How to switch yearbook companies
To switch yearbook companies, find your current agreement, check when it renews and how much notice it needs, send that notice in writing, and collect the photos, portraits and page plan you already have before you lose access. For next year’s book, February is the practical last month to decide, because many yearbook contracts need notice months before the contract year ends; for this year’s book, a switch can still work if you are not under contract for it and the new book can be approved about three weeks before you need it.
At a glance
- Read the agreement first. Look for the term, automatic renewal, the notice period and how notice must be delivered.
- Next year’s book: decide by about February. Notice periods and spring contract signing make that the last workable month.
- This year’s book: possible if you are not locked in for this year. Work back from your last day of school.
- Ask for what is yours: uploaded photos, portrait files from your photographer, last year’s book and page list, and any fundraising money or credit owed.
- You can keep your school photographer. Portraits usually come from the photographer, not the yearbook company.
Is it too late to switch yearbook companies?
It depends on which book you mean, because two different clocks are running.
Next year’s book. Yearbook contracts are generally ended by written notice before the contract year closes, often about 90 days before, and many vendors sign the following year’s books in spring. Work backwards from a contract year that ends in June or July, leave your PTA board time to vote, and the decision has to be made by roughly February. February is not the ideal month to decide; it is the last one that still works. If you miss it, you have not lost the switch, you have moved it to the following year, so write the date down now.
This year’s book. If your school is not under contract for this year, you can start with a new vendor partway through the year and use the photos you have already collected. The fixed point is the day you approve the book for print. Printing and delivery take about three weeks after approval, so a late start is really a question of whether there is enough time before that date to collect, build and proofread the book.
Which of three situations are you in?
- PTA-run with no written contract, or year to year. You can switch whenever you choose. Many of the schools that get in touch with us in August and September are in this group.
- A contract that renews unless you give notice. You can switch for next year if the notice goes in on time. Mid-year, check the termination clause before you do anything.
- A multi-year agreement, often bundled with picture day. Some district photography contracts include the yearbook, run for several years and are exclusive. Find the end date and the notice date; that is your switch window.
How do I get out of my current yearbook contract?
Treat it as paperwork, not a negotiation.
- Find the signed agreement. Ask whoever signed it: last year’s chair, the PTA treasurer, the school office or the district. Enquiry forms often come from someone who has never seen it.
- Read five clauses. The term (one year or several), automatic renewal, the notice period, how notice must be delivered (email, certified mail, a named contact), and any exclusivity clause.
- Check what happens to money already in motion. Deposits, orders families have already placed, and any fundraising balance owed to the school.
- Send notice in writing, the way the contract asks, and keep proof. A phone call to your rep is not notice.
- Put the date in next year’s handover notes, so the next coordinator is not surprised by a renewal. What to hand over →
If the agreement was signed by the district rather than the PTA, the district has to give the notice. That is worth finding out in the fall, not in March.
What should I ask my old yearbook company for?
Ask early, while your account still works. You are asking for things your school created or paid for.
- The photos your community uploaded. Download everything from their platform, organized by event if you can. These are the photos your new book will be built from.
- Last year’s book as a PDF, and its page list. It is the fastest way to write this year’s ladder, the page-by-page plan of the book.
- Your sales and order totals. How many books sold, at what price. You need them to plan pricing and any fundraiser.
- Any money owed. A fundraising balance, account credit or prepayment.
- Portrait files: ask your photographer, not the yearbook company. School photographers usually supply yearbook portraits in the standard PSPA format, even when they don’t make your yearbook. Confirm who sends them and when.
What does a switching timeline look like?
Switching for next year (the common case):
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| October–January | Find the agreement, note the notice date, get quotes and samples |
| By about February | PTA board decides; written notice goes to the current vendor |
| March–June | Choose and sign with the new vendor. Outgoing officers write the handover notes |
| 1 July | New PTA officers usually take office |
| August–September | Set up photo folders, announce the yearbook at back-to-school night |
Switching partway through this year (only if you are not locked in):
- Start with your last day of school and plan to approve the book for print at least a month before it. Printing and delivery take about three weeks after approval; the extra week is your buffer.
- Set a photo deadline four to six weeks before approval, when collecting stops and building starts.
- Move the photos you already have into one folder per event.
- Open ordering for families as soon as the new vendor’s store is ready.
The full year, month by month: the yearbook timeline for a PTA →
Signs it’s time to switch yearbook companies.
These are the reasons coordinators give us, in their own words, when they ask for a quote.
- The design software is hard to use, and it is taking more volunteer hours every year.
- Support is thin. Nobody answers when the book is due.
- Photo handling is limited, so most of what families upload never makes it into the book.
- Most children barely appear. A shared book has a fixed number of photo slots for the whole school. How that math works →
- You can’t get a straight price without a sales call.
- The book needs to raise money for the PTA, and the current arrangement doesn’t.
- Picture day and the yearbook are bundled, so you have never been able to shop either on its own.
Why does switching feel harder than it is?
Because the yearbook matters but is rarely urgent, so the default is to repeat last year. The worries are usually the same three: training teachers on a new system, chasing photos all over again, and a new vendor missing the deadline.
What actually carries over is smaller than it looks. Your photos are yours and move with you. Your photographer can stay. Your page plan is last year’s book with the dates changed. What changes is the tool your volunteers design in and who drafts the pages, which is the part most coordinators want to change anyway.
Can we keep our school photographer?
Yes. Portraits and the yearbook are separate jobs, even when one company sells both. Rethink reads student portraits in the standard PSPA format from any school photographer and builds the portrait pages from them. Four of our schools kept Lifetouch for picture day and chose Rethink for the yearbook.
What does switching to Rethink involve?
- A one-school-year agreement, with no deposit, no multi-year term, no setup fee and no order minimum. We print the books families order.
- First Draft, free. We build a complete first draft from your ladder, your template choice and the photos you have collected. Your team then edits it in Canva and approves it. It is a head start, not a finished book. What First Draft is and isn’t →
- Every child is in the shared school pages, and families who choose personalization get pages built around their own child’s class and grade. Those myClass or myGrade pages carry 35–60 candids from the child’s own class and grade, depending on what the school uploads.
- Published prices. Softcover from $22, priced by page count. Every price →
- Printed in the USA, in about three weeks after you approve the book, with on-time delivery guaranteed when you approve at least three weeks before you need it.
Compare directly: vs. Treering · vs. Jostens · vs. Lifetouch · vs. Balfour · vs. Picaboo
Switching yearbook companies, answered.
Can I switch yearbook companies mid-year?
Often, yes, if your school is not under contract for this year’s book. Check the termination clause first. Then work back from your last day of school: approve the book for print at least a month before it, since printing and delivery take about three weeks after approval, and use the photos you have already collected.
When is it too late to switch yearbook companies for next year?
For most schools on a renewing contract, after February. Contracts generally need written notice before the contract year ends, and vendors sign next year’s books in spring. A school with no contract can switch at any time.
Am I locked into a contract with my current yearbook company?
Read the agreement for four things: the term, automatic renewal, the notice period and exclusivity. Many PTA-run elementary arrangements are year to year; district contracts bundled with picture day can run for several years.
Do we lose the photos we already uploaded?
Not if you download them before your account closes. Ask for them as soon as you decide, organized by event if the platform allows it.
Is it hard to switch yearbook companies?
Less than it sounds. There is no software to migrate: photos go into Google Drive folders, we build your first draft, and your team edits it in Canva. The paperwork is the notice to your old vendor; the timing is the only part you can’t recover if you miss it.
Switch your yearbook in
one conversation.
A one-school-year agreement with no deposit and no multi-year term, a free first draft, and on-time delivery guaranteed when you approve the book at least three weeks before you need it.