⚠️ How It Looks When It’s Already Happening
🚨OHIO 🚨
➡️This isn’t new — but it’s worth revisiting.
Because this is exactly what it looks like when a Released Time religious program quietly crosses the line inside a public school.
📂 In 2023–2024, Norwalk City School District Norwalk Truckers
Norwalk Truckers(Ohio) allowed students to leave core classes — Science and Social studies — to attend LifeWise Academy.
Teachers emailed back and forth trying to figure out:
• How to grade kids who missed lessons
• What to do about Title I sessions interrupted
• How to make up instructional time that was lost
They were told: “If parents agreed, that means they’re okay with their students missing instructional content.”
Let that sink in.
Ohio law (R.C. 3313.6022) clearly says:
“No student may be released from a core curriculum course to attend a religious instruction course.”
But once these programs are embedded, teachers are the ones scrambling, and the “no class time missed” promise quietly disappears.
💬 This older example from Ohio is an important reminder:
When they say “no class time will be missed,” that promise never lasts.
— Secular Education Association
Protecting public instruction. Preserving neutrality.
⚖️ Legal Reference Note
• Ohio Revised Code § 3313.6022 – Released Time Religious Instruction
“No student may be released from a core curriculum course to attend a religious instruction course.”
🔗 https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-3313.6022
• Ohio Administrative Code § 3301-35-04(E) – Time Requirements for Instruction
Each district must provide not less than the minimum instructional hours required by law and ensure students receive full access to the district’s course of study.
Instructional time excludes lunch, recess, and any non-instructional activities — including off-campus religious release programs.
📘 Together, these mean:
If students are being released from core classes for LifeWise or any religious program, that time cannot count as instruction, and the district still owes those hours under state law.
What people are saying:
- Facebook User: LifeWise really knows how to spin it!! It doesn’t sound like the teachers are ‘rattled by outside activists.’ It’s sounds like the teachers are being rattled by the effects LifeWise is having on the way they are able to do their jobs.
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