By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
After agreeing to adhere to educational instruction during school hours, Bowling Green City Schools must now allow students to leave school grounds for religion classes during the school day.
Earlier this year, the state legislature passed a law making religion release time a requirement for programs like LifeWise Academy.
“This requires districts to have a policy in place, allowing these type of organizations to have religious release time for students,” Bowling Green Superintendent Ted Haselman said.
Haselman said LifeWise representatives have reached out to the district.
“We have been approached,” he said. “We have talked with them about what their intentions would be.”
LifeWise has reportedly told the district that it would like to start offering the program for students at one elementary this fall – identifying Kenwood Elementary as that first school.
The law, House Bill 8, states that programs like the Christian-based LifeWise have the authority to remove students from schools during non-instructional times.
Since LifeWise programs seem to primarily focus on elementary children, BG Board of Education approved a policy that defined “non-instructional times” as lunch and recess. Any class that is a graded subject or state mandated curriculum – including physical education, music and art – is considered instructional, Haselman said.
Haselman stressed that the state legislation is requiring the district to comply with LifeWise requests.
There are some rules, such as:
- The program is voluntary, with written permission required by parents.
- The program has to take place off school property.
- LifeWise has to provide transportation to the program and back to school.
- The school district is to provide no funding or resources for the religious program.
“The district is not responsible for anything that happens when they are offsite,” Haselman said. Parents are required to sign off on liability.
District officials are waiting to see the impact of groups of students leaving and returning during the school day.
“We’re hoping we’re able to have protocols in place to limit the disruptions that may take place,” Haselman said.
When BG Board of Education was approached by LifeWise representatives in 2023 about allowing the group to pull students from school for religious instruction, the board balked at the idea. Board members agreed the idea that students leaving school to attend religious instruction won’t be missing anything important is very wrong.
In 1952, the Supreme Court ruled students can be released from public schools during school hours to attend religion classes. State law now says the district must allow students to leave for religious time.
The website for LifeWise Academy states its curriculum is designed to take students through the entire Bible, beginning in Genesis and ending in Revelation, over the course of five years.
Since the Ohio Department of Education continues to add more requirements for public schools, the board agreed in 2023 that taking away time during the school day would be counterproductive.
While LifeWise officials have promoted the program as teaching children to have good morals, Haselman pointed out that BG City Schools’ Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports Program already provides instruction on character development.
“We have a really good program, he said.
In the past, BG school officials have suggested that LifeWise offer its instruction during non school hours. But some parents objected, saying they didn’t want their children to be denied the opportunity to participate in afterschool activities like sports.
Other Bowling Green parents voiced concerns about the inclusivity of the LifeWise program, which focuses only on the Christian faith. LifeWise Founder and CEO Joel Penton has acknowledged that the program aims to reach non-Christian students with lessons tailored for “unchurched” children.
While supporters praise the program, some parents have said their kids have been bullied for not participating, and point to school day disruption.
LifeWise chapters have been criticized for making kids in the program wear matching red shirts, which creates “an in-group and an out-group” back at school. The program has also been criticized for bringing students back to school with invitations to share with friends. Some have promised students ice cream or popcorn parties if they convinced a certain number of classmates to sign up — recruiting tactics that Penton said are also used by other student clubs.
But parents and activists who’ve mobilized against LifeWise say that busing students to nearby churches, where they sometimes collect prizes and eat candy, has made some non-Christian children feel left out or pressured to attend.
The LifeWise organization has seen a financial windfall with its win in the state legislature. The Columbus Dispatch reported earlier this year that LifeWise netted a profit of over $17.2 million in its most recent IRS filing, up from $4.3 million the year before.
