LifeWise Academy is a growing Christian education program that will soon be available to the Plainfield community, bringing an exciting new opportunity for families interested in providing their children with Bible-based religious education.
LifeWise Academy is launching in Plainfield and will soon be available, giving parents the opportunity for their children to receive Bible education through the LifeWise Academy program, which is designed to give students the opportunity to learn Scripture as well as important values and character traits through the gospel.
With LifeWise Academy coming to the Plainfield community, it introduces an opportunity for families to incorporate faith-based learning into their children’s public school education.
LifeWise Academy is a Christian nonprofit organization that provides Bible education classes to public school students during the school day. Students who participate in the program leave school through a time-release program where they go off their school campus to a separate location for their instruction.
LifeWise Academy is a time-release Bible education class offered to public school students. Under the 1952 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Zorach v. Clauson, LifeWise Academy must be off school property, funded privately and have parent permission.
LifeWise Academy instruction happens one day a week, when students are picked up from school with transportation provided and go to a host site for their lesson. This lasts about 45 to 50 minutes. Typically, for elementary students, their program is done during their recess and lunch time, and for middle school students, their program is during their special elective.
“Typically, how elementary students attend is during recess and lunch, or they would end up missing one special class every week, and that is unfortunately the same special all year. For example, if we pick up our fourth and fifth graders on Tuesdays and that is their music day, because they have a different special every day of the week, they would always miss music. For the middle school kids, they get to attend LifeWise Academy during their specials classes, but they have the same specials all week. My son’s a sixth grader; he has choir every single day, so when he attends LifeWise on Fridays, he just misses one of his choir classes out of the five,” says Maggie Andrews, representing LifeWise Academy.
LifeWise Academy is completely free for students to attend, and there is no financial burden on parents.
LifeWise Academy is funded through a program called Trust Funding, but people can sponsor LifeWise Academy and donate to the program. The average cost of LifeWise Academy is about $30 per child a month to attend the program. Churches and small businesses can also help sponsor LifeWise Academy.
“With our name LifeWise Academy, everyone automatically assumes that we are a school, but we are a nonprofit program. There are some misconceptions about what we teach, and we teach Jesus is the hero of every Bible story. We teach a nondenominational curriculum, and we are not tied or affiliated to any type of specific denomination. All of our teachings come just straight from the Christian Standard Bible. The program can be completed in four years, so if a student goes from fourth grade to eighth grade, they would essentially have completed all the curriculum courses. One thing that we always advertise to parents is this is not a grade. You do not need to worry about homework or anything like that. The curriculum is different for every age. We teach the elementary program to our elementary students and the middle school program to the middle schoolers. The program just got expanded into high schools with an opportunity to earn college credit,” says Andrews.
To get involved with LifeWise Academy, people can donate and volunteer their time. For more information regarding Plainfield’s specific LifeWise Academy chapter, visit lifewise.org/program/1808970-plainfield-community-school-corp.
“Overall, LifeWise Academy needs community support through funding and volunteering. We need community involvement for LifeWise Academy to grow and for more people to be reached with the gospel. The way that these programs stay strong is through community involvement.
Parents can enroll their child on the website and can sign up to receive newsletters and program information. On the website, people can also sign up to be a volunteer or to be an ambassador. Ambassadors are people in the community who are willing to pass out information and help spread awareness about LifeWise Academy at community events. The LifeWise Academy website also gives people information on how to be a financial donor,” says Andrews.
