Sylvan is a source of tutors. A parent can go there and be assured they will have someone who will be very willing to work with your child. It's an easy source of tutors, it's not inexpensive.
And it's hit or miss - the teachers are Sylvan are moonlighting from their regular jobs to make some extra money. Nothing wrong with that but make sure the tutor you get is right for your child. No tutor even the best of them is the right tutor for every child and for the good money you pay, you should get a good tutor.
Beware being told they need to do testing and being told of 'extra services' for more money. Sylvan and all other tutoring service exists to make money and they can be very happy to drain you of yours. The best way to find a tutor, if possible, is to ask friends and neighbors and when you hear someone speak well of a tutor that worked with their child, you've at least got one good recommendation on the tutor. At Sylvan, you'll be working blind. Know Sylvan and every other private tutoring service pretty much hires any certified teacher who comes through the door whether they're a good tutor or not.
Good luck.

My 6th grade son has been going to Sylvan since early Feb. for reading comp...... still waiting to see his grade at school get above a D. This week will be his 36 hours at Sylvan which they advertise 12 free hours of tutoring if grades are not raised a full grade after 36 hours. I see above the mean by their tests not the schools..... HMMMM I need to look into that one. There's alwasy a catch. Here is it $40 per hour, we go twice a week. I am going to continue going for the summer (can't hurt) then I think we will stop once school starts and see how he does.... fingers are always crossed. Good luck on your decision.

If your child has an LD - specialized tutoring is a must. You will need to find a professional that has a Special Education background with a certification in an Orton-Gillingham program. The program needs to be structured, systematic, repetitive and cuculative. Children with learning differences learn differently and therefore need to be taught differently. And.... one-on-one is best.

My first question is what type of difficulties is your child experiencing? How old are they/what grade? What, if anything, has already been tried to help them?
To echo what buckaroo has said, if a real learning disability is involved, most "chain" tutoring places aren't trained to deal with them. On the other hand, let's say you moved from one state to another mid-year, and your child's old school was still working on addition and subtraction, while the new one is working on multiplication and division, then maybe a place like Sylvan, Huntington Learning, Kumon, etc. can help "fill in the missing pieces." Or if your child is at grade level already, and you just want to be sure they don't forget everything over the summer, it might also be okay. But for a child with LDs, you need more individualized, and specialized methodologies that places like Sylvan generally don't provide.

Not for children with learning disabilities like dyslexia. They do not provide the proven methods to remediate this type of issue.

If your child just needs an extra boost and has no LDs (and you have lots of money cause they aren't cheap), then by all means.

Be careful when they say they will raise your child's grades a full grade in X amount of time. They don't actually mean your child's grade, but the grade level of a test THEY administer. Completely different.