Carey Village Schools Violates School Policy
Carey, Ohio, public schools have chosen to base when students receive instruction on the family’s religious choice.
Carey Exempted Village Schools (Ohio) has allowed Wyandot Cares, a released time religious instruction (RTRI) program, to use the district’s buses for free for the last 5 years. Public record requests sent to Carey schools revealed no payments received from Wyandot Cares between January 1, 2021, and April 20, 2026. The school also did not issue an invoice to Wyandot Cares. Requests for lease agreements or other contracts were returned with no records existing.
Wyandot Cares has been operating in the Carey Schools since 2006. Originally, students walked to a church close to the school. At some point, a vehicle was required for transportation. Social media posts from Wyandot Cares show Carey school buses being used in 2018.
Emails from Wyandot Cares to the school indicate that the school administration knew the school’s buses were being used. Lydia Miller, Director of Wyandot Cares, provided the school with its own policy in an email and then explained how she thought she could work around it to keep it legal. Whoever suggested this would be legal needs to be fired.
The school’s RTRI policy states: (policy 5223)
“Transportation of students to and from released time instruction is the complete responsibility of the sponsoring entity, the parent, guardian, and/or student. The Board, its members, and employees are immune from liability for any injuries arising from transportation to and from released time instruction. Further, no Board funds will be expended for, and no District personnel shall be involved in, the provision of religious instruction.”
Wyandot Cares’ interpretation of the policy is that as long as the school doesn’t offer the bus, it’s legal. The school administration agreed and told Wyandot Cares to contact the transportation coordinator directly. District staff were aware of the relationship between Wyandot Cares. For at least 5 years, the district has allowed a third party to use its buses for free, which is so insane I can’t even fathom how no one noticed.
If you run an organization that needs a bus during the day, call Carey Schools; they will hook you up. All joking aside. Who insured the buses during this time? Who verified the drivers’ credentials? Did they always use the school’s drivers, their own, or a mix? A district operating in direct violation of its own policies. If something were to happen to a student or a bus, it’s not clear who would be held liable, and that is a huge problem.
Schedules Support Religious Students
In addition to the misuse of school property, the district allowed Wyandot Cares to set the schedule on days with a 2-hour delay. Again. A religious organization is setting the policies for how a school runs its schedules. When Wyandot Cares first began offering its class in the Carey schools, the district said that students not participating in the religious program would not have their education affected.
The practice of stopping instructional time for students not attending the religious instruction is why RTRI has become a growing issue in schools. 19 years later, the same process is happening in the Carey schools. During the 2-hour delays, the schools were not going to send students out for religious instruction, but Wyandot Cares asked whether they could still do so, and the schools changed their plans. At the request of a religious organization, the schedules of all students were impacted.
Parents who choose to have their child miss class for religious instruction have now affected the instruction of those who do attend. The Carey schools have chosen to base when students receive instruction on the family’s religious choice. Ohio law and the Carey school policies for RTRI state, “The student assumes responsibility for any missed schoolwork.” The workaround the schools have implemented, to the benefit of families who have chosen religious instruction, is to stop instruction and forgo lessons students would miss.
Wyandot Cares was contacted for a comment about the article. No response was received.