1. Educational program
Adaptive Chess is educational chess instruction. It is not medical care, behavioral therapy, occupational therapy, psychotherapy, special education, habilitation, or a substitute for clinical or school-based services. Chess Max Academy does not diagnose, treat, or make medical-necessity determinations.
2. Evaluation, trial, and placement
The initial parent evaluation is free. If Chess Max offers a trial, the trial is paid and takes place in the lesson format recommended after the evaluation. After the trial, Chess Max provides a written recommendation and may provide an enrollment offer when an appropriate placement is available.
Evaluation or trial participation does not guarantee enrollment, a particular teacher, location, schedule, lesson format, or future group placement.
3. Adaptive Group and Adaptive Private
Adaptive Group uses a structured small-group format. Adaptive Private is organized around one student. A student may remain in private instruction or may later be considered for a group trial. Movement between formats depends on lesson experience, fit, staffing, and availability and is not guaranteed.
4. Family information
Families are responsible for providing accurate information needed for safe educational placement, including relevant communication, behavioral, sensory, mobility, allergy, emergency, and supervision information. Chess Max may request updated information when circumstances change.
5. Safety and participation
Chess Max may pause or end a lesson, trial, or enrollment when it reasonably determines that the available setting cannot be operated safely or is not an appropriate educational fit. The family will be informed of the concern and available next steps.
6. Attendance, cancellations, and payment
Normal Chess Max enrollment, attendance, cancellation, make-up, and payment terms shown in the written offer and during registration apply unless a written Adaptive Chess offer states otherwise.
7. Results and research limitations
Chess Max does not guarantee improvement in chess rating, attention, executive function, school performance, social communication, behavior, or daily living. Published research has important design and sample limitations and does not establish outcomes for an individual Chess Max student.
8. Reimbursement and OPWDD Self-Direction
Stand-alone educational chess classes are generally not a standard health-insurance benefit. Chess Max does not bill health insurance, submit claims, obtain authorization, contact a family’s plan or Self-Direction team on the family’s behalf, issue medical billing codes or medical superbills, determine medical necessity, or guarantee approval, reimbursement, direct payment, or timing.
After a family confirms eligibility, Chess Max may provide standard receipts and program documents for the family’s own request. Parents pay under the normal enrollment terms and manage any request themselves.
New York families using OPWDD Self-Direction may ask their Support Broker and Fiscal Intermediary whether a genuinely public chess class can be considered in an approved budget as an IDGS Community Class. Any qualifying class must be open to the broader public, require no diagnosis, not be disability-exclusive, teach chess, and relate to the participant’s approved goals. The participant’s Self-Direction team makes every eligibility, approval, budget, and payment decision.
9. Privacy and communications
Program communications should use the family’s designated contact information. Families should not send unnecessary medical records by ordinary email. Personal information is handled under the Chess Max Academy Privacy Policy.
10. Questions and acknowledgment
Before enrollment, families should ask questions about placement, the written offer, applicable general terms, and any reimbursement documentation they may need. Questions may be directed to office@chessmaxacademy.com or +1 (646) 783-1386.