The Wake County school board is set to vote Tuesday on final rules on religious instruction during the school day, as one group appears poised to take advantage of those rules for at least one Wake school.
It's one of two policy amendments up for a final vote Tuesday; the other concerns how schools will handle book and instructional material challenges.
Other WRAL Top Stories
You can watch the meeting live at the YouTube stream below when the meeting begins at 5:30 p.m.
The board is set to give final approval to a policy amendment that would implement a new state requirement allowing students to be excused for one hour per week for religious instruction. The board gave first approval earlier this month but not until after several board members said they didn't like the idea, citing concerns about peer pressure and children missing school.
The change is occurring as schools across North Carolina have opened the door to Ohio-based LifeWise Academy, a Christian organization that is rapidly expanding across the country and whose model is designed to "reinstall" religious education into the public school day.
LifeWise Academy lists several schools where it has already launched programs in Nash County and says it's launching soon in Wake and Wilson counties.
It lists Willow Springs Elementary as a Wake County school where it plans to launch a program and says it's in the "planning phase" in the western and northeastern portions of the district. Elsewhere in the district, the group says it's still "rallying" support for programs.
The school system didn't immediately respond to WRAL questions about how the school would address concerns raised by school board members about students pressuring their peers to participate.
On Monday, LifeWise Academy told WRAL News it will launch at Willow Springs Elementary this fall and is only beginning discussions at other Wake schools. Transportation will be provided by bus or van, with students supervised by chaperones. LifeWise programming does include "a variety of fun incentives" for students throughout LifeWise programming, the spokesperson said, but it also urges programs to be mindful of any feedback they get from the schools they work with.
Students would need written consent from a parent or guardian to participate. The parent or guardian would need to request an excused absence each time and, as a part of that, confirm in writing each time that the student attended the religious instruction.
School board members have also expressed concern about students missing academic time to attend Bible lessons.
The proposed policy doesn't mention any restrictions around core subject areas. It says that religious instruction won't be allowed during state-required testing or remedial instruction.
The student is responsible for making up all missed schoolwork," the proposed policy addition states.
The proposed changes to the religious-based exemptions policy add new guidelines to allow students to sign out of school up to one hour per week for religious instruction and have it count as an excused absence. Previously, such absences might have been counted as unexcused.
The state law allowed school boards to permit up to four hours per week of excused religious instruction, but Wake opted for the minimum of one hour.
The board voted 9-0 Sept. 1 to give its first approval of the policy. Per board rules, all policies must be approved twice at two separate meetings before they can become official.
Students have long been able to leave school during the day for religious reasons, and it's established in U.S. Supreme Court precedent from decades ago. The new state law guarantees that at least one hour, but no more than four hours, per week can now be excused for religious instruction.
Religious instruction wasn't previously listed among the reasons a parent could excuse their child from school.
The difference between excused and unexcused can have a bearing on different things at the school level, such as a student's ability to qualify for recognition or participate in extracurriculars.
Objecting to supplementary materials
The school board is also scheduled to vote on final adoption of another policy change to the process for objecting to materials in schools, which will bring it in line with a new state law established in the recently passed state budget.
It gave first approval to the change during its meeting earlier this month on an 8-1 vote. Board Member Cheryl Caulfield was the only board member to vote against the draft, though she supports parents' ability to challenge materials.
School districts, including Wake, generally already have a way to challenge materials, and the new state law replaces them.
The challenge must indicate the materials are "obscene," age-inappropriate, or inconsistent with academic standards. The new law, and Wake's proposed policy, establishes a new community media advisory board — replacing any current one — that would be made up of nine educators at all school levels and three parents at all school levels. The committee must reach a recommendation within two weeks of a challenge, and the school board would have the final say at its next meeting.
Several Wake school board members complained that the new law was vague in how it's written.
Current school board policy limits who can challenge books to parents and guardians, and the law changes that to any parent, guardian, teacher, student or resident of the district's geographic area.
During the board meeting earlier this month, Board Member Lynn Edmonds questioned how the district would feasibly determine residency for every material challenge.