Ohio Public Schools Lose 1 Million Hours a Year for Bible Class
Lifewise Academy will impact all students in classrooms in Ohio public schools. Students who choose to not attend Lifewise are left with busy work.
By the end of 2024, Ohio’s Legislature enacted a law requiring schools to work with religious programs to remove students from instructional time. The Governor chose not to veto it, believing that reducing classroom time would benefit students. In 2025, a law was passed permitting elementary students to miss up to two periods weekly for religious classes. The final development was House Bill 57, which grants local Boards of Education the authority to approve unlimited missed hours for religious education.
On April 15, 2026, Governor Mike DeWine announced a new attendance dashboard to allow the public to watch the state’s dismantling of the public schools in real time. The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (ODEW) defines 72 hours of unexcused absences per year as habitual absence. But the law allows 2 hours a week for 36 weeks to be missed for religious classes. That’s 72 hours. ODEW says that missing 72 hours makes a student habitually absent, but the legislature also requires schools to adopt policies to allow this. I can’t even find the words to explain how idiotic this is.
Released time religious instruction programs like Lifewise Academy have removed students from an estimated 1 million classroom hours of instruction over the last school year alone. There are an estimated 40,000 students in Lifewise in Ohio. Enrollment doubles during instructional time compared with lunch and recess, and 45% of Lifewise programs remove students from instructional periods. That’s 27,000 students missing an hour a week for a minimum of 36 weeks a year.
The actual number of students affected cannot be determined. Schools often place students who do not attend the religious class in a study hall or non-instructional classes. When many students leave during this time, instruction cannot proceed uniformly because they are dispersed across various parts of the curriculum. Although this precise instructional impact is difficult to quantify, it still exists. This is not a problem schools should be forced to handle.
If you think this sounds crazy, read the real-world program examples Lifewise Academy provides to schools in their “Superintendent Packet.” Van Wert Elementary School (Ohio) states, “At Van Wert Elementary, LifeWise is part of the weekly specials rotation. Students who don’t attend engage in independent study (e.g., book reading, computer work, etc.).” Children in 1st grade are being left to independent study. Again, instruction has to be put on hold in the classroom so students are not in different parts of the curriculum.
Over the last two years, Ohio shifted from requiring parental involvement in religious education to mandating that schools collaborate with churches, and ultimately to permitting students to miss unlimited time for religious classes. During this period, the state also funded private schools at unprecedented levels, claiming to provide better options for students. An administration that acts as if attendance is important while creating a blueprint to reduce it should be questioned.