The terms "may" and "shall" are commonly used when discussing released time and how school districts approve or disapprove students being dismissed from the school day to attend off-site religious classes.

May states are states that either have no state law that requires schools to release students or they have a state law that only states schools "may" create a policy to release students. This means school districts can decide not to create a policy to release students for off-site religious classes. The other states are "shall" states. These states have a law that states school districts must have a policy that allows students to be released from classes for official religious study. The specifics and details of what these polices contain vary widely. Some states are very specific in what must be covered in the policy. Others are not, and it is left up to the individual districts. The legal authority of these policies falls onto the federal and state cases that have upheld released time as long as the guidelines stated in the cases are followed.

Even if a school district has chosen not to implement a policy to allow released time, parents can still sign their children out and take them to the religious study program. Parents always have this opportunity even if the school district does not coordinate with he released time program. This raises another argument against the requirement that school districts collaborate with Lifewise. Requiring a school district to release students to a third party with whom they have no legal relationship or contract is not how students are typically released from the school for any purpose. Requiring a school to do so is wrong.

Lifewise Academy has started to spend a significant amount of energy and resources to change the legal landscape of released time. They have created videos to help lobby for legislation and utilized their network of local Lifewise programs to support their legislative efforts. Ohio, Oklahoma, and Indiana have all recently changed their released time law from may to shall, and this was all done specifically at the request of Lifewise Academy. 

Lifewise Academy has hired Cody Balch as the Senior Director of Statewide Initiatives. His goal is to influence state legislators, lobbyists, and other interested parties to change state laws and force public school districts to coordinate with Lifewise Academy. They have coordinated with the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, the Center for Christian Virtue, and Shumaker Advisors.