Lifewise Local Signature Campaigns Provide Little Value, Artificially Inflated
Lifewise Academy requests that anyone sign the local signature lists, and the policy of waiting for 50 signatures is only for show. CEO says anyone with a pulse can sign.
Lifewise Academy is a Christian ministry whose goal is to reach unchurched studnets by taking advantage of compulsory public school attendance. Students leave the school, attend a period of religious service, and then return to school. The Supreme Court has upheld this practice, and many states have laws defining its operation.
Lifewise Academy describes itself as a grass-roots initiative to bring the bible into local public schools. The initial step of opening a Lifewise franchise in a school district is to gather 50 signatures from local individuals who wish to see the program operate in the local schools. Lifewise will sometimes use the line “if you live, work, or worship” in a school district; you should sign the list. The Lifewise website no longer has this language.
There has never been any requirement for Lifewise to gather signatures. No laws or policies. It was simply a way to rally local support, give a simple task to local individuals, and gauge the return on investment in an area. According to Lifewise documentation, when the 50-signature mark is met, Lifewise will engage its resources from the corporate office to start working wth local individuals and walk through the rest of the 10-step process to launch Lifewise in the school district.
But in practice, Lifewise does not wait for the 50 signatures before initiating the process of creating and launching a program. Emails from Lifewise corporate prove the signature requirements are not a required rule.
The theory behind the signature lists is to prove local community support for removing studnets from classes and forcing schools to coordinate with a ministry. Oftentimes the lists are provided to the local Board of Education to help with the narrative that the community is behind the program. Lifewise will suggest people sign other communities’ lists to get to the 50 mark even though there is no official requirement.
The CEO of Lifewise says anyone with a pulse should sign the list. They pulled the numbers out of thin air.
The number of signatures in support of Lifewise for a school district should not be used in any way as a gauge of the program's status. There are dozens of programs that have launched with fewer than 50 signatures. It only takes a couple of people with enough ambition and money to start the process. Many programs launch and only serve a single child.
If you or your organization is using the signature count as a way to gauge the status of the effort to bring Lifewise into a district, you should assume the process is further along than stated. Providing facts about Lifewise, the state laws, and school policy requirements are the best ways to start educating the district and public about Lifewise.