What We Offer

Administrative and Academic Services (download pdf for printable version)
SMICA administration and staff will do the following:

Recordkeeping
- file your church school enrollment form with your local school district
- request records from your previous school
- fulfill records requests from your next school if you cease enrollment
- keep a copy of students’ records each year
- maintain and build a transcript for 9th-12th grades
- send transcripts to colleges, etc. upon request
- provide proof of enrollment upon request for drivers license tests and to allow participation in public school sports

Communication
- communicate with members as a group primarily via email
- communicate with members personally, when needed, via email and additional methods
- provide a website with a calendar of events, forms to download, and many ways to connect with other members personally
- interface with public/private schools, colleges, etc. when necessary
- communicate as your school resigtrar with NCAA Eligibility system

Educating Parents
- offer customized academic advising for any grade level, K3 through graduation.
- provide opportunities for parents to grow in their knowledge about home education through:
   - Premiers support group focusing on K3-3rd grade with monthly speakers and mentor moms
   - Faculty meetings (3 per year) usually with guest speakers, as well as updates on laws, opportunities, and requirements
   - High School 101 & 102 workshops each summer for first-time parents of rising 8th-9th and 10th-11th graders (2.5 hours each workshop)
   - Middle school workshop each year for first-time parents of rising 6th-8th graders (2-2.5 hours)
   - Achievement testing workshop to explain the standardized testing reports
   - Resource Room which is a library of homeschool materials available for checkout
   - notifications of other opportunities in our community for parent education (dyslexia and other challenges, parenting conferences, etc.)

Testing
- offer participation in annual current achievement tests (Iowa TBS) for 3rd-10th grade
- host or offer access to an annual administration of the PSAT for 9th-11th grade and PSAT 8/9 for 7th-9th grade
- host or offer access to an annual administration of the PreACT for 9th-11th grade and PreACT 8/9 for 7th-9th grade
- interface with testing services (ACT, SAT, NMSQT, etc.) when necessary, including Test Accommodations for ACT/SAT

Additional benefits for high schoolers:
- Our high school advisors will meet with you to help make sure your student is on track for graduation.
See Diploma Requirements.
- SMIC Academy has its own school code for ACT, SAT, AP, and CLEP.
- We can make a Dual Enrollment agreement with most colleges, which allows high schoolers to use courses to fulfill high school graduation requirements. We offer 0.5 credits per approved 100-level course.
- Our administrators can sign documents as your principal (driver’s license, administrative letters of recommendation, dual/concurrent enrollment at colleges, etc.).
- We offer a graduation ceremony and reception.

Associations
- SMIC Academy is a member of the Alabama Christian School Association (ACEA http://www.alabamachristianed.com/about.html), which is one of the largest state Christian school organizations in the country. ACEA is a member of the American Association of Christian Schools (www.AACS.org). The AACS serves 100,000 students and teachers mainly in brick-and-mortar Christian schools.

Activities
To keep our costs low, we rely on parent volunteers to coordinate our activities, with the support of communication by Academy staff. The following activities are current or recent. Some offerings are subject to change. * indicates these activities are limited to SMICA/Premiers families only.

Academic:
*ACEA Competitions 3rd-12th (Speech, Fine Arts, Music, Academic, Spelling, Bible)
Speech Club 3rd-12th (to prepare for competition)
*Local Academic competitions, like math team 5th-12th
Spelling Bee (school and district) 1st-8th
GeoBee 1st-8th
Enrichment Classes (Spelling Club, Bird Watching, Scripture Melodies, etc; monthly)
High school tutorial classes (fee-for-service) when the need arises
*Graduation Ceremony and reception for Kindergarten
*Graduation Ceremony and reception for 12th graders

Social and/or Service:
*High School Student Council (determines high school social activities like prom, park days, etc.)
Fellowship activities (Fall Chili Cook-off, Ice Skating, Bowling, Valentine’s Party, Field Day)
Park Days
*Field Trips (Premiers organizes for K3-3rd, SMICA organizes trips for 4th-up; science, history, technology industry)
Keepers and Contenders Clubs
Access to Beta Club 4th-12th (through Charger Academy)
Access to National Homeschool Honor Society 9th-12th (through Crossroads or Omega)
SMICA Community Service Award for 80+ hours/year

Sports:
There are many ways that homeschool students can participate in sports.
1. Some of our students participate in public school athletics at their local school. The law requires that a high school student take an additional class from the public school along with his PE/Athletic Life course.
2. Homeschoolers can join a local homeschool sports program such as East Central, Lighthouse, or Trinity. These programs have real coaches, conferences, and playoffs. Trinity has a drumline/colorguard program as well. Some of our students participate in football and basketball with these programs.
3. Because SMICA is an ACEA member school, we can compete in some sports, individually or as a team. We have had a *cross-country track team (for several years because the practice schedule is homeschool friendly), soccer camps, tennis team, and a *volleyball team. All homeschool athletic teams need a coach, so when our school has had parents interested in coaching, we have had teams (competitive and non-competitive). We limit our enrollment, so this limits our ability to have our own teams that require larger numbers of players.