Released Time Bible Education: Off school premises, in real time.
Released Time Bible Education: Off school premises, in real time.

What is Released Time?

A Released Time program is one in which—with parental approval—public schools release students for a part of the school day to attend off-site religious instruction offered by a private sponsoring group. It recognizes and reinforces the constitutionally protected right of parents to direct the religious education of their children.

What is Released Time?

A Released Time program is one in which—with parental approval—public schools release students for a part of the school day to attend off-site religious instruction offered by a private sponsoring group. It recognizes and reinforces the constitutionally protected right of parents to direct the religious education of their children.

Legal Requirements

Federal court decisions have provided three main conditions that public schools must follow regarding what schools are allowed to do when accommodating and working with Released Time programs, and also what schools cannot do:

  1. Student attendance must be voluntary, with written parental permission,
  2. Instruction must take place off school grounds, and
  3. No state resources (taxpayer funds) may be expended.

Legal Requirements

Federal court decisions have provided three main conditions that public schools must follow regarding what schools are allowed to do when accommodating and working with Released Time programs, and also what schools cannot do:

  1. Student attendance must be voluntary, with written parental permission,
  2. Instruction must take place off school grounds, and
  3. No state resources (taxpayer funds) may be expended.

“We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being. When the state encourages religious instruction or cooperates with religious authorities by adjusting the schedule of public events to sectarian needs, it follows the best of our traditions. For it then respects the religious nature of our people and accommodates the public service to their spiritual needs.” 
Justice William O. Douglas, Zorach v. Clauson (1952)

WHO WE ARE

This Released Time Religious Education website was created by School Ministries, Inc., for educators, parents, and students interested in learning more about Released Time. Topics include: the history of Released Time, the legality of Released Time, and various states laws related to Released Time.

Since its inception in 1914, millions of students from kindergarten through high school have participated. Currently hundreds of thousands of students participate in a Released Time program annually.

School Ministries is the largest provider of Released Time education and works to advance Christian Released Time Bible education across the country. It helps create new programs and strengthen existing ones.

History of Released Time Programs
Released Time Law State by State
Publications and Resources
Religion in American Education
First Amendment and Federal Law
History of Released Time Programs
Released Time Law State by State
Publications and Resources
Religion in American Education
First Amendment and Federal Law
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As the culture becomes darker and darker, Released Time Bible Education becomes more and more important. We are now reaching out to a generation of children who have no compass for right and wrong and are Biblically illiterate…a generation that is unchurched yet hungers for answers. Now more than ever our public schools are ripe for harvest as a mission field and Released Time fills that need.

Finn Laursen, Executive Director of large teachers’ association

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All the miseries and evils which men suffer from – vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war—proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.

Noah Webster, Father of American Scholarship and Education

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The next generation needs to have God’s Word integrated into their lives if they have any hope of surviving in today’s postmodern, anti-Christian culture. Released Time provides students in public schools with the marvelous opportunity to study God’s Word and have it change their lives for eternity.

Dr. Glen Schultz, Headmaster of a Christian Academy and national authority on Christian education