Lifewise Academy Forces Schools to Release Students for 2 Hours a Week
Lifewise capitalizes on a Michigan law that allows students to be excused for 2 hours per week.
Lifewise Academy in Port Huron, MI, will remove students from school for 2 hours per week. Michigan law allows students to be excused for up to 2 hours per week, and Lifewise will use the full amount allowed. This is the first instance Respect Public Schools has seen of a released time program publicly advocating for more than one period per week in elementary school.
Lifewise Academy Port Huron director Jayvon Moncrief says local school districts view Lifewise Academy as an “unnecessary distraction.” He adds that the schools have no choice but to allow the program. That is not true. Michigan law does not require schools to coordinate with released time programs or Lifewise. Parents can sign their children out, but Michigan schools are not required by law to coordinate with Lifewise, unlike schools in Ohio, Indiana, Texas, Oklahoma, and other states.
Removing 2 hours per week will automatically put every student who attends Lifewise at a minimum attendance of 94%. Under Michigan’s definition of chronic absenteeism, both excused and unexcused absences remove students from time with teachers. A student who misses 10% of school hours is chronically absent. If a student attends Lifewise and then misses just 5 days of school for any other reason, they are now chronically absent. Port Huron Area School District has an average attendance rate of 95% for students who are not chronically absent. Drop this by 6%, and the average for the entire school is now chronically absent.
A Christian ministry whose vision is to “come alongside administrators and teachers” who want to remove students for the maximum number of hours legally allowed sounds counterproductive to supporting schools.
