by Jorge Gomez • 3 minutes
Great news coming out of the Buckeye State! Recently, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed a law allowing students to leave school during the day for religious instruction.
The “Parents’ Bill of Rights” states that school districts “shall collaborate with a sponsoring entity of a released time course in religious instruction to identify a time to offer the course during the school day.” It further states that “while in attendance in a released time course in religious instruction, a student shall not be considered absent from school,” and “no student may be released from a core curriculum subject course to attend a religious instruction course.”
First Liberty testified in support of the legislation last June.
“The Legislature has rightly recognized that parents should be in control over their child’s educational efforts and that includes release-time programs,” said Matt Krause, an independent legal and policy advisor to First Liberty.
Krause pointed out in his testimony that “release-time programs have been a massive success” in the Buckeye State, and the bill would “put parents in the driver’s seat of educational opportunities.”
The bill is a huge win for our client LifeWise Academy, a non-profit organization that works with public schools to integrate a Bible class into students’ weekly schedules, with parental approval, during school hours. It will also benefit all religious organizations whose mission is to help students better understand and learn more about the Bible or other faith-based material they choose.
“All Ohio families have the freedom to choose off-campus religious instruction during school hours for their students,” LifeWise said in a statement. “We are especially grateful that any local programs that had been put on hold will be able to resume their growing programs and that communities will now have the clarity they need to provide families with the opportunity to choose Bible-based character education for their child.”
LifeWise sends a bus to schools to pick up students so they can attend their Bible class. Participation is voluntary and parents are required to give their consent for their kids to attend. The program is privately funded and the class takes place off campus.
LifeWise’s work is perfectly constitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld religious released time laws during the 1952 Zorach v. Clauson case, which allowed a school district to have students leave school for part of the day for religious instruction. Even so, the radical Freedom From Religion Foundation, known for complaining about virtually any public expression of faith, actively opposed their work.
Our legal team made clear that the law does not establish a specific religion, nor does it mandate attendance. All it does is make sure that if parents want to send their children to religious instruction during released-time, they may. The bill is fundamentally about religious freedom and giving families an opportunity to choose the education and instruction that they think is best for their child.
Other provisions in the law will strengthen parental rights and religious liberty. Those include:
Families across the country are being targeted for exercising their constitutional rights and raising their children consistent with their faith. Many governments and school districts insist on keeping parents in the dark and forcing them to violate their deeply held convictions. That’s why First Liberty is at the forefront of the legal battle protect parents’ right to direct their children’s religious upbringing. The First Amendment undeniably protects that right.
First Liberty is fighting in federal court on behalf of two families in southern California who were told by a school district that they could not opt their children out of books promoting radical gender ideology. In a similar case, we secured a win for several families in Minnesota who were denied opt-out requests for their kids from LGBTQ material. The school district reversed course, which was a huge win for religious freedom that continues to impact elementary, middle and high school students.
There is perhaps no right more deeply rooted in our nation’s history and tradition than the right of parents to direct their children’s upbringing. It is among the oldest liberties recognized by the Supreme Court. First Liberty will continue to fight for parents and children so they can freely decide what is best. When we protect parental rights, we are also protecting religious freedom.
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