What people are saying:

• Facebook User: Just host a free after school program if you want to. Parents could use it if they want to or not. We’d stop complaining. They WANT to be disruptive. They want to make EVERYONE have to do this. That is their point
• Facebook User: I truly do not understand any justification to remove public school students during the school day for religious instruction .
• Facebook User: The fact that they call themselves “Akron Elementary School Lifewise” is beyond infuriating as this program IS NOT affiliated with the school. I have corrected someone who organized a chapter near me when they named their group after the elementary school they infiltrated. If they were really interested in helping families, they would offer before school or after school sessions that would help parents who need childcare. It they are 100% doing it in the middle of the school day to cripple public education.
• Facebook User: “The teachers would appreciate not having to lose class time to LifeWise.” NO KIDDING.
  How DARE a public school educator expect to do their job uninterrupted especially for something that has no business being done during the school day. You want religious indoctrination, er instruction, then do it on Sundays the same way it’s been done since for always.
• Facebook User: Get those fanatics out of our schools.
• Facebook User: What about recess – ample recess is also vital to students – it gives their brain a break and helps them reset.
• Facebook User: How on earth is such a program legal in public schools?
  • Facebook User: Facebook User Because Republican bigots are running the government. They don’t want educated citizens. They want to raise Christian nationalist drones.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User Do you know what the legal basis is for this? I live in a Deep South red state. We do not have this in schools (yet!) and, as a former educator, I would totally oppose this.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User Here is an article. I am not Christian, and I find it abhorrent. I think kids need their instruction time AND recess time for a healthy life balance. If parents want this kind of education, send them to Sunday School or an evening program outside the confines of public education.

    We had this in Indiana when I was growing up in the 1960s. It was definitely during an instruction period. Those of us who did not attend did homework or reading. Not instruction. Then they came back and told us we were going to hell.

    https://www.nbc4i.com/news/local-news/hilliard/inside-the-growth-and-legality-of-lifewise-academy/

• Facebook User: Getting more pressure than ever this year about attendance, no excused absences not even for medical appointments with a note; but sure kids can miss class time for this nonsense 😡
  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User our feelings exactly!
• Facebook User: Isn’t one of the federal requirements for lunch programs that the food stays on campus?
  • Facebook User: Facebook User
    Yes.
    The lunches might be provided by LifeWise, idk.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User Sack lunches are allowed for field trips.
  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User That actually used to be the issue. We raised this back in 2024 because federal school-meal rules generally required reimbursable meals taken off campus to be connected to school-related activities — yet Ohio was already allowing reimbursement when kids took school lunches to released-time religious instruction.

    USDA THEN issued new off-site meal guidance in July 2025 that clarified and broadened when those meals can be federally reimbursed. Ohio now explicitly says schools WILL receive federal reimbursement for meals students take to released-time religious programs. So yes: the school can pack the lunch, the child can leave campus with it for LifeWise, eat it there, and the school can still claim federal reimbursement.

    We were yelling about this before USDA made the policy explicit. AHEM.

  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User they aren’t. Our tax dollars are paying for them.
  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User this isn’t a school sponsored or sanctioned field trip. BY LAW.
  • Facebook User: Secular Education Association Our tax dollars funding lunches for Lie Wise functions but free lunches for school children is not acceptable?
  • Facebook User: Secular Education Association
    Are you arguing that kids shouldn’t get free lunch because they’re eating it at LifeWise? I don’t think that’s a winning argument.

    I don’t like LifeWise, but I don’t mind kids eating their lunches there. That seems like an odd battle to wage.

  • Facebook User: Secular Education Association i knew there was something around the lunches.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User schools have rules for lunches. Life Wise doesn’t have to follow those rules. Allergies, sweets, etc. the school may be held responsible if one of those rules aren’t followed.

    This is a very, very slippery slope.

• Facebook User: What school has a 1 hour and 10 minute lunch period
  • Secular Education Association: Facebook User Exactly. In elementary school, no less!
  • Facebook User: Facebook User
    It’s lunch and recess, probably
  • Facebook User: Facebook User second grade teacher here and our lunch and recess is 55 minutes long
  • Facebook User: Facebook User kids don’t get that much time for lunch & recess. Even if they do, it should be just for that. Kids need a break from instruction and they need time to run around. Poor kids. Instead of Lifewise existing after school they insist on keeping kids locked indoors at tables with no meaningful break.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User Or a free lunch.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User
    I agree with you, but the federal and state laws don’t work that way. Parents have the right to sign their kids up.

    I’m not a fan of LifeWise. I think spreading the word so that people choose not to sign up makes sense, but attacking the programs for acting within federal and state law doesn’t make sense to me.

  • Facebook User: Facebook User
    That’s pretty close to 1 hour 10 minutes, especially if travel time to and from the school building is included in the 70 minutes
  • Facebook User: Facebook User well now that actually brings up another issue with Lifewise and their methods of bribing kids to increase turnout. Offering a free lunch, on the surface, sounds altruistic but we could also argue that they’re doing what Christians do best. Prey on the most vulnerable.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User the state law mandate has been brought up plenty of times here. Ohio public schools used to have discretion over allowing Lifewise in their schools. Ohio took that option away and made it mandatory. That’s problematic for a host of reasons. And the entire reason this page exists. If attacking Lifewise doesn’t make sense to ypu I invite you to peruse through this page and do some digging into why they are an issue in public schools.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User Taught elementary and recess and kindness never an hour long even.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User It would be a lunch and recess period one day a week. I agree they should meet after school, like FCA, but then you get into the issue that for some of the students, their only transportation to & from school is the school bus.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User it’s a state law, not federal.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User that’s with any extra activity. Why should it be any different? Chess club, cheerleading, sports all require parent involvement
  • Facebook User: Facebook User It’s more than likely multiple lunch sessions. 2 half hour lunch sessions (1-3, 4-6) with 10 minutes loading at the ends.
• Facebook User: That’s an insane amount of time to be taken from school!
• Facebook User: God forbid kids go to school to attend class and get an education.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User they don’t want kids to be educated. Educated kids see them for what they are.
• Facebook User: Glad it was lw that had to scramble and not the school. It will still be disruptive but Im glad those kids chose gym!
• Facebook User: Lifewise needs to go.
• Facebook User: How dare a parent sign their kid up for this program without consulting strangers and getting their permission!
  Don’t like it don’t sign your kid up for it. Not your pig not your farm, not your monkey not your barrel.
  We were a family who didn’t sign their kids up for lifewise, didn’t affect our family that others did. Our kids stayed in library when it was offered.
  Imagine minding your own business 🙄 if it doesn’t effect you or your child
  • Facebook User: Facebook User its really super awesome that your family hasn’t been targeted by LifeWise students and haven’t been told they are going to burn in hell. Haven’t been told that “Jews aren’t people”. Haven’t been told that they “look like a Lesbian that will burn in hell” and other sayings by LifeWise kids.
    It must be nice to not have kids that feel unsafe at school.
    Hopefully your kid isn’t affected poorly ever, but there’s hundreds of kids with issues like this and more that had their education time stopped for LifeWise.
  • Facebook User: Facebook User again not your pig not your farm. That’s an issue to be addressed by the family, school districts and lifewise.
    Never assume you know somebody’s story.
    If parents don’t sign their kids up for it, it goes away 
• Facebook User: How does the state feel about a third party organization causing students to not meet the mandatory minimum hours of instruction? 🧐
• Facebook User: And.. under the new OHIO house bill 96, which accumulates missed hours instead of missed days, students leaving school grounds to participate in lifeWise is NOT counted as an unexcused absence —but doctors appointments do. 😡
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• Facebook User: Anyone that thinks there’s lots of margin/extra time in the school day has never set foot in a school. It’s scheduled to the minute from first bell to last. State mandates a certain # of minutes per subject and it’s not negotiable.
  So Lifewise kids are now going to go there instead of recess and lunch with their friends in exchange for more classroom time at Lifewise. When will they eat? On the bus? Will they get a recess? Everything is great in theory but then pesky reality gets in the way.
• Facebook User: Facebook User. Time to move on in!!!
• Facebook User: Is this daily? That’s most of the time the children are with the school! When is the actual school curriculum taught?
  • Facebook User: Thankfully it’s only once a week.
• Facebook User: Lifewise is totally unnecessary when there are more adequate trained individuals in a local church near you! Plus you get to choose the religious doctrine that follows your beliefs! Then teachers get to teach their academics without interruptions!
  • Facebook User: Facebook User Lifewise is a Sunday School program of the Southern Baptist Convention. It is a form of evangelism for that Baptist Church. It is not general religious education, or even Christian education, it is a recruiting tool for one specific church with its own unique beliefs which are at odds with many other Christian Churches. Check with your pastor about the appropriateness of associating with that church.
• Facebook User: Is the school providing them with a list of names of children in the districts? My kids are homeschooled and I was not happy when they both received a personally addressed invitation/letter from likewise in the mail. I never gave anyone permission to release that info.
• Facebook User: Thanks for the support!! The school isn’t willing to follow the state mandate-but Lifewise is more than happy to accommodate the schools bigoted policy.
• Facebook User: God forbid the other kids get free lunch.