Our first and most important service is to provide our members with a cover school that is legal and meets the requirements set by Alabama Law.  We did that when we established Valleydale Christian Church and Academy in 1998.  We went a step further three years later and fulfilled the requirement of accreditation with the American Association of Independent Schools.  This is a nationally recognized organization that accredits cover schools.  Our recommended curriculum is also nationally accreditated.  Our accreditation is not public school accreditation.

We are the liaison between our members and their various Boards of Education, proving that they are being  educated through our school and are not truant.  We deliver the correct forms to the Boards from our office.  In the unlikely event that you fail to educate your child, or your child decides to drop out of our system, we report this information to the correct parties.  We educate all our members on how to begin the enrollment process with us, how to follow our rules and regulations that we, by law, must maintain, and how to purchase and use the correct curriculum for your children.  This involves meetings, orientations, written communication and seminars.  We customize each child’s academic needs with their curriculum in order to meet the State of Alabama educational and graduation guidelines.  We combine work that they previously completed if they have been in another school, and fit the new curriculum to a schedule that will maximize their education.  For seniors, we follow close guidelines for accruing the correct academic credits and ACT requirements to enter college, also providing a complete and professional transcript and necessary test papers.  We provide planned activities for field trips, required meetings, support groups, and group activities for all ages.  Although Valleydale Academy is not required to engineer any child’s social life, we do have a number of chances for our members to meet each other on several occasions.  Participation is the key.  We also stay abreast of home school law, and any pending legislation that may affect our members, and continuously study new curriculum as it becomes available.

On-campus Classes:
We not only provide a cover school for homeschooling, but also offer on-campus classes.  Valleydale Academy recommends excellent curriculum choices, however, we do offer on-campus classes for sixth grade students up to and including senior students.  Students earn credits in these classes and are allowed to take up to five classes per year, provided they are available.  It is not our intention to replace one school with another, we just know that some parents like to have someone else teach subjects such as math and foreign languages.  You will be told about these classes in detail when you join.

Field Trips:
We plan field trips for various ages at least once a month.  We also encourage attending all Birmingham Children Theatre plays.  We take field trip requests and try to work those into the calendar schedule.  Some field trips are free, and some require a fee.  Field Trip participation is not required, however, it is highly recommended that our students try to participate as often as possible.  A great deal of time and effort goes into our field trip planning and they are not drop-off field trips, parents are required to attend.   In addition to our field trips, there are also teen events geared for students in the 8th through the 12th grade.