WASHINGTON, D.C. – In the past month or so, federal courts have dealt a string of blows to conservatives’ push for the biblical Ten Commandments to be posted in public schools.
Yet as states lose over required religious displays, many are working on another route to faith-based education by allowing kids to attend off-campus religious instruction. This year, Iowa, Montana, Ohio and Texas passed laws guaranteeing parents the right to have their children excused during the school day for free, off-campus religious instruction, often called “released time.”
Those four states are the latest of at least 12 that require school districts to offer released time religious schooling upon parental request, including: Florida, Hawaii, Kentucky, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Wisconsin.
The released time approach may be more likely to pass constitutional muster than other government-imposed religious efforts, experts say, by shifting influence off school grounds and under the direction of faith-based groups rather than public school teachers, and by making it free to students.
A 1952 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Zorach v. Clauson allows for released time religious instruction as long as it’s off school property, privately funded and parent permitted.
Eyeing a friendly Supreme Court, Republicans push for the Ten Commandments in schools
“Not every family has access to private or parochial school, but for many generations families have been able to take their students out of school for a portion of the day for religious education if they choose,” said Jennifer Jury, a program advocate for LifeWise Academy, an Ohio-based Christian nonprofit founded in 2018.
The organization has been active in expanding its reach and lobbying lawmakers for stronger legislative support. This school year, LifeWise expects to serve nearly 100,000 public school students across 1,100 schools in 34 states, Jury said.
The off-campus gatherings work the same way in most states: With parents’ approval, public school students sign out of school during a lunch, recess or study hall block. Students will either walk or ride one of the distinctive red LifeWise buses to a local church or a program-leased community building in town.
And depending on state limitations for the religious instruction, for either a half or full hour, kids will learn about the Bible. When the allotted time is up, students go back to their public school to finish the day.
In some states, students can earn academic credit for the off-campus instruction, which has been more controversial.
In Montana, for example, legislation that would have required school districts to develop policies for academic credit was amended to “authorize” a district to allow credit, after pushback from the state’s school boards and school administrators associations.
“School districts should have the autonomy to determine which external coursework aligns with the academic frameworks and whether such courses should be eligible for credit,” Rob Watson, who represented the two groups at the legislature, said in his comments to a House committee in February. He noted the groups did not oppose the released time policy itself.
Despite the changes, only one Democrat in the legislature voted “yes.” Montana GOP Gov. Greg Gianforte signed the bill into law in May.
Supporters had touted the academic credit option as a way to entice homeschooling families to consider public schools. In her interview with Stateline, Jury noted similar programs that accommodate Jewish, Muslim and Mormon faith-based teaching for public school students.
“Whether a person is religious or not, the Bible is widely recognized as one of the most influential books in history,” Jury said. “A lot of our Western culture was born out of ideas that come from the Bible, like the fact that every person is created equal, that we are to love our neighbor.”
Identical bill language
The conservative American Legislative Exchange Council, known as ALEC, in August adopted model legislation about released time policies that state lawmakers can propose.
Public schools would be required to allow dismissal for religious instruction under new bill
ALEC’s proposal would allow from one to five hours per week of off-campus religious instruction and would require school districts to award academic credit if the course meets certain criteria. Districts would have to assess instruction based on secular standards and would not be allowed to test for particular religious content, according to the model legislation.
Nearly identical language had already appeared in several state bills, including in North Carolina and West Virginia this year and in Mississippi in 2023. In North Carolina, LifeWise Academy registered with the secretary of state’s office in 2024, as reported by NC Newsline, and a released time bill was introduced in February. It was sent to committee but never moved ahead.
The bills in Mississippi and West Virginia also stalled.
Legislation that does become law earns praise from groups such as Alliance Defending Freedom, one of the nation’s most active legal organizations opposing abortion rights and same-sex marriage.
Statements from Greg Chafuen, senior counsel for the nonprofit’s Center for Public Policy, say the new released time laws respect “parents’ educational decisions” and ensure “parents are in the driver’s seat when it comes to their kids’ education.”
An Indiana law lets high school students leave school for religious instruction each week for an amount of time equal to one elective course. Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee laws allow students to earn elective credit for released time religious instruction, though it cannot replace a “core curriculum” class. School boards can set standards for when such programs qualify for credit.
LifeWise operates in each of those states.
Ten Commandment displays
Jury, of LifeWise Academy, said her organization wants off-campus religious options for public school students to be available in all 50 states.
“It’s important to note this is an option, and parents are the ultimate decision-makers in enrollment,” she said.
“We would love to see every student in the United States have the option to attend a program like LifeWise if they want to and if their parents want them to.”
A lack of parental choice might be what trips up state efforts to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
This is an option, and parents are the ultimate decision-makers in enrollment.
– Jennifer Jury, a program advocate for LifeWise Academy
After Louisiana last year became the first state in recent decades to require that the Ten Commandments, a central tenet of the Judeo-Christian tradition, be displayed in school classrooms, bills followed in at least 15 other states. Two states — Arkansas and Texas — enacted laws.
But for now, courts have blocked the mandates in all three states. In Texas, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery warned the displays “are likely to pressure [children] into religious observance” and undermine parents’ rights.
In Arkansas, U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks called the state’s requirement to post a specific version of the Ten Commandments “plainly unconstitutional.”
The law “is not neutral with respect to religion,” he wrote. “By design, and on its face, the statute mandates the display of expressly religious scripture in every public-school classroom and library.”
He also noted that the law “requires that a specific version of that scripture be used, one that the uncontroverted evidence in this case shows is associated with Protestantism and is exclusionary of other faiths.”
Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira can be reached at rsequeira@stateline.org.
Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org.