🚨 OPE. PENNSYLVANIA LAW JUST MADE THIS A LOT MORE INTERESTING.
We’ve been reporting on LifeWise Academy preparing to operate during the public school day at Quakertown Community Elementary.
So we started digging into exactly how Pennsylvania’s released-time law works.
And, well. 👀
🚫 This isn’t simply: sign your kid up for LifeWise and they leave school every week.
Pennsylvania law requires a written parental request identifying the religious instruction and the dates and hours the student will be absent.
Then comes the really interesting part:
🚨 Following EACH absence, Pennsylvania law requires the parent to provide the district superintendent with written verification that the child actually attended — including the dates and hours.
EACH. ABSENCE.
And students are limited to 36 hours per school year. LifeWise plans to operate weekly.
So:
➡️ Request + dates/hours in advance.
➡️ Student leaves for LifeWise.
➡️ Written verification after EACH absence.
➡️ District tracks the 36-hour limit.
➡️ Repeat.
Every participating student. Every week.
Now ask who receives it, processes it, records it, tracks those hours, and manages students leaving and returning every week.
👉 Public school employees. On public school time. Using public school resources.
THIS is why we challenge the claim that LifeWise operates completely separately from taxpayer-supported public schools.
LifeWise may privately fund its program. The public-school labor required to administer all of this isn’t privately funded. 😡
Quakertown should track that too.
Add up the staff time. Add up the administrative cost. Tell taxpayers what accommodating this program actually costs them. 💸
And most importantly: enforce Pennsylvania law as written.
Every student. Every absence. Every week. Every taxpayer dollar.
What people are saying:
- Secular Education Association: 📄 Read Quakertown Community School District’s policy for yourself:
Pay particular attention to the requirements before the excusal AND following EACH absence. 👀
- Facebook User: Satanic Temple may also be interested in starting an equivalent program down the street!
- Facebook User: https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/after-school-satan?srsltid=AU7gw4Vj-t05WaWHmh1CaarmXdF7h0x8XnF30275I09uhLSvujC-2wp0
- Secular Education Association: Facebook User except they won’t. Or if they do- it cannot be maintained. The bluff isn’t working.
- Facebook User: Secular Education Association How do you know they won’t?
- Secular Education Association: Facebook User Because they already have. We track released-time religious instruction nationally.
Satanic released-time programs have been announced and launched in response to Christian programs before. They have not developed into sustained, scalable programs comparable to LifeWise. They shut down or disappear.
So this isn’t speculation about what might happen. We watch these programs across the country. If a Satanic released-time program becomes operational and stays operational, we’ll know about it and we’ll report on it.
That’s why we’re saying the bluff isn’t working anymore. “The Satanists can do it too” is not an answer to what LifeWise is actually building in public schools right now.
- Facebook User: On the other side of it, this discourages parents from involving their kids and taking them out of school. If I had to do write a note and track time for my kid, then my kid would simply stay in school. Is that lazy parenting? Maybe. But I’d never send my kid to Lifewise without the requirements.
- Facebook User: Yep. THIS is a big one. I’m sure the district would love to respond to PRRs requesting proof of such documentation. 🙂
- Facebook User: Yeesch
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