The Clyde-Green Springs School District, Clyde, OH, has responded to the email I sent, alleging that they violated Ohio state law and their own policy by allowing school personnel to volunteer for Lifewise Academy. The short answer is “no, we didn’t.” The longer interpretation of the school districts' response shows very little is known about released time religious instruction laws, and school districts are not prepared for the requirements being forced onto them. They even use a fog delay as a reason they did not break the law. Luckily, the unpredictable Ohio weather, along with the lack of oversight from the schools, created the perfect scenario where they would not be breaking the law. 

The full letter from the Clyde-Green Springs School District can be read here.

The two topics addressed are the criminal background checks and school personnel volunteering for Lifewise.

The criminal background check response makes it clear the school district is not concerned with the safety of students and verifying that the criminal background checks of the Lifewise staff and volunteers are done according to the school’s policy.

I had asked about criminal checks done by outside organizations. The whole question was, “It's also not clear to me if the mentors have a BCI check done. Their criminal background check was not done through the district, but was completed by a church, according to the public records in the emails (attached). Most churches do not use BCI background checks. The email clearly states that the criminal check came from the church. Schools would always use their own and not rely on a third party. Can you please clarify this?”

Instead of reassuring that the criminal background checks completed are BCI checks, the district chose to argue the line that states, “Schools would always use their own and not rely on a third party.” The district says it’s fine for a third party to complete the background check, but the focus of the question was on the fact that no one can verify how the background check was completed. These are not complicated questions, and the district is deflecting.

The volunteers who received their background checks through the church are a part of the mentor program operated in the school district. According to the district policy, these background checks are to be completed by BCI, and if they are not done by the district, then they are only valid for one year from the date BCI issued the documents. That means the Lifewise volunteers who were also in the mentor program since October 2022 needed new background checks done each year, but according to the emails from the public records request, this did not happen.

I contacted Journey Church, Fremont, OH, who sent the background checks to Clyde-Green Springs school, and asked them how they conducted the background checks. They chose not to provide this information and have no comment. The Journey Church website indicates they do background checks on volunteers at the church, but did not want to indicate how they completed them.

The letter also indicates that the school district did not violate Ohio law 3313.6022, which states “no public school personnel are involved in providing the religious instruction.” They reason that a court has not interpreted the phrase “ involved in providing the religious instruction.” I understand the legal reasoning behind their response. The school is assuming that the Lifewise volunteers are not instructing students, and thus, are not “involved.” The official Lifewise Academy Volunteer Handbook indicates that volunteers teach students, along with many tasks you would assume teachers or the program directors would be in charge of. The complete handbook can be seen here.

The handbook tells volunteers to “Have fun while you teach. If you enjoy your time, they will enjoy it too”, “Prepare your lesson and all activities ahead of time. Have all supplies and handouts ready at the start of class to avoid unnecessary distractions”, and “Make eye contact. Give the students your full attention during class time.” These instructions clearly indicate that volunteers are expected to teach lesson plans. The school district is hoping its response will cover its legal obligation, and no one will look into it further. It’s clear the school knows they are wrong because they indicate they will not allow the school personnel to volunteer “out of an abundance of caution.”

They also claim no law could have been broken because the Lifewise classes were supposed to start on September 17, 2025, but because of the weather and a school closure, the classes did not occur. The school was alerted to the issue, but they hadn’t reviewed their own policy or the state law. Then, due to fog and a canceled school day, they are now in good standing.

Clyde-Green Springs schools are not trying to assure the public that policies are being followed correctly. Making “legal” excuses and trying to cover up for ignoring their own policies and the state laws is more important.

The public, parents, guardians, and caregivers should all be concerned about these excuses and the lack of oversight on a program that the school district recently updated its policies to facilitate. The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce has stated, “Based on Ohio’s statutory structure for released time courses, released time courses can reasonably be considered school related functions.” The entanglement of religious expression into the schools and being addressed officially by creating board policy is clearly not the best way to maintain safety and separate liability from the schools and the released time program.

Lifewise Academy has not operated without issues. Volunteers restraining students on buses, physical interactions between students under their supervision, employees being hired without providing full background information, and Lifewise ignoring their own processes for vetting potential employees have all been problems as they have grown rapidly. Adding the layer of schools being forced to coordinate with Lifewise, even when it’s not in the school’s or students’ best interest. The Supreme Court, Zorach v Clauson (1952), says released time programs are not good, but are still legal.

“This program may be unwise and improvident from an educational or a community viewpoint.” - Mr. Justice Douglas

Justice Douglas wrote the opinion of the court in Zorach v. Clauson and made it clear that released-time programs were unwise but still legal. The Supreme Court was not judging whether released time was good or bad, but rather whether it was legal. Parents always have the option to remove their students from school for any reason they see fit. The idea of a company removing students en masse, coordinating with the schools and adjusting schedules, lunches being prepared and sent to the church, all while Lifewise Academy advertises a movie called “Off School Property - Solving the Separation of Church and State”, while further entangling the schools and Lifewise.

Lifewise Academy is not a suitable program for public schools, and this is largely due to its culture of promoting the company's mission to convert every student in the public schools to a specific religion, at the expense of all other concerns. It's clear that the churches they partner with are also a part of this same culture.