Is School's Out! free for parents?

Yes. Always free for parents. No credit card, no paywall. We may eventually charge camps for Featured placement — never families.

How do you pick which camps to list?

Every camp is manually reviewed. We check the website, confirm the ages and location, and only list operators running real programs in the neighborhoods we cover.

Does School's Out! take a cut of camp bookings?

No. We're a directory, not a broker. Parents book directly on the camp's website. Camp operators keep 100% of every booking.

Will my family data be shared?

No. Kid data stays on your device per our COPPA-aligned design. The only data we store on our server is the email you give us for closure reminders — and you can unsubscribe any time.

What if my kid's school isn't listed?

Use the city request form. Tell us the city (and your email) and we'll email you the moment we add your school or expand coverage.

Who built School's Out!?

Noah (age 8) and his dad, in Coral Gables. Noah sketched the first version on a napkin during Spring Break 2025 — when every camp was already sold out.

What is a realistic break-even registration count for paid directory spend?

For a $150 monthly Featured spend with $800 revenue per registration and 30% inquiry close, break-even is roughly 1 incremental registration per 1-2 months. If you cannot model that, the spend is not worth the risk — start with the free tier instead.

Why is the math so different for paid vs free directory listings?

Paid spend is a recurring fixed cost — you pay whether or not anyone clicks. Free listings have a one-time submission cost (60 minutes of your time) and then compound forever. At Miami-Dade scale (~3,000 monthly searches for "Miami summer camps" and ~1,500 for the Spanish equivalent), even a small share of those searches produces meaningful ROI for a free listing.

Should I track cost-per-fill across channels?

Yes. The cheapest way is to ask new families how they heard about you when they register. After one season you will have enough data to defund the channels that are not converting. Most operators discover that their highest-ROI channel is a free directory + word-of-mouth, not paid acquisition.

ROI calculator: what does a Miami camp listing actually cost?

Operators ask "what is the ROI of listing on directory X?" — but ROI varies massively with your average revenue per registration, your conversion rate from listing-view to inquiry, and your inquiry-to-registration close rate. This article walks through the math with conservative Miami-Dade numbers and lets you swap in your own.

The inputs you need

Average revenue per registration. For a Miami summer camp at $400/week × 2 weeks average, that's $800 per registration.
Inquiry-to-registration close rate. Most Miami operators land around 25-40%. Use 30% as a starting point.
Listing-view to inquiry rate. This varies enormously by listing quality. Conservative: 2-4% for a complete listing with bilingual coverage and good photos.

School’s Out! — free tier

Cost: $0. Submission time: ~60 minutes including bilingual description, address, hours, ages, and break-window availability. At $800 revenue per registration × 30% close rate × even 1 registration per year, the break-even is 1 inquiry, which converts to $240 expected revenue against $0 cost. ROI is effectively infinite for any non-zero conversion.

Macaroni KID paid editorial mention

Cost: $50-200 per edition per mention (varies by editor). Reach: 2,000-8,000 newsletter subscribers per Miami edition. At a 2% click-through and 30% close, a $150 mention pays for itself at ~1 registration. The math works if you can pick the right edition for your neighborhood and time the mention to the wave-2 window (mid-February through early March).

Munchkin Fun Featured upgrade

Cost: typically ~$50-100/month for a Featured slot (varies). Math is similar to School’s Out! Featured tier: pays back at 1-2 incremental registrations per season. Worth it for camps whose target neighborhood is already a Munchkin Fun-heavy search surface.

Paid Google ads

Cost: variable. Miami summer-camp keyword CPC ranges $0.80-$3.50. At a 30-40% landing-page conversion (very high for paid traffic) and 30% inquiry close, you are spending $5-15 per booked registration in CAC. The math works at $800 revenue per registration, but you are paying for traffic you would have gotten free if you were ranking organically.