Most SmartChoice systems require the parent to use an email address to create their account. There are some schools/districts that have mobile sign-up for accounts allowing parents to use EITHER an email or phone number to create an account.
If your school or district has a mobile sign-up, the Account Creation screen will showcase additional fields for account creation with only one of them (phone or email) being required. If you use your phone number to create your account, all messages will be sent to your Parent Inbox (within your SmartChoice account).
If you do not have an email address, and your school or district does not have a mobile sign-up, you will need to create an email address in order to create a SmartChoice account. To do so you can choose any free email service like Gmail or Yahoo.
Once you have your email created, you can use your new email address to create your account as noted in the How do I create a Smart Choice Account? article.