School has received valid consent forms and complying with all parental requests regarding the collection, use and disclosure of such parent's child's information. The School is responsible for disseminating parental consent forms to parents of potential student users, for confirming receipt of valid consent forms for each child before granting a parent and/or that parent's child an access code for the Services, and for retaining such consent forms on file. The School must provide parent users with the option to agree to the collection and use of such parent's child's personal information without agreeing to the disclosure of the information to third parties. If a parent user does not consent or rescinds such consent, the School shall immediately notify Rethink Yearbooks to discontinue that child's access to the Services and ensure that such child's information is no longer accessible through the Services. In any case, however, Rethink Yearbooks may provide any collected information to third parties who use it to provide support for the internal operations of Rethink Yearbooks. The School decides who has access to what information and Content and who can delete or modify the information and Content. The School is responsible for providing parent users access to their child's profile so the parent user may review, modify, or delete any student user information contained in the student user's profile by allowing the parent to edit the child's profile on the Services. The School (and not Rethink Yearbooks) is solely responsible for all consequences of the performance or non-performance of its obligations in this Section of the Terms; Rethink Yearbooks hereby disclaims any and all liability for the School's failure to perform its obligations under the Terms. ## Your content Users may post, upload, publish, submit or transmit text, graphics, images, music, software, audio, video, information or other materials uploaded, downloaded, or otherwise available through the Services ("Content"), to be used through the Services. You may not post Content that is libelous, defamatory, obscene, abusive, or that violates a third party's proprietary and privacy rights or that otherwise violates any applicable law. You may not post Content that degrades others on the basis of gender, race, class, ethnicity, national origin, sexual preference, disability or other classification. You grant Rethink Yearbooks and your School (including its related third party vendors, including but not limited to photographers and yearbook publishers) a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable, perpetual and irrevocable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, publish, perform, transmit and access any Content in connection with the Services and Rethink Yearbooks's business, including, without limitation, publishing and redistributing Content in the School yearbooks. Rethink Yearbooks does not claim any ownership rights in any of your Content and nothing in these Terms will be deemed to restrict any rights that you may have to use and exploit any of your Content. You will be responsible for the Content that you make available through the Services. Accordingly, you either are the owner of the Content that you make available through the Services or you have the right, license, or permission necessary to grant to Rethink Yearbooks the rights in such Content; and the Content you provide (and Rethink Yearbook's or your School's use of that Content) will not infringe, misappropriate or violate a third party's proprietary rights, or result in the violation of any applicable law or regulation. Rethink Yearbooks respects copyright law and expects its users to do the same. Your School has the right to edit or remove any of your Content at any time for any reason at their sole discretion. If you dispute the editing or removal of any of your Content, you must contact your School for resolution of the dispute. Rethink Yearbooks disclaims all liability for such editing or removal and will not arbitrate any disputes over removal of your Content with you and your School. ## Copyright Complaints (DMCA) Rethink Yearbooks respects the intellectual property rights of others and expects its users to do the same. In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"), we will respond to properly submitted notices of alleged copyright infringement relating to Content made available through the Services. If you believe that Content available through the Services infringes your copyright, please send a written notice to our designated agent that includes: (1) your physical or electronic signature; (2) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed; (3) identification of the material claimed to be infringing and information reasonably sufficient to let us locate it; (4) your contact information; (5) a statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and (6) a statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the owner's behalf. Send notices to our designated agent at [admin@rethinkyearbooks.com](mailto:admin@rethinkyearbooks.com) (subject line: "DMCA Notice"). **Counter-notice.** If you believe your Content was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification, you may send a written counter-notice to the same agent that includes your signature, identification of the removed material and its prior location, a statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief the material was removed by mistake or misidentification, your contact information, and your consent to the jurisdiction of the federal court in the Northern District of California. We may restore the material as permitted by the DMCA. **Repeat infringers.** Rethink Yearbooks will, in appropriate circumstances and at its discretion, disable or terminate the access of users who are determined to be repeat infringers. ## Ownership of the Services The Services are protected by copyright, trademark, and other laws of the United States and foreign countries. Rethink Yearbooks and its licensors exclusively own all right, title and interest in and to the Services, including all associated intellectual property rights. You may not remove, alter or obscure any copyright, trademark, service mark or other proprietary rights notices incorporated in or accompanying the Services. You may not use, copy, adapt, modify, prepare derivative works based upon, distribute, licence, sell, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, stream, broadcast or otherwise exploit the Services, except as expressly permitted in these Terms. Any feedback, comments and suggestions you may provide for improvements to the Services ("Feedback") will be the sole and exclusive property of Rethink Yearbooks and you hereby irrevocably assign to Rethink Yearbooks all of your right, title, and interest in and to all Feedback. ## General Prohibitions You agree not to do any of the following while using the Services: - Modify, adapt, copy, alter, make derivative works of, attempt to decipher, decompile, disassemble or reverse engineer any portion of the Services; - Violate any applicable law or regulation, including, without limitation, privacy laws, export laws, and the Child Online Privacy Protection Act; - Collect or store any personally identifiable information from the Services from other users of the Services without their express permission; - Use, display, mirror, frame or utilize framing techniques to enclose the Services, or any individual element or materials within the Services, Rethink Yearbooks's name, any Rethink Yearbooks trademark, logo or other proprietary information, the content of any text or the layout and design of any page or form contained on a page, without Rethink Yearbooks's express written consent; - Access, tamper with, or use non-public areas of the Services, Rethink Yearbooks's computer systems, or the technical delivery systems or any technological measure implemented by Rethink Yearbooks or Rethink Yearbooks's providers to protect the Services; - Attempt to access or search the Services through the use of any engine, software, tool, agent, device or mechanism (including spiders, robots, crawlers, data mining tools or the like) other than the software and/or search agents provided by Rethink Yearbooks or other generally available third party web browsers; - Interfere with, or attempt to interfere with, the access of any user, host or network, including, without limitation, sending a virus, overloading, flooding, spamming, or mail-bombing the Services; or - Encourage or enable any other individual to do any of the foregoing. Rethink Yearbooks will have the right to investigate and prosecute violations of any of the above, to the fullest extent of the law. Rethink Yearbooks may involve and cooperate with law enforcement authorities in prosecuting users who violate these Terms. You acknowledge that Rethink Yearbooks has no obligation to monitor your access to or use of the Services, but has the right to do so for the purpose of operating the Services, to ensure your compliance with these Terms, or to comply with applicable law or the order or requirement of a court, administrative agency or other governmental body. ## Links and third party websites The Services may contain links to third party websites, including but not limited to websites of third party. You acknowledge and agree that Rethink Yearbooks is not responsible or liable for: (i) the availability or accuracy of such websites or resources; or (ii) the content, products, or services on or available from such websites or resources. Links to such websites or resources do not imply any endorsement by Rethink Yearbooks of such websites or resources or the content, products, or services available from such websites or resources. You acknowledge sole responsibility for and assume all risk arising from your use of any such websites or resources. Rethink Yearbooks cannot ensure that you will be satisfied with the products, services, or business practices of such third parties. ## Termination If you breach any of these Terms, Rethink Yearbooks and/or your School will have the right to suspend or disable your access to the Services, at their sole discretion and without prior notice to you. If you are the parent using the Services, and cease to agree with Rethink Yearbook's Terms and Privacy Policy at some point in the future, you may terminate your access by contacting Rethink Yearbooks and/or the School. Once your access terminates for any reason, you will not be permitted to use the Services. ## Disclaimers Except for the express on-time delivery commitment set out in the "Shipping and Delivery" section above, the Services are provided on an "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. Without limiting the foregoing, Rethink Yearbooks EXPLICITLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, QUIET ENJOYMENT OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING OUT OF COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE. Rethink Yearbooks makes no warranty that the Services will meet your requirements or be available on an uninterrupted, secure, or error-free basis. Rethink Yearbooks makes no warranty regarding the quality of any products or services purchased or obtained through the Services or any third party site. No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained from Rethink Yearbooks or through the Services, will create any warranty not expressly made herein. You are solely responsible for all of your communications and interactions with other users of the Services and with other persons with whom you communicate or interact as a result of your use of the Services. Rethink Yearbooks makes no representations or warranties as to the conduct of users of the Services or their compatibility with any current or future users of the Services. ## Indemnity If you are a parent or student user of the Services, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold Rethink Yearbooks and School and their officers, directors, employees and agents, harmless from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses, including, without limitation, reasonable legal fees, arising out of or in any way connected with your access to or use of the Services, or your violation of these Terms, including any claims that your Content infringes or violates any proprietary right of a third party. If you are a School, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold Rethink Yearbooks and its officers, directors, employees and agents, harmless from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses, including, without limitation, reasonable legal fees, arising out of or in any way connected with your or your students' access to or use of the Services, or your or your students' violation of these Terms, including any claims that your or your students' Content infringes or violates any proprietary right of a third party. ## Limitation of Liability TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE ENTIRE RISK ARISING OUT OF YOUR ACCESS TO AND USE OF THE SERVICES AND CONTENT REMAINS WITH YOU. RETHINK YEARBOOKS AND SECOND INNINGS LLC WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOSS OF DATA, SERVICE INTERRUPTION, COMPUTER DAMAGE OR SYSTEM FAILURE, OR FOR ANY DAMAGES FOR PERSONAL OR BODILY INJURY OR EMOTIONAL DISTRESS ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THESE TERMS OR FROM THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICES, OR FROM ANY COMMUNICATIONS, INTERACTIONS OR MEETINGS WITH OTHER USERS OF THE SERVICES OR OTHER PERSONS WITH WHOM YOU COMMUNICATE OR INTERACT AS A RESULT OF YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, AND WHETHER OR NOT RETHINK YEARBOOKS AND SECOND INNINGS LLC HAS BEEN INFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE, EVEN IF A LIMITED REMEDY SET FORTH HEREIN IS FOUND TO HAVE FAILED OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE. IN ADDITION, AND EXCEPT WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW, THE TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF RETHINK YEARBOOKS AND SECOND INNINGS LLC ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE SERVICES, FROM ALL CAUSES OF ACTION AND UNDER ALL THEORIES OF LIABILITY, WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (a) THE TOTAL AMOUNT YOU PAID TO RETHINK YEARBOOKS FOR THE SERVICES IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR (b) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS (US$100). This aggregate cap applies in addition to, and does not limit, the exclusion of consequential and other damages set forth above. The express on-time delivery commitment in the "Shipping and Delivery" section (reprint or refund of the affected books) is a separate contractual remedy and is not reduced by this cap. ## Exclusions Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, so the above limitation may not apply to you. ## Controlling law and jurisdiction These Terms and any action related thereto will be governed by the laws of the State of California without regard to its conflict of laws provisions. Subject to the "Dispute Resolution and Arbitration" section below, the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of any action with respect to the subject matter of these Terms will be the federal or state courts located in the Northern District of California and each of the parties hereto consents to the personal jurisdiction and venue in such courts. ## Dispute Resolution and Arbitration **Please read this section carefully. It affects your legal rights, including your right to file a lawsuit in court and to have disputes heard by a jury or as part of a class action.** **Informal resolution first.** Before starting an arbitration, you and Rethink Yearbooks (Second Innings LLC) agree to first try to resolve any dispute informally. Send a written description of the dispute, your contact information, and the relief you are seeking to [admin@rethinkyearbooks.com](mailto:admin@rethinkyearbooks.com). The parties will attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute for at least sixty (60) days after that notice before either party may begin arbitration. **Binding individual arbitration.** Except for the carve-out below, any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services that is not resolved informally will be settled by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under its Consumer Arbitration Rules then in effect. The arbitration will be conducted in the Northern District of California or, at your election, in your home county, or by telephone or video where permitted by the AAA rules. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court having jurisdiction. This arbitration agreement is governed by the Federal Arbitration Act. **Small-claims carve-out.** Either party may bring an individual claim in a small-claims court of competent jurisdiction instead of arbitration, so long as the claim remains in that court and is brought only on an individual basis. Nothing in this section prevents either party from seeking injunctive or other equitable relief in court for the infringement or misuse of intellectual property rights. **Class-action and class-arbitration waiver.** You and Rethink Yearbooks agree that each may bring claims against the other only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, consolidated, or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims and may not preside over any form of class or representative proceeding. **30-day opt-out.** You may opt out of this Dispute Resolution and Arbitration section within thirty (30) days of first accepting these Terms by emailing [admin@rethinkyearbooks.com](mailto:admin@rethinkyearbooks.com) with your name, the account or school associated with you, and a clear statement that you wish to opt out of arbitration. If you opt out, neither you nor Rethink Yearbooks will be bound by the arbitration and class-waiver provisions of this section, and disputes will instead proceed in the courts identified in the "Controlling law and jurisdiction" section. ## Waiver and Severability The failure of Rethink Yearbooks to enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not constitute a waiver of future enforcement of that right or provision. If for any reason a court of competent jurisdiction finds any provision of these Terms invalid or unenforceable, that provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible and the other provisions of these Terms will remain in full force and effect. ## Entire Agreement These Terms and the Privacy Policy constitute the entire and exclusive understanding and agreement between Rethink Yearbooks and you regarding the Services, and supersede and replace any and all prior oral or written understandings or agreements between Rethink Yearbooks and you regarding the Services. ## Modification Rethink Yearbooks reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to modify, discontinue or terminate the Services or to modify these Terms, at any time and without prior notice. If we modify these Terms, we will post the modification on the Services or provide you with notice of the modification. We will also indicate when such terms are effective at the top of the page. By continuing to access or use the Services after we have posted a modification or have provided you with notice of a modification, you are indicating that you agree to be bound by the modified Terms. If the modified Terms are not acceptable to you, your only recourse is to cease using the Services. ## Contacting Rethink Yearbooks The Services are owned and operated by Rethink Yearbooks. If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact Rethink Yearbooks at [admin@rethinkyearbooks.com](mailto:admin@rethinkyearbooks.com). Questions? Email [admin@rethinkyearbooks.com](mailto:admin@rethinkyearbooks.com). Effective July 1, 2026.