Dan Gilmore – 2 minutes
This week, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed House Bill 214 into law, which requires schools to adopt a policy that allows students to be absent for “religious expression days.” This bill permits students in K-12 to be absent for up to three days each school year for observances or holidays pertaining to their religion.
The law states that each public school must adopt a policy “that reasonably accommodates the sincerely held religious beliefs and practices of individual students with regard to all examinations or other academic requirements and absences for reasons of faith or religious or spiritual belief system.”
The law also states that school principals “shall approve such requests without inquiry into the sincerity of a student’s religious or spiritual belief system.” However, they can reach out to the parent or guardian of the student to verify the request.
The bill will go into effect on January 1, 2025, and gives schools 90 days to create and adopt their new policy.
This bill is a huge win for religious liberty, especially for students of minority faiths. Schools across the country often close for major religious holidays like Christmas. However, some less-recognized religious holidays tend to be overlooked, leading to students’ having to choose between school and holiday celebrations, which is not fair to these students or their families. This bill ensures that the freedom of religion for students of all faiths is protected and respected.
Ohio is one of the states that best protects religious liberty, according to the 2024 Religious Liberty in the States Index—published by First Liberty’s Center for Religion, Culture and Democracy (CRCD). The Buckeye State ranks 5th in the nation and enacting this law will help boost its ranking.
While it is great that Ohio implemented this, there’s still a lot of room for improvement in many other states. About half of the states in the U.S. have implemented a law like this one. To see if your state has, view the Students: Excused Absences for Religious Reasons safeguard by clicking here.
The CRCD created a free resource with five ways you can help improve your state’s religious freedom protections, which you can download here. One of the five ways is to advocate for a bill just like HB 214 if your state does not already have one. Whether you’re a legislator, legal advocate or an American citizen, we encourage you to fight for the religious freedom of students in your state.
Learn More:
Fox News: Ohio creates religious expression days in schools
News Nation: Ohio governor approves ‘religious expression days’ in public schools
WDTN: Ohio passes ‘religious expression days’ in public schools
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