Religious release time bill added to parents’ bill of rights during Ohio Senate Education Committee
Ohio Senators have added a public school mandatory religious release time policy bill to a piece of legislation that would force educators to out a students’ sexuality to their parents.
The amendment to require Ohio public school districts to put a policy in place to release students for religious instruction was added to House Bill 8 during Tuesday’s Senate Education Committee Meeting. The two Democrats on the committee, Catherine Ingram and Vernon Sykes, voted against the amendment.
“A school district shall, rather than may, have a policy governing religious release time instruction,” said state Sen. Sandra O’Brien, R-Ashtabula.
Ohio law currently permits school district boards of education to make a policy to let students go to a course in religious instruction, but this would change the wording in the Ohio Revised Code from “may” to “shall” — meaning this would be a mandate for Ohio school districts.
State Reps. D.J. Swearingen, R-Huron, and Sara Carruthers, R-Hamilton, introduced H.B. 8, which passed in the Ohio House last year. The bill would require public schools to let parents know about sexuality content materials ahead of time and give them the option to request alternative instructions.
It would also ban any sexuality content from being taught to students in kindergarten through third grade. The bill defines sexuality content as “oral or written instruction, presentation, image, or description of sexual concepts or gender ideology.”
Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, said H.B. 8 is not what Ohio needs.
“It’s certainly not what the children and the teachers and the parents of Ohio need,” she said. “I think we need to maintain the ability of children to be able to talk to teachers, social workers, counselors, with some confidentiality, and parents need to be able to be involved with their children, but also know that sometimes children need somebody to talk to.”
There were 62 parental-rights bills in 24 states last year, according to FutureEd, an independent think tank at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.
More amendments were added to H.B. 8 during Wednesday’s Senate Education Committee meeting.
“This amendment creates exceptions for disclosure requirements where they would conflict with federal law,” O’Brien said. “It also clarifies that nothing in House Bill 8 prohibits mandatory reporting under state law. Lastly, the amendment clarifies that nothing in House Bill 8 prohibits or limits career and academic mentoring between a teacher and student.”
Religious release time
The amendment language was taken from two companion bills regarding religious release time — Senate Bill 293 and House Bill 445. Hundreds of people have submitted opponent testimony against both bills, which are in committee.
Two central Ohio school districts, Westerville and Worthington, recently rescinded their religious release time policy. Both districts formerly allowed LifeWise Academy to take public school students off-campus for Bible classes during school hours.
LifeWise Academy is a Hilliard-based religious instruction program that enrolls 50,000 students across 29 states — including about 160 Ohio school districts.
The United States Supreme Court upheld released time laws during the 1952 Zorach v. Clauson case, which allowed a school district to have students leave school for part of the day to receive religious instruction.
Release time in the middle of the school day is problematic, Antonio said.
“It disrupts the flow of (students) dealing with their studies,” she said. “I think it needs to be on an individual school district basis to make those kinds of decisions.”
About 170 people submitted opponent testimony against the newly amended H.B. 8 at Tuesday’s Senate Education Committee. H.B. 8 was up for a possible committee vote, but no vote was taken. The bill has had six hearings in the Senate Education Committee.
The two-year General Assembly wraps up at the end of the month, so any bill that doesn’t pass will die and would have to be reintroduced in the next General Assembly. The final House and Senate sessions of the year are currently scheduled for next week.
Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the past five years reporting in Ohio on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime. She previously worked at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network. Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on X.
Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
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