Get Think Like a King software. It will do everything for your club. Reports, ratings, awards, chess classes etc. Find more about it on the internet. This is the best thing that ever happened to my scholastic chess club.
This is an excellent idea, and has been used quite successfully in our town to come up LOCAL ratings so we can divide local tournaments into ability based sections and come up with reasonable pairings. None of the kids need to join USCF, and they all have a way of moving up through the local ranks.
I see no reason why you couldn’t use WinTd to track results of your club practice sessions, and build ratings out of these, too.
But I would ask what your purpose is in trying to get these kids rated? If you want to keep the whole thing inside your own PTA, then stick with the “friendly play” approach. Who needs a rating, anyway?
If you have players who are ready to move on to rated competition, take them to rated scholastic events outside your school.
nothing has been said about Chess-Live yet to my knowledge, so as an active member of the staff there, I would like to say something to that regard.
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All USCF members get to play 10 free rated (that is a Chess-Live rating, not a USCF rating) games a day on Chess-Live (as well as watch other non-titled players play, and watch the lessons in the lecturebot). Howevever, that must be an active USCF membership. In other words, that is yet another reason for them to want to be USCF members!
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Anyone (USCF or not) can play unlimited unrated games and there are tournaments where free membership can be won
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Additionally, the first friday of every month is called “free Friday”. Everyone (a member or not) can play unlimited rated games, watch titled players (such as IMs and GMs) play, and maybe even watch a live lecture or two (if any are scheduled for that day)!
So, in other words, check us out at http://www.chess-live.com !