Arizona House approves bill allowing volunteer chaplains in public schools after contentious debate

The Arizona House passed Senate Bill 12-69 on April 14, 2025, approving a measure that allows volunteer chaplains to provide supports and services to public school students with a parent’s written consent and other restrictions. The final tally was 31 ayes, 25 nays and 4 not voting.

Supporters said the bill creates a narrowly tailored option for parents who want spiritual support available on campus. “Parents have to sign off on their child seeing a chaplain. Parents get to see the list of those chaplains,” Representative Gress said during debate, adding the bill “prohibits chaplains from proselytizing” and is aimed at “empowering parents.”

Opponents argued the measure weakens the separation of church and state and risks substituting volunteers for trained counselors and social workers. “This bill blurs the lines and may open a door for youth to be peer pressured into participating,” Representative Cruz said. Representative De Los Santos urged funding for counselors instead, saying chaplains are not “trained counselors, psychologists, or social workers.”

The bill requires schools to notify guardians that support services are available, to obtain written guardian consent before a student receives chaplain services, and to allow guardians to select a chaplain from a provided list. The debate included examples and personal testimony: Representative Pamela Carter described a volunteer mentor who helped at-risk students and said such supports can be valuable, while Representative Peschikai described historic harms from forced religious assimilation in federal boarding-school contexts and urged a no vote.

Backers cited existing community programs and said the bill does not compel schools to adopt chaplaincy programs. Critics raised legal concerns and asked whether volunteers would be subject to the same background checks and vetting required of school employees; Representative Stahl Hamilton said current bill text allows exceptions that could create vetting gaps and voted against it for that reason.

The House’s passage sends SB 12-69 back to the Senate. The transcript shows the measure was debated extensively on the floor, with repeated appeals to parental choice and to concerns about student safety, mental-health staffing and historical harms.

The measure’s passage was followed by standard legislative procedure to convey the action to the Senate.