Should public school students be allowed to leave the building to attend off-site Bible classes during the school day?
That’s the question facing some Northeast Ohio school districts and parents in recent months about LifeWise Academy, a Hilliard-based Christian nonprofit focused on religious instruction which has opened up or sought to open up chapters across the state.
Typically, students at districts where a chapter has been founded are taken out of the classroom – only with their parents permission - during a “free period” like lunch or recess, or during a non-graded block of time like library time or study halls, according to founder and CEO Joel Penton. He said sometimes students will be taken out of a non-core curriculum class like art or music, however.
"We're getting overwhelmingly positive feedback from communities and from families and from individuals," Penton said of the program, which has been running since 2019.
Not everyone is a fan of the model, however.
Several parents turned out at the July 8 Berea Board of Education meeting to express concerns about the district's policy allowing the release of students to participate in religious programming, worrying about the impact it could have on academics and what they argued is an inappropriate crossing of the line between public education and religious instruction. The board voted to amend its district policy from 2015 to label all classes as core curriculum, meaning students could only leave to attend LifeWise classes during lunch or recess.
The U.S. Supreme Court in a 1952 decision in case out of New York cleared the way for religious-release programs like LifeWise as long as several tenets are met: government funds aren’t used; the program is held off-campus; and parental permission is given. Penton said public schools allowing students to attend LifeWise classes is actually a good example of the separation of church and state in the U.S.
“All of the finances are separate from state dollars,” he said. “It is not with state compulsion, it's entirely optional, with parental permission. And so I think that it should be celebrated as a great example of, here's how church and state can coexist. Here's how parents who want their children to have religious instruction during school hours don't have to shell out the cash for private religious education.”
In May 2024, parents at Revere Local Schools packed a board meeting to raise concerns about the district adopting a policy to allow students to be released from school for religious instruction. Since then, an online petition has also been started opposing students being sent to LifeWise classes. LifeWise said in a statement that it hopes to launch programs in both Revere and Berea school districts by the time classes start this fall.
Kathryn Miller, a parent of two children in the district and part of a concerned group of parents that created the petition, said she has concerns about the program, even as a Christian.
“LifeWise specifically scares me because I am a very affirming person,” Miller said. “And I do not like the fact that they are so outwardly against different family structures, LGBTQ+, that is not what I think should be anywhere near the schools.”
Zachary Parrish, an Indiana man, is being sued by LifeWise in federal court for alleged copyright infringement after he joined the group as a volunteer and obtained a copy of LifeWise’s curriculum, which he then posted online. His website still includes a link to an alleged LifeWise document which suggests answers to “difficult questions” from students. The documents refers to LGBTQ+ relationships and divorce as sins.
When asked about the “difficult questions” document, Penton noted that LifeWise teaches “traditional Christian values.”
“You'll notice that (document), that's not part of our curriculum, per se, although questions do come up,” he said. “Which is why we try to coach our teachers to be able to have answers to those questions when they come up. But again, we are a Christian organization. Like most Christian schools, we're going to equip our teachers to teach Christian values and families by and large, are very aware of that. I mean, that's one of the reasons many families want to engage with the program, because they want to instill Christian values into their students. And that's one of the reasons the program is entirely optional.”
Penton said parents consistently rate LifeWise classes highly, and pointed to a 2023 study from a third-party that suggested students have lower discipline rates and fewer absences after attending the classes. LifeWise serves 30,000 students across more than 300 school districts, according to its website. A spokesperson said in a statement last week that six school districts in Northeast Ohio have LifeWise chapters: three in Medina, and one each in Portage, Wayne and Stark counties.
Joel Penton said that typically, local parents and churches work together to advocate for creation of a chapter in their community, and that classes are held at local churches near school buildings.
Members of the concerned parents group in Revere said they were concerned about students peer pressuring other students to attend LifeWise classes, pushing ideology that they don’t agree with onto their children.
Sarah Paulett, who is a member of that group, said she was also worried about students’ safety, and questioned what regulations LifeWise chapters have to follow around transporting and educating children.
“The fact that they are not willing to do this after school, but they have to do it during school... they're taking the kids away from the safety of the adults,” she said.
The Columbus Dispatch reported on Thursday that LifeWise had fired Renee Buck, who was set to launch a program at Fireland Local School District in Northeast Ohio, after it discovered she had not disclosed being fired from a school district after a report of alleged abuse of a minor.
A bill was introduced in the Ohio Legislature earlier this year that, if passed, would require schools to adopt policies to allow students to be released from schools for religious instruction. Current law simply allows schools to adopt such a policy.
