Under pressure: Florida education officials seek to clarify school chaplain guidelines

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Department of Education on Tuesday issued what it described as a “model policy” to help school districts carry out a controversial new law that allows volunteer school chaplains.

Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. said in a statement the model policy provides guidelines “to ensure that credible chaplains can volunteer in Florida’s schools.” Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Legislature this year approved the law, which gives school districts the option of authorizing chaplains to provide services to students.

“These chaplains will serve as an additional resource for students,” Diaz said in the statement. “Florida welcomes only legitimate and officially authorized chaplains to become volunteers at their local schools and to provide students with morally sound guidance.”

During the legislative session, opponents questioned the constitutionality of allowing school chaplains and whether it would lead to religious proselytization. Questions also have swirled about whether representatives of groups such as the Satanic Temple could serve as chaplains.

Locally, Palm Beach County schools have not established a chaplain program, and school leaders don't appear interested in creating one.

Superintendent Mike Burke reiterated during a press conference prior to the start of the 2024-25 school year that district-run schools will not allow chaplains to be installed on campus.

The Department of Education’s two-page model policy goes into more detail than the law. For example, it defines a chaplain as a person “who is officially authorized by the leadership of a religion under the religion’s governing principles to conduct religious exercises.”

As an extension of that, the model policy defines religion as “an organized group led, supervised, or counseled by a hierarchy of teachers, clergy, sages or priests … that acknowledges the existence of and worships a supernatural entity or entities that possesses power over the natural world, … regularly engages in some form of ceremony, ritual, or protocol, and … whose religious beliefs impose moral duties independent of the believer’s self-interest.”

The model policy also recommends minimum requirements for chaplains, including that they have local religious affiliations; have bachelor’s degrees; and have graduate degrees in counseling or theology or can demonstrate seven years of experience as chaplains.

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The department also recommends that chaplains demonstrate “a sincere desire to meet the objectives of the Volunteer School Chaplain Program and enhance student welfare. A principal may deny the application of any individual to become a volunteer chaplain if the principal determines that the individual is not applying to fulfill the program’s purpose or the applicant’s participation will be contrary to the pedagogical interests of the school and the chaplaincy program.”

DeSantis signed the law in April after it passed by an 89-25 vote in the House and a 28-12 vote in the Senate. The measure, which was similar to bills in other Republican-led states, drew opposition from Democratic lawmakers and groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.

“Allowing chaplains to provide counseling and other support services in public schools would violate students’ and families’ religious-freedom rights by exposing all public school students to the risk of chaplains evangelizing them or imposing religion on them throughout their school day,” Kara Gross, legislative director and senior policy counsel at the ACLU of Florida, said in a March statement after the bill passed the Legislature.

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But DeSantis spokesman Bryan Griffin said in a post Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter, that the model policy is designed to further the goal of districts approving chaplain programs.

“We strongly encourage school districts to move forward with their chaplaincy programs,” Griffin said in the post. “The state of Florida and the Florida Department of Education will stand with and support school districts who implement the program.”

Under the law, written parental consent would be required before students could receive services from chaplains. Also, parents would be able to choose chaplains from lists provided by school districts.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Under pressure: Florida education officials seek to clarify school chaplain guidelines