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Holy Family Academy began in the Spring of 1994.  Our support group had been active for about a year and I had felt a definite calling to begin a private school.  The idea was accepted and we began our planning.

First we had a contest to choose the name of the school.  We had come up with several names (none of which was the final outcome) and put them up on a board.  Then we had a silent vote.  Everyone wrote their choice on a piece of paper and the papers were collected and tallied.  The Holy Family must have been very active in the room that day for, as we counted through the papers, we were overwhelmed with the fact that just about every paper had the name "Holy Family Academy" written on it.

Working on setting up the school was a difficult job.  Besides all the legal and business aspects, I had to make sure that we created all the necessary forms and that a parent handbook was created.  I got a lot of help from another ISP leader, who provided much of the handbook information for us to work with.  The final outcome was very satisfactory to all the families.

Here are some of the excerpts from our handbook:
 Non-Discrimination Statement
 Verification of School Attendance
 Philosophy
 School Administration
 School Policies
 Attendance
 Parent/Faculty Policies
 Quarterly Attendance and Progress Reports
 Holy Family Academy Refund Policy
 School Services
 Grading Policies
 Affidavit
 Cumulative Records
 Withdrawing
 Planning for High School
 Holy Family Academy High School
 Emergency Quick Start for Home Schooling High School
 Graduation Requirements
 High School Course Requirements
 Planning for College
 Setting High School Course Requirements
 Designing Individual Courses
 Curriculum Choices
 Setting a Course Standard
  Earthquake Preparedness

Non-Discrimination Statement
     Holy Family Academy admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students in Holy Family Academy.  Holy Family Academy does not discriminate on basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin in administration of its education policies, admission policies, scholarship programs or other school administered programs.

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Verification of School Attendance
     Verification of Holy Family Academy attendance is based on parents' keeping school records current with: timely registration, faculty qualifications on file, course of study on file, current progress reports and attendance records, and parents participation in the "faculty meetings".

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Philosophy
     "Parents have a most grave duty and enjoy the primary right of educating to the very best of their ability, their children physically, socially, and culturally and morally and religiously as well."

Code of Canon Law of 1983, Canon 1136
     Fidelity to the Magisterium of the Church and to the Pope and Bishops is necessary to maintain a Catholic identity; and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is at the heart of all Christian endeavors, especially those involving the family.
     Holy Family Academy is an association of Catholic families engaged in educating within the home environment.  The families of Holy Family Academy have chosen home schooling as the means of educating their children, with the understanding that parents are the most competent and able to determine the true needs and talents of their children.  The parents have the consequent responsibility to be suitably prepared for undertaking the task of educating their own children and ensuring that they will be equipped to be responsible members of society and committed disciples of Christ in the Church.  The parents, moreover, have the right and duty to educate their children in the Faith.  This is accomplished through the witness of their lives, by creating an atmosphere of faith in the home, by teaching their children to pray and leading them to the sacraments.  Instruction in doctrine and morality is necessary for the growth and nourishment of their children's faith.
     Holy Family Academy exists to provide a means for member families to support and minister to each other.  It is meant to be a family to family ministry within the wider support that each family finds in the Church.  Besides spiritual support for each other, the Academy provides opportunities of socialization, curriculum development and enrichment, and other means of meeting the unique needs of Catholic home schooling families.
     We, of Holy Family Academy, believe in and accept the Holy Roman Catholic Church as the True Church set up by Jesus Christ on earth, and we recognize the Teaching Magisterium of  the Church as the ultimate authority on matters of faith, morals and discipline in the Christian life.  The Magisterium is the Pope, and all Bishops in union and communion with him.  We believe in true reverence for the Blessed Sacrament and a strong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy and Immaculate Mother of God.  We encourage regular reception of the sacraments of Holy Eucharist and Penance, and recitation of the Rosary as was often preached and practiced by many of our saints.
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School Administration
     The Administrators are sharing their services in response to God's calling and are first, spouses, parents and instructors of their children.  We, just like yourself, will be teaching our children at home and suffering the same joys, frustrations, interruptions, and problems as you do. Guidance, curriculum counseling and support for the Holy Family Academy members is offered willingly balancing our families needs and the needs of those in Holy Family Academy.

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School Policies
Holy Family Academy

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Attendance
     Public schools in California are required by the Education Code to teach school for 175-180 days per year.  This is not required of private schools.  The California Constitution sets the minimum school time per year at six months which could be interpreted as 130 days per year.  The general public school rule for absenteeism is that if a child misses more than 25 days in  aschool year he cannot pass to the next grade level, leaving his attendance at 150 days.  HSLDA  recommends    180 days, remembering to include legal and religious holidays into this 180 days.  School hours are between 8:00 AM and 2:00 PM.  Education Code requires 31/2 hours per day (3 hours academic, 1/2 hour break) for grades 1 through 6.  Grades 7 through 12 are listed in the High School section of this manual.

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Parent/Faculty Policies

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Quarterly Attendance and Progress Reports

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Holy Family Academy Refund Policy
Registration Fees are NON-REFUNDABLE
     Tuition Fees are prorated during the first three months of the school year.  If your child is withdrawn before the school year begins, you are entitled to a full refund of the Tuition paid.  If  your child is withdrawn during the month of September, you are entitled to a 75% refund of the Tuition paid.  If your child is withdrawn during the month of October, you are entitled to a 50% refund of the Tuition paid.  If your child is withdrawn during th emonth of November, you are entitled to a 25% refund of the Tuition paid.  After the first quarter of the school year, no refunds will be issued.
ALL REFUNDS WILL BE ISSUED WITHIN 45 DAYS OF WITHDRAWAL REQUEST.

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School Services

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Grading Policies
     Colleges may require transcripts with G.P.A., grade point average. The below will assist parents/faculty with grading guidelines:

Letter Grade Percentage Correct  G.P.A.

     In grading student work, keep in mind that the importance ofthe work depends on the attitude of the student.  Do not grade strictly on "how many right/how many wrong", base your grading system on the willingness of the student to accomplish the work.
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Affidavit
     Between October 1st and 15th, Holy Family Academy files a private school affidavit with the State of California. Therefore, we are recognized as a legitimate private school, obeying all the laws pertaining to private schools.

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Cumulative Records
     Permanent cumulative student records will be maintained in the school's fireproof file cabinet.  Request for past school records are done by the Holy Family Academy Director as soon as possible after we receive your registration forms.

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Withdrawing
     To withdraw from Holy Family Academy, it isnecessary to notify the office in writing.  All fees and forms are required until we receive your written withdrawal notification.  Your cumulative and family files will be forwarded when all fees are paid and upon our receiving an official written request.  We have no room for permanent storage.  You must retrieve your records from our files within three months of withdrawal.

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Planning for High School
     If you think you might enter a traditional school before graduation, it is suggested that you follow the recommended course of study from your local school district.  In this way you will be better able to fit into a traditional system at any point in the future. Students scoring below their grade level on the achievement tests will be required to pass the California High School Proficiency Exam to qualify for graduation.  If you plan to attend a university or college, find out what the prerequisites are for the school or schools you are interested in attending.

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Holy Family Academy High School
Graduation Requirements for 8th Grade
     Holy Family Academy does not have specific Graduation Requirements to move from 8th grade into High School.  Since the State Education Codes include 7th and 8th grade in the "branches of study" for upper levels, Junior High can be used as a preparation period for High School.  If you do testing on an annual basis, oneof the best ways to establish a graduation requirement for 8th grade in on the basis of these test scores.  In addition to completing specific courses, the student must score at an overall 8th or 9th grade level on a particular test in order to graduate into high school.  Remember though, some students simply do not test well, so test scores should not be used as the only effective measure of what a student does or does not know.   Some basic requirements for graduation could be mastery of the basic skills in reading, writing, and arithmetic.  Also knowledge of how to use research materials and the ability to think things through to a logical conclusion (or be getting better at it).

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Emergency Quick Start for Home Schooling High School
     If you have found yourself in the situation of pulling your child out of another school in the middle of the school year, you may feel like you don't have the time to plan carefully and set goals before getting started.  In order to "buy time" to set up your own program and order materials, you can try some of the following ideas to keep your teen happy.  These ideas can run from a few days to a few weeks of study.

RELIGION

ENGLISH MATH
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Graduation Requirements
A student can earn a high school diploma through Holy FamilyAcademy by one of three ways:

     As of the 1996-1997 School Year, ALL high school grade 9-11 students will be REQUIRED to participate in Standardized Testing in May.  This is not an option.  If you have students in grades nine through twelve and are NOT enrolled in a correspondence course that offers testing, your children MUST be tested each year.  These scores are crucial to keeping an acceptable CUM file and transcripts.  Many colleges and universities require these testing scores as part of their acceptance program as well as a passing score of the SAT.  If you have NOT been testing each year, AND you have a senior enrolled in Holy Family Academy, the standardized test is required for graduation.
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High School Course Requirements
MINIMUM NUMBER OF CREDITS REQUIRED - 195

Religion- 40 credits (5 credits per semester)

English - 40 credits Mathematics - 20 credits Social Studies - 30 credits Life Science - 10 credits Physical Science - 10 credits Fine Arts - 10 credits Foreign Language - 20 credits Physical Education - 15 credits Electives: Please keep in mind that public high schools generally require between 210 and 230 credits for graduation.
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Planning for College
College and University Contacts
     It is highly recommended that each family, during the tenth and eleventh grades, contact the colleges/universities of your choosing and request requirements for admission.  The above list is required for graduation from Holy Family Academy and is not necessarily the requirement for admission to a four year college. The School administration will be happy to assist you in planning your High School requirements and in contacting the colleges/universities.

Planning for College Admission
Student:
1) Send for college catalogs and READ them.
2) Determine eligibility for UC and Cal State Schools.
3) Decide on a tentative major.
4) Take SAT for the first time in May or June.

Parent and Student:
1) Visit college campuses and talk with admission officer.
2) Discuss finances.
3) Discuss areas of interest and possible majors.
4) Have on-going dialogue concerning future interests and educational goals.

College Entrance Requirements: Community Colleges
     Community colleges serve the various needs of different levels of education.  Students may prepare themselves for admission to a four-year institution with junior standing, or they may choose one of many one or two-year certificate programs which lead to immediate job placement.
     High school students may be able to take courses at a local community college while still in high school.  Credit would be earned toward high school graduation at the same time the student is earning college credits.

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Setting High School Course Requirements
     In a 180 day school year, there are 180 hours per 2 semester course.  That comes to 90 hours per semester for each course. However, in the public high school classroom, the class time runs only 50 minutes instead of 1 hour.  This brings us to 75 hours per semester or 150 hours per year.  We could break this down even farther by allowing for only 40 minutes of actual instruction time and 10 minutes of self-work.  This total would bring us to 60 hours per semester or 120 hours per year.  I prefer the 75 hours per semester and 150 hours per year because it is easier to figure out in setting course requirements. Use these hours when planning out your course.
     When a course is completed a certain number of credits are awarded to the student.  One semester earns 5 credits, a full year earns 10 credits.  Holy Family Academy tallies these credits as they accumulate in the form of transcripts.

Holy Family Academy High School Course Descriptions
Students should take a minimum of five classes per semester.
Course descriptions need to include:

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Designing Individual Courses
There are five areas of emphasis to every course that you teach your child.
Mastery - These are the concepts or parts of the subject that everyone should master.  These concepts will be used again and again throughout the student's life.  As an example, in the subject of science, one concept that would be part of a mastery area is that there is a difference between scientific facts and scientific theories.  Mastering the concept of scientific method to be able to make an educated guess about something, and then design a test or experiment using the skills of observation, measurement, recording of data, and analysis of facts to arrive at a correct conclusion -this is the part of science that everyone would benefit from knowing.
Exposure - There are some parts to every subject or course that would be of benefit to most students if the students were simply exposed to the ideas of topics, without necessarily spending hours and hours trying to master them.  In science, an exposure area might be the study of the classification system of living organisms.  Latin names for every kingdom, phylum, class, etc. are well worth being exposed to for the concept of orderliness and for the understanding of the differences among the various types of creatures.  However, most adults cannot recite all the kingdoms, nor can they remember that there are seven levels of classification.  The important part for most of us is understanding that there is a classification system in place so that, should we ever need to identify some creature scientifically, we can look up the necessary information to do so.  The exposure to the classification system was good; devoting hours and hours to memorizing every detail of it should not be the emphasis of the course.
Gifts - Gift areas are fun because they are unique to each person. In planning your courses, give special consideration to your student's gift areas if you are aware of them.  The areas where your student has a gift will require extra time and harder work to fully develop that gift.  That hard work may prove fruitful by leading to a lifelong hobby or career.
Interests - The difference between an interest and a gift is that an interest may crop up for a short time, provide worthwhile studies, and then fade away.  Take time to delve into a course that grabs your student's interest.
Continuing Learning Areas - There are some areas of study in which we all need to continue learning and growing, especially areas where facts continually change.  As an example, in government, elected officials change every few years.

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Curriculum Choices
     There are many ways to plan your teen's course of study.  But most importantly, you must first decide on what you want your student to learn.
     If you decide on a pre-packaged course of study, realize that there are always more assignments and projects than anyone could complete in one year.  The writers do this specifically because of the many different teaching and learning styles, allowing for these different preferences.  Do not be afraid to alter a pre-packaged course.

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Setting a Course Standard
     A Course Standard is needed to tell how the grade will be assigned. A well-designed Course Standard will let the student know what is expected to earn a particular grade.
SAMPLE
75%-daily work done on time and corrected; 25%-tests
Formula=(Total daily work pts X 75%)+ (Total test pts X 25%)
63 daily lessons were completed on time and corrected for full credit, so the grade for daily work is 100%
16 tests were taken with grades as follows:

The total of all the test percentages = 1240.  Divide this by 16 tests to get an overall average test score of 77.5%.  So the overall class grade: The grade for this semester course would be 94.38% or A
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Earthquake Preparedness
     All schools are to have an Earthquake Preparedness Plan. ...and once a quarter have a practice drill.  Below you will find a list of items that are a must for your survival kit.  Keep these items to a minimum, yet don't exclude anything vital to food preparation. Where can you store all these necessities?  The best place is to find an interior closet or large flat crates under a bed or two. Storing needs in a large plastic trash can with a flat top is a space saving idea.  Keep in mind that items should be well-sealed, air tight and in separate containers.  Make sure to find two or three areas in your home to store your emergency preparations.
BEFORE THE SHAKING STARTS......
Prepare Your Family:

Prepare Your Home: DURING THE SHAKING...... AFTER THE SHAKING STOPS......-- Three-Day Survival Pack
TOP OF THE BARREL MIDDLE OF THE BARREL BOTTOM OF THE BARREL The Survival Earthquake Plan Sample 7 - Day Survival Plan


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