Student Services

Academic Advising

Our goal is to ensure that students succeed to the best of their abilities. Our academic advising falls into four main categories:

• Four-year high school planning
  • Students and parents find it helpful to meet with a counselor to make a plan for high school to:
    • Gain a better understanding of courses and activities offered at NDA
    • Understand how elective classes fit in around core academic classes
    • Understand the importance of each academic year
    • Understand how to meet graduation requirements and best prepare for future course selection
• Ensure students choose classes that match their abilities and interests
  • Counselors give general advice to all students leading up to online course selection
  • Students and parents can schedule individual appointments leading up to online course selection
  • Counselors check classes and recommend changes in some cases

• Assist students having difficulty
  • Parents/guardians are encouraged to talk to teachers first to receive progress reports
  • Student services can help find a peer tutor
  • Counselors can meet with students, teachers, and parents/guardians to determine special accommodations needed
• Help students who have fallen behind
  • Counselors can assist students who have fallen behind, perhaps due to an extended absence, through regular communication between teachers and students

*Access to student cumulative records is available upon request.

Personal Counseling

NDA counselors listen without judging and avoid giving unwanted advice. We tap into self-understanding and explore options in a confidential environment. No issue is too small to come to us with!

Learning Resource Center

The Learning Resource Center is located within the Student Services area. It provides assistance for students with certified learning disabilities and/or special needs. The Learning Resource Specialist works with students, teachers, parents/guardians, and staff to assist the student to achieve academic success by developing and adapting an educational plan that suits his/her specific needs.

A student may also be referred to the Learning Resource Specialist based on academic standing or if the student shows signs of a learning disability. The parents/guardians are contacted and a meeting is set up to discuss the student's situation. The Learning Resource Specialist may advise preliminary testing and/or further testing by outside resources to help determine the student's specific needs.

The LRC provides peer tutoring and test accommodations.

College Advising

• Notre Dame Academy Student Services Department has a College Counselor and three school counselors actively helping families with college admissions. We help students do the following:
  • Understand how high school success affects post-secondary education
  • Pursue classes and activities that build a solid high school résumé
  • Seek colleges that match the student well
  • Present themselves positively to colleges
  • Apply to college and seek scholarships in a timely, organized manner
• Timelines: Junior Timeline | Senior Timeline
• Naviance
  • Naviance is NDA's online college planning tool. Naviance will help students plan their future by providing career exploration assessments, college exploration tools, and safe, secure, electronic document sending. Upon student request, documents such as transcripts and letters of recommendation are sent via Naviance to colleges and universities students have applied to.  
  • All NDA students to register for Naviance. When visiting the site for the first time, enter your registration code in the New User box. Follow the on-screen instructions to create your account.
  • If you do not know your registration code, email Ms. Rockwood. Note that parents and their students receive different registration codes. Each code can be used only once. Students are encouraged to use their NDA email address for their account. Access to Naviance.
  • Senior transcripts should be requested through Naviance.

Standardized Testing

• Sophomore Year
  • Pre-ACT - Administered in spring to all sophomores
  • ACT - a few sophomores choose to take the ACT
• Junior Year
  • ACT/SAT - College bound students should take one or both of these tests.
  • Advanced Placement (AP) - Some juniors choose to take AP exams for college credit, advanced placement, or both (depending on the college)
  • PSAT/NMSQ - This optional test is given in October at NDA. It is the National Merit Scholarship Program qualifying exam. It's excellent preparation for taking SAT
• Senior year
  • ACT - Seniors can choose to take the ACT again
  • SAT - Seniors can choose to take the SAT again
  • Advanced Placement (AP) - Some seniors choose to take AP exams for college credit

Test Registration Process

• Pre-ACT: No registration necessary; all sophomores are automatically registered
• PSAT:  NDA registration forms available in late September in the Student Services Office 
• ACT:  Online at actstudent.org

• SAT:  Online at collegeboard.org 

Special Accommodations

Test accommodations are given to students with physical or learning impairments. Mild to medium ADD/ADHD rarely qualifies a student for accommodations. Students with physical impairments may request appropriate accommodations, while students with learning impairments usually request extra time.

In order to determine eligibility based on learning impairment, your son/daughter would need to have formal evaluations done by a psychiatrist or psychologist that show two things: intellectual abilities and current level of achievement.

The evaluations must show that there is some kind of condition (like a reading disorder, significant ADD, or another learning disability) that is causing the gap between your child's ability and his/her achievement.

Once those evaluations are done, they are sent to the test agency along with a description of the testing accommodations he/she may have received here at school. ACT/SAT uses all this info to decide whether to give extra time. It takes four to five weeks after they receive the paperwork for a decision to be made.

Please contact Beth Abler for more information regarding this topic.

Program Requirements

• Proof of Wisconsin residency
• Have an active Individual Education Plan (IEP) or Service Plan (SP) from a public school

Proof of residency is required to complete the SNSP application. Accepted documents for proof of residency include: 

• Preferred (if applicable) - Property Tax Statement
• Current Wage Statement (can be year end W2)
• Current water, gas, or electric bill (dated within the last 90 days) Current lease agreement

In the instance that a student qualifies for both WPCP and SNSP, parents should complete both the WPCP and SNSP applications. 

If you have any questions regarding the Special Needs Scholarship Program, please contact Mrs. Jill Gerl, Director of Student Services, at jgerl@notredameacademy.com.

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