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Committee adopts amendment and favorably reports House Bill 57 on released-time religious instruction
Summary
The Senate Education Committee adopted amendment AM0819 to House Bill 57, allowing districts local flexibility on time limits for released-time religious instruction and barring monetary damages for alleged pre-effective-date violations; ranking member Ingram objected and raised implementation concerns; the committee then favorably reported the bill.
The Senate Education Committee on June 24 adopted amendment AM0819 to House Bill 57 and then favorably reported the bill to the next stage.
Vice Chair Blessing moved the amendment and explained its intent: it “permits a district to adopt different time limits on student attendance in released time courses in religious instruction than the limits established under current law,” and the amendment would “prohibit any court from awarding monetary damages for claims arising from alleged violations of the law governing religious instruction released time policies occurring between 09/30/2025 and the bill's effective date,” while including an LSC technical section-number change.
Ranking Member Ingram objected and urged more discussion, saying he was concerned the amendment could expand daily released-time practices and affect required seat time. He asked how districts would account for credit and whether off-site travel for religious instruction could create prolonged absences, noting that “when you start to talk about transporting kids to somewhere else, that it takes a bus or some other time to transportation to get to, there's a difference in what that day looks like and who's going.”
The chair and proponents responded that some districts have long-standing practices, that local school boards would vote to allow any expanded schedule, and that existing law already permits policies that authorize high school students to earn up to two units of credit for completion of a released-time course. Senator Huffman voiced support and said he understands the practice is generally compliant with department rules.
Because an objection was entered, the committee proceeded to a roll-call vote on the amendment; the chair announced the amendment passed. Immediately after, Vice Chair Blessing moved that the committee favorably report House Bill 57; the clerk called the roll and the chair announced the favorable report. The transcript records individual 'Yes' and 'No' calls but does not provide a complete named roll-call tally in its text.
