LifeWise Academy to coordinate religious instruction program with Centerville schools

CENTERVILLE, Ind. — A new state law passed this year requiring public schools to give permission to parents to allow their children to leave for religious instruction during the school day has led to a Wayne County school welcoming one such program.

Centerville-Abington Schools will introduce and make available the LifeWise Academy, a religious education program, for seventh- and eighth-graders, for those who wish to attend.

Other than allowing students to leave during a 90-minute study hall period, the district has no connection to the program, officials said. Transportation will be provided by the academy, which will pick students up from the school to take them to and from Centerville Christian Church, where the program will be.

Centerville-Abington Superintendent Mike McCoy said they will start the program with the middle school because of the ability to replace study hall with it, with the possibility of opening it up for elementary and high schoolers later.

"We have four different study halls, so they may be doing it all day," he said. "But as of right now, they are not losing any instructional time. If some of them require remediation, they'll lose that as well, because that's just the best time for us to provide that for them."

More: Religious education program offered during school hours growing, but remains controversial

McCoy said that when he first met with LifeWise, they were "pretty focused" on elementary, but because of difficulties of trying to schedule the program around lunch and recess, they decided to table the discussion for at least a year.

As of Aug. 20, there were fewer than 10 students who were signed up. But Centerville Christian Church's outreach and engagement coordinator, Shari Markley, said she hopes it will grow as more learn about it.

"I will say it's low because we are just getting started, but they're coming in often ... asking for registration information," she said. "We are going to have a tent at Archway Days this weekend. We're going to be in the Archway Day parade. We're going to pass out information, so we hope to see enrollment grow quickly."

Markley added that LifeWise cannot promote the program through the school and that the school is not allowed to promote or discourage attendance.

What is LifeWise Academy?

LifeWise Academy was founded in 2018 in Ohio as a division of Stand For Truth, an event-based nonprofit ministry with a mission to reach public school students, according to its website.

The nonprofit follows the 1952 U.S. Supreme Court decision Zorach v. Clauson that deemed it was constitutional to teach the Bible during the public school day in all 50 states, given that it follows three conditions: that it be held off school premises, that it be privately funded and that parents give permission.

On its website, LifeWise claims that each lesson reviews a Bible passage and a "Living LifeWise" character trait, and that each lesson focuses on head, heart and hands.

What was the law that was passed in Indiana?

The law passed in Indiana's General Assembly authored by Rep. Kendell Culp (R-Rensselaer) and co-sponsored by local Sen. Jeff Raatz is an amended version of a 2023 bill that allowed school principals to give permission to students who would leave during the school day for religious instruction rather than requiring principals to allow it.

Last fall, Markley said church members approached the school board because there was a policy on the record regarding religious instruction, but they were told that it was cut during a rewriting phase of some policies.

"They would look into working with us, but then when they looked into it, the response was that their choice was 'No thank you,'" she said. "And it was based off of what the students would be missing during the day. It was based off of insurance concerns. There was a list of reasons that they gave us. It was very cordial."

However, when the church became aware of the new state law requiring it, they approached the school once again, along with some help from Raatz.

"We were quite involved with Sen. Raatz," Markley said. "We have a personal connection here at our church and it's a family connection with Sen. Raatz, and so he heard about through one person from our congregation, became interested, and gave me a call and became more interested in it."

What is the LifeWise curriculum?

Although it remained private for a few years because of issues with copyright infringement, Markley said LifeWise's curriculum company, One Gospel Project, has made it available to request online as a way of being transparent to parents.

Zachary Parrish, a parent from Fort Wayne, initially leaked the academy's curriculum on his website, Parents Against LifeWise, saying he believed the material was fair use. What resulted was a lawsuit filed by LifeWise in July that is still pending.

"He did release the curriculum when it was a copyright infringement, but in the process of looking at that, I think they realized, 'Hey, this is going to go a lot better if we let people see the curriculum,'" Markley said.

How do schools start the LifeWise Academy program?

There is a 10-step process to be followed for districts trying to introduce LifeWise Academy, starting with 50 signatures from interested parents.

Right now, Centerville is on Step 9, "Execute the Plan," while none of the other Wayne County schools have passed Step 1.

Richmond Community Schools is the next county corporation closest to initiating the process with 39 signatures as of Aug. 23.

Should it move to the following steps, community members will be tasked to join a kickoff meeting, fundraising $500 and eventually obtaining school approval, among other steps.

Evan Weaver is a news and sports reporter at The Palladium-Item. Contact him on X (@evan_weaver7) or email at eweaver@gannett.com .

This article originally appeared on Richmond Palladium-Item: LifeWise Academy to coordinate religious instruction program with Centerville schools