1. Check with the teacher. See if your child's teacher offers tutoring before or after school. If so, then make sure you take advantage of all the tutoring times offered. Making an effort will show the teacher that your son or daughter really cares and is trying to improve. If the teacher does not offer additional help, check and see if the school offers any tutoring programs before or after school for your child. You might also consider having the school test your child to see if he or she qualifies for any of the special classes offered by the school to help students with learning difficulties.

2. Ask the school counselors/school district. Some school districts have an approved tutoring list that will not only give the names and numbers of qualified tutors but will also have their areas of expertise as well as their hourly rates. Usually these tutors have passed a background check so that the school district can ensure they have no criminal history. Also, the tutors being used by the school district will usually live in the nearby area, which will ensure that they are not too far so as to make them inaccessible.

3. Get recommendations from friends, family, and co-workers. If you ask other parents, you will probably find that some of them have hired tutors for their children. You can then determine what they like and did not like about the tutor beforehand. Ask them what age their children were when they saw the tutor so that you can see if it is about the same as the age of your child. Also, find out what subject the tutor was helping them with so that you can see if it is the same type of material your child needs help with. You can also ask if the tutor is dependable and if the rates are affordable. By getting this information before you contact the tutor, you can limit your search and save yourself some time.

4. Check Yellow Page listings. Although the Yellow Pages may seem like an impersonal way to find a tutor, you can be sure that a teacher with a listing takes his/her tutoring business seriously. Make sure you contact the tutors closest to you first, especially if they want you to drive to their location for help. Also, try to select a tutor who you have a good rapport with over the phone. People who are easy to talk to are also usually the ones who kids relate to. Ask for the tutor's credentials, including years of experience and educational background, and find out if the tutor is willing to give you the phone numbers of other students he/she tutors as references.

5. Go Online. You may be leery about going online to find a tutor, especially with all the warnings about the bad people lurking out there on the Internet just waiting to pounce on unsuspecting youths. But if you look in the right places, you can find extremely well qualified tutors who live near you. Simply go to your favorite search engine, and type in a phrase like "Dallas (or whatever the name of your city/town is) area tutors" or "Dallas Algebra tutor." Once you find some tutors you would like to contact, you should send them an email or call them to get more information about where they tutor, when they tutor, how much they charge, etc. Then you can decide which one you would like to meet to further discuss any tutoring questions you may have.

Melanie D. White is the mother of three school age children. She is also a certified teacher who currently runs a freelance tutoring business in the Dallas area. For more information about the tutoring services Melanie has to offer, check out her web site: http://www.dfwtutoring.com.