Ohio district rescinds policy allowing religious indoctrination during school day

The Westerville City Schools say that LifeWise Academy is too disruptive for their staff and students

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An Ohio school district has decided to end a policy that allowed students to legally skip school in order to take Bible indoctrination classes because, frankly, it was getting out of hand.

The controversy centers around a Christian ministry called LifeWise Academy, which offers Bible classes that students are meant to take during the school day as part of a program called “Released time.” LifeWise takes care of the curriculum, staff, and background checks; local chapters (usually churches) can tap into the network for use in their own local public school districts. Students then go to those churches during the school day, get their dose of biblical indoctrination, then return to school for the rest of the afternoon. Last year, nearly 300 students in the Westerville City Schools participated in the LifeWise program.

The front page of LifeWise’s website brags about Bible classes offered during the school day (screenshot via LifeWise)

Technically, “Released time” policies are religiously neutral. Any organization is allowed to offer these classes to students. Parents have to opt in to letting their kids participate. No school funds are used for them. For example, if students are transported to a local church for these lessons, the church has to pay for the buses. Students also have to make up any missed assignments. They can’t skip certain core classes, like English or math.

NBC News reported in April that LifeWise now has chapters in “more than 300 schools in a dozen states, teaching 35,000 public school students.” (A different article from July said it was 525 schools in 23 states.)

Even if this is legal, though, it’s a Christian Nationalist dream come true. That’s because it’s usually evangelical/Catholic churches that have the resources to offer these courses and pay for the costs associated with them. And while church/state separation is supposed to be maintained in these courses, that’s not what actually happens:

Opponents have also documented several instances of teachers and administrators promoting LifeWise to students, either by allowing LifeWise volunteers to visit classrooms, hosting schoolwide assemblies or advertising the program in paperwork sent home to parents — actions that, according to some legal experts, could violate the First Amendment.

So there are all kinds of concerns about LifeWise, ethically and legally.

Then there are the practical problems. And these are the ones that mattered in Westerville.

Students who skip class for these church lessons—especially if they leave the same class each time—will likely be academically behind their peers, even if they’re skipping an elective. “Released time” also makes life harder for teachers who may have to catch students up on lessons they may have missed so that they can make sense of what’s happening when they’re actually in the classroom—it’s the same reason a field trip for one subject can have ripple effects on so many other teachers. And while students can’t skip certain required classes, they are able to skip art, music, or gym… which implies that those subjects (and those teachers) aren’t as important for their development.

Then there’s the peer pressure. If your friends are taking this Bible course, and getting prizes and candy while they’re there, you’re going to want to go, too. That’s not illegal, but it’s another strain on families who are religious minorities. It’s not hard to imagine a public school where, at some point in the day, only Muslim or Jewish students are sitting in class because their Christian peers have gone off to church.

Since 2009, the Westerville City Schools have allowed students to skip class for religious instruction. Policy 5223 (“Absences for Religious Instruction”) laid out the ground rules for families that wanted their kids to skip class for that purpose. But at a meeting on September 23, Board Member Kristy Meyer talked about how disruptive those absences were becoming:

“I have significant concern about distraction caused by pulling kids out of school during the middle of the day,” said Westerville City School Board member Kristy Meyer.

LifeWise said it had about 300 students from Westerville in the program last year. This year so far, 120 students have signed up. 

Meyer said she worries about the strain of resources for various programs.

“The potential strain on our resources with multiple programs operate school day ensuring legal compliance, and managing logistics of kids going and coming require significant staff and resources,” said Meyer.

That’s no small problem. “Released time” is supposed to be its own distinct thing, not using any public school resources, and yet its existence was putting a strain on staffers because of all the kids leaving and returning in the middle of the day.

There’s no legal way to say Christian classes can’t be offered, so the only alternative is to end “Released time” for everyone… even if it’s Christians who would be most impacted by the decision.

“We're not against LifeWise, we're against children leaving school,” said [Jaclyn] Fraley [of Parents Against Religious Instruction]. “My family has very deep religious convictions, very deep faith. But we make sure that our daughter learns our religion, learns our faith at home.”

Fraley also raised other concerns during the September 23 meeting: She mentioned students feeling excluded and people like herself getting bullied by Christians who felt she was persecuting them. And she said that, with more groups wanting to take advantage of “Released time”—including Satanists—the problems would only get worse over time.

During a Special Meeting a week later, the issue was discussed one more time before a vote could take place. (Public comments lasted nearly 2.5 hours.) But the decision was the right one: The Board voted 4-0 (with one abstention) to end “Released time” for everybody, effectively blocking LifeWise from indoctrinating students during the school day. (Students who need to skip school for religious reasons or faith-based holidays will still be allowed to do so, of course.)

The policy is dead now. Hallelujah.

The reaction was predictable, with Christians acting like neutrality is oppression.

"We've worked so well with the school district for the last two years, had 300 students last year that attended LifeWise, so we were a little surprised that they felt they needed to take such an extreme action to rescind the policy rather than us being able to come to the table and figure out how we could continue to work together,” Jennifer Jury, program director for LifeWise Westerville, said. 

The action wasn’t “extreme” in any way. A public school district saying that students should spend time during the school day in school is normal! There isn’t any compromise to be had here because this was always an all-or-nothing proposal. Parents who want their children to receive religious indoctrination can still do that on Sundays, after school, or at home—the same options they’ve always had. Nothing about the board’s decision was anti-Christian. Furthermore, the public school board has an obligation to provide secular education to everybody without letting a Christian ministry—or any other group—get in the way.

If LifeWise is upset about that, too damn bad.

By the way, this is actually the second time this year that this district has rescinded its “Released time” policy. Back in August, there were concerns because LifeWise was making parents sign a waiver saying the group would have no liability if something happened to their kids while in the ministry’s care (e.g. a bus accident on the way to church). The district worried that the liability would then fall upon them… so they rescinded the “Released time” policy immediately, only to reinstate it weeks later after LifeWise removed that liability piece from its forms.

The concerns that led to the policy getting rescinded again this week were separate ones—and far more serious, in my opinion. Other Ohio school districts that care about education should take a similar approach. There’s no good reason to let kids skip school for religious training.

That said, this may not be the final word. Ohio is a Republican-dominated (and heavily gerrymandered) state, and there’s a push to make “Released time” in public school districts mandatory instead of optional. That bill’s sponsor, Rep. Gary Click, said about Westerville, “the more they attack LifeWise, the more there is a consensus around the state that we have to do something.”

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