🚨 ULTRA-URGENT ACTION ALERT — WEST VIRGINIA 🚨
This was rushed on purpose. The lack of public warning is the strategy.

West Virginia SB171 is the latest example of what we’re calling 🧾 Copy-Paste LifeWise Legislation — near-identical Released Time Religious Instruction (RTRI) mandate language being dropped into statehouses and fast-tracked before parents, educators, and communities have time to respond.

Let’s be exactly clear about what SB171 does:

What SB171 mandates
• Forces every school district to adopt an RTRI policy. This is not optional.
• Requires districts to excuse students 1–5 hours per week during the school day for religious instruction.
• Requires RTRI to occur off school property — except where a district has a so-called “neutral equal-access policy,” which explicitly opens the door to on-campus access arguments.
• Requires districts to adopt a policy awarding high-school credit for released-time religious instruction, using “neutral” secular criteria and recognizing credits from independently accredited providers.
• Treats released-time attendance as regular school attendance for funding and attendance-count purposes.
• Prohibits districts from denying equal access to funds, benefits, or services that are otherwise available to comparable community groups.
• Creates a private right of action — allowing parents or sponsoring organizations to sue school districts and seek remedies, including legal fees, if districts don’t comply.

⚠️ And be explicit about process:
There was no meaningful public notice — by design. This bill was introduced and moved on a compressed timeline so it could advance before the public could organize, scrutinize the language, or push back.

This is not about protecting private religious expression.
Students already have that right.

This is about:
❌ Mandating religious accommodation during instructional time
❌ Incentivizing participation through academic credit
❌ Pressuring districts with funding rules and litigation risk
❌ Normalizing a national template used by programs like LifeWise Academy

⏰ TIME IS CRITICAL.
SB171 is moving through the Senate Education Committee, and speed is part of the plan.

👉 READ THE FULL BILL TEXT:
https://www.wvlegislature.gov/Bill_Text_HTML/2026_SESSIONS/RS/bills/sb171%20intr.pdf

👉 CONTACT EVERY MEMBER OF THE SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE — TODAY:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kZxksWf_pKI_cg6KRSLqKzKefvaH3N31jHlGtNStRe0/edit?usp=sharing

📞 What to say (short + firm):
• Oppose SB171
• Public schools must remain secular and inclusive
• Religious instruction should not be mandated or incentivized by the state
• Rushed, copy-paste legislation undermines public trust

📣 PLEASE SHARE — especially with West Virginia parents, educators, students, and voters.

This is how Copy-Paste LifeWise Legislation spreads: fast, quiet, and without accountability.

Public attention and immediate action are the only things that stop it. 🛑

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