Sycamore is one system with a few clearly named parts. Sycamore School runs student records, admissions, and the classroom. Sycamore Payments bills families and collects tuition. The Sycamore Parent App puts payments, grades, attendance, and school messages on a family's phone. Everything sits on the same family record, so nothing gets re-typed between offices.
Sycamore is education management software for private and independent K-12 schools. The core license is $4 per student per month and covers the student information system, admissions and enrollment, parent communication by email, SMS, and push, the Sycamore Parent App, Sycamore Academy training, and US-based support. Sycamore Payments has no monthly fee; schools pay processing only when a family pays, and the school decides who covers it.
Around that core, schools add what fits: Tuition Refund Protection at enrollment, Donations for the advancement office, Sycamore Childcare for early learning and aftercare, School Websites, and Sycamore Campus for colleges and trade schools.
Each card links to the product page and straight into the parts schools ask about most. Start anywhere; they all lead back to the same record.
Records, enrollment, the classroom, and staff training.
The SIS for independent K-12: student records, attendance, gradebook and report cards, admissions, financial aid, cafeteria, athletics, health records, and family communication, all in one database.
Role-based training in twelve catalogs, from the front office and finance to teachers, the nurse, and the cafeteria manager. A new hire learns their job, not the whole menu. Included with the license.
Explore Academy
Enrollment, check-in, staff and classroom ratios, parent communication, and tuition billing for childcare centers and school aftercare programs. $4 per child per month, all-in.
Explore Childcare
For colleges, universities, and trade schools: recruitment and administration, student information, transcripts and timecards, and course management.
Explore CampusTuition, fees, refund protection, and giving.
Recurring tuition, one-time fees, payment plans, and autopay by card or ACH, with one bill for multiple charges and receipts that send themselves. No monthly platform fee, and QuickBooks Online stays in sync.
Families can opt into refund protection while they enroll and choose a payment plan, through our partnership with Vertical Insure. The school protects revenue without running a separate process.
Explore Refund Protection
Upload an old donor list as it is and get it back enriched and sorted into giving tiers. Run annual fund, capital, and scholarship campaigns, with giving from the Parent App, inside Sycamore, or a public campaign page.
Explore Donations
How tuition, fees, donations, and accounting fit together for the business manager, from the first charge to the reconciled month.
Explore financial managementMessages, the app, and your public website.
Email, SMS, and push to the whole school, a class, or a group, from the same system that bills families. Staff and families can message back and forth in the Sycamore platform, messages can be translated, and you can send emergency alerts.
Explore communication and payments
Payments, attendance, grades, and school messages on one screen. Families pay by card or ACH, pull their own statements, and get receipts with your logo. Free for families, rated 4.7 across Sycamore and TuitionEP.
Explore the Parent App
Fast, modern websites built for your school, with content migration and templates you can edit, so the front door looks as current as the system behind it.
Explore School Websites
Run several schools in one system, for dioceses, school groups, and networks of campuses. Schools at 1,200+ students get the deepest per-student pricing and reduced setup fees.
Explore multi-siteMost schools buy these jobs from different vendors and copy data between them. In Sycamore each step reads from the record the last one wrote.
It depends on the seat you sit in. Here's where each person on a school team usually starts.
One system to replace three, and an app families actually use.
Collections, fee policy, and books that reconcile.
A cleaner path from inquiry to enrolled and paid.
Attendance, the gradebook, and parent messages in one place.
Security, access, and what happens to your data.
"Sycamore is a multifaceted student information system that stands out for its integration with Google, excellent technical support, and high degree of individualization for schools."
"Had we known the quality of the product and ease of use, we would have changed even sooner than we did."
One per-student license for the core, and processing fees only when families pay. The school decides who covers them.
| Item | What you pay |
|---|---|
| Sycamore School license | $4 per student per month, all-in: SIS, admissions, communication, the Parent App, Sycamore Academy, and US-based support. Run your numbers |
| Direct pay licensing | Rolling out fall 2026: the school pays $1 per student per month for data hosting, and families cover the SIS license once a year. How it works |
| Payments platform fee | None. Processing applies only when a transaction runs. Fee details |
| Credit card | 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, plus a 1% Sycamore convenience fee: 3.9% + $0.30 in total. |
| ACH bank transfer | 0.8% (capped at $5) plus a 1% Sycamore convenience fee: 1.8% in total, with only the 0.8% banking portion capped. |
| Who covers processing | The school, families through direct pay, a split down the middle, or a mix by method. Try the calculator |
| Childcare | $4 per child per month, all-in. Childcare pricing |
| Contract and onboarding | 18-month minimum, and longer terms lock in your per-student rate. A low standard onboarding fee based on school size, discounted further for districts, dioceses, and groups. Volume discounts start above 400 students. |
Full details on the pricing page. Rates current as of October 2026.
Sycamore offers Sycamore School (a student information system with admissions and enrollment), Sycamore Payments for tuition and fees, parent communication by email, SMS, and push, the Sycamore Parent App, Sycamore Academy training, Tuition Refund Protection, Donations, Sycamore Childcare, School Websites, and Sycamore Campus for higher education. They share one family record.
Yes. Sycamore School is an SIS for private and independent K-12 schools, covering student records, attendance, gradebook and report cards, admissions, financial aid, health records, cafeteria, and athletics. Billing and payments run on the same record, so the business office and the front office see the same family.
The Sycamore School license is $4 per student per month and includes the SIS, admissions and enrollment, parent communication, the Sycamore Parent App, Sycamore Academy training, and unlimited US-based support. Payment processing is billed separately, per transaction, only when a family pays. See pricing.
No. There is no monthly or annual platform fee for Sycamore Payments. Cards are 3.9% + $0.30 per transaction and ACH is 1.8% (only the 0.8% banking portion is capped at $5), and that applies only when a transaction runs.
The school decides. It can absorb the fees, have families cover them through direct pay, split them down the middle, or mix by method, for example the school covers ACH and families cover cards. The fee calculator shows each option.
Yes. The Sycamore Parent App is free for families on iOS and Android and puts payments, attendance, grades, and school messages on one screen. The Sycamore and TuitionEP apps carry a combined 4.7 rating. Families can download it here.
Yes. Staff and families can message back and forth inside the Sycamore platform. School messages and alerts reach families by email, SMS, and push in the Parent App, messages can be translated, and schools can send emergency alerts. More on parent communication.
Yes. Families pay by card or ACH in the Parent App, can pay several charges at once, and can set up autopay or a payment plan. Receipts with the school's logo send automatically, and the family balance updates right away.
Yes. Sycamore Childcare handles enrollment, check-in, communication, and billing for childcare centers and aftercare at $4 per child per month. Sycamore Campus serves colleges, universities, and trade schools.
Most independent schools go live in 4 to 8 weeks, including migration of student records from the current system. Staff can learn their role ahead of time in Sycamore Academy.
Sycamore is FERPA compliant with role-based access, SSO, and audit trails. Card and bank payments are processed by Stripe, a PCI DSS Level 1 certified processor. Uptime is published on the status page, and the data processing addendum is public.
Yes. Sycamore Payments has a direct QuickBooks Online integration, plus downloadable reports for other accounting workflows. See accounting and reporting.
On a short demo we'll walk through a family's record from inquiry to paid, show you the parts your school would use first, and follow up with pricing for your enrollment.
Sycamore Leaf Solutions, education management software for K-12 schools since 2001.
Processing rates current as of October 2026. Payment availability outside the US depends on processor support in your country.
