LifeWise Sues Everett School District Over Released Time Policies
An organization that teaches the Bible to public school children has filed a federal lawsuit against a Washington state district, alleging targeted and discriminatory rules that block access for families who opt in. The group says the district has rewritten policies in ways that only affect its Released Time program. The dispute centers on parental rights, religious freedom, and routine procedures that used to be simple.
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What LifeWise Says
Joel Penton, CEO of LifeWise Academy, said his organization lets parents opt children out of class for Bible lessons during lunch, recess, and other nonessential times. Children leave campus or go off-site, get a short Bible lesson, and then return to school for the rest of the day. LifeWise began in 2019 and now operates in hundreds of schools as a Released Time religious instruction program.
That Released Time model has precedent in U.S. law going back to 1952 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Zorach v. Clauson that students may be released during school hours to receive religious instruction. LifeWise says Everett’s actions flip long standing practice into targeted obstacles. The organization describes what happened as sudden and specific to its program.
“We’ve been growing rapidly in the last few years, but we started up a program in Everett, Washington, and it was going so well last year,” Penton said. “We had dozens of families engaged and some individuals went to the school board … one gentleman on the school board, in particular, was swayed by these things, and they put in some really discriminatory rules.”
“They updated their policies and changed the rules on us so that, unlike other student groups … we cannot show up now at any of the school-related functions like the fair where kids sign up for programs like ours and learn about new things.”
Penton says the district now requires a permission slip every single week for students whose parents opt them into the program. “They have now changed the rules that children need to bring in a permission slip every single week,” he explained. “And not only that, they’ve said that the parents need to carry in the permission slip each and every week … it’s clearly an obstacle they’re putting up to try to push us out because that’s unreasonable for parents to do that.”
LifeWise also objects to a rule the group calls absurd: students returning from Bible lessons must place any materials, even Bibles, in a sealed envelope before reentering school. “That sounds like it can’t even be real, but a sealed envelope as though the material is dangerous — that it will infect other children,” Penton said. The group reports no other clubs face similar restrictions.
“It seems to be a transparent attempt to get us to effectively shut down the program,” Penton said. “And so we really tried to handle this quietly. … We went to the school and tried to very quietly say, ‘You know, this is discrimination; you can’t do this. There’s a constitution in this country.’ And they were not receptive to that.”
Where This Goes From Here
LifeWise sought legal help and says an initial letter to the district did not resolve the issues, so the organization proceeded to file suit to overturn the new rules. The complaint asks the court to restore the prior, nondiscriminatory policies so families can participate without extraordinary burdens. The legal fight aims to protect Released Time access for parents who want Bible instruction for their children.
“As you can imagine, parents are upset by this, and especially when … we’ve been trying to do this in a way that isn’t offensive,” he said. “Kids whose parents opt them into the program want to quietly have a Bible study.”
“We’re not looking for fights,” Penton said. “We’re looking to teach the Bible to kids.” The case brings a plain issue into focus: whether families can exercise faith in public life without unusual hurdles. From a biblical perspective, parents have the responsibility to train their children in the ways of faith, and institutions should not block that calling without clear, neutral justification.