What people are saying:

• Facebook User: What is happening for other children during this “release time”? It’s funny the people screaming about public schools not teaching enough of the basics are fine with time being spent on this.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User that’s the point. If the kids actually did academics for the day, maybe this would be an issue. There is so much downtime. My grandsons participate because they are taken out of library. I assure you that they have plenty of books to read and go to the public library. You should be happy because it frees up teacher time for the other kids.
  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User There is no downtime in an elementary school day. Library is not ‘extra time’—it’s a state-mandated instructional block focused on literacy. Art, music, library, STEM and intervention periods are all part of the academic day, and teachers plan instruction around every minute.

    Pulling kids out doesn’t ‘free up’ anything. It creates more work. Teachers have to reteach missed lessons, repeat instructions, rearrange groups, and manage constant transitions. It disrupts learning for the kids who leave and the kids who stay.

    If children are being removed from library to attend LifeWise, that’s not harmless—it’s lost instructional time. Calling that ‘downtime’ is simply not based in reality.

  • Facebook User: Secular Education Association my kids do not miss anything and no work is made up. They both love lifewise as they both complain of boredom everyday. They both are getting over 100% in all their classes along with 25% of the class. Goes against that bell curve, wouldnt you say?
  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User Kids don’t magically ‘miss nothing’ when they’re not in the room. Library, art, music, SEL, and intervention blocks are instructional minutes required by law. They aren’t optional fillers schools can toss aside because a private religious program wants the time.

    Saying children ‘complain of boredom’ doesn’t mean the school day has downtime — it means they’re kids. Meanwhile teachers are running tightly packed schedules, meeting state standards, providing intervention services, and teaching full curriculum while LifeWise pulls students out mid-stream.

    And claiming grades over 100% somehow justify missing class isn’t how public education works. High-achieving students still receive instruction, and teachers still have to stop, reteach, and rebuild groups every time LifeWise students return. That disruption hits every child in the classroom.

    Public schools exist to educate all students — not reorganize their day around a private franchise’s convenience or a parent’s personal belief that certain subjects don’t matter.

  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User You’re asking the exact right question. During Release Time, the students who don’t leave are still in school — but their instruction is disrupted. Teachers can’t move forward with new content because a chunk of the class is gone, so students who stay often end up with filler work, repeated material, or stalled lessons.

    Meanwhile, the students who do leave return having missed real instructional minutes — literacy, specials, SEL, interventions, or whatever block LifeWise overlapped that day. Teachers then have to reteach what was already covered, which slows the pace for everyone else.

    So the irony is exactly what you pointed out: the same people demanding schools ‘focus on the basics’ are supporting a program that literally removes children from academic time and forces teachers to teach around a private religious schedule.

    The ones who pay the price are the kids still sitting in the classroom.

  • Facebook User: Facebook User library time is instructional time, it’s not just checkout. School librarians are teachers. “My kids like getting out of class” is not an argument, most kids like getting out of class. If religious education is important you have many other options than disrupting the school day.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User oh ok. You have convinced me with your phenomenal debate skills and listing of facts. 😀
• Facebook User: This is out of bounds. Our public education system is already under attack. Separation of church and state and public funding should not go to any kind of religious organization. You are taking children out of a learning environment to indoctrinate them into frankly an organization that is quite suspect in terms of how they view history and frankly world order. This is sickening.
• Facebook User: I didn’t know that first point. Lifewise flyers are sent home with students every year at my school, and there at least one person at a table with flyers at several school events each year.
• Facebook User: The “partnership with LifeWise” was approved by the school board? A “partnership”? That is an endorsement. That makes it seem school-sanctioned and facilitated.
  • Facebook User: You should ask your district to give you their definition of partnership and not jump to your own conclusion.
• Facebook User: Oh the horror 😒