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Parents urge Valley View to adopt protections for religious release programs after state law change
Summary
A group of parents asked the Valley View Local Board of Education to adopt clear policies and written agreements governing religious release time (RTRI) programming, citing safety, liability, background-check and lost instructional-time concerns under recently amended state law.
Cathy Young, speaking for a large group of parents and community members, urged the Valley View Local Board of Education to adopt clear RTRI (religious release time instruction) policies after recent changes in state law.
“For those who don’t understand the term, that means religious release time for religious instruction,” Young said, summarizing the recent legislative changes that require districts to have RTRI policies while allowing districts discretion over program limits.
Young raised several specific concerns: whether RTRI providers perform adequate background checks; safety of buses used by some RTRI programs and documented incidents involving contracted buses; training of RTRI staff in first aid and mandated reporting; confusion about liability when programs sought parental releases that absolved providers of responsibility; disruption of instructional time for students and teachers; and practices she described as potentially divisive, such as programs encouraging recruitment of classmates with rewards.
She urged the district to consider written contracts or memorandums of understanding to ensure school resources and staff time are not used for RTRI implementation and to protect instructional time for core and special-area classes. “This needs to be added to our RTRI policy so that instructional time in art, music, physical education, and health and wellness is protected,” Young said.
Superintendent Cook provided a brief community update, saying she had not heard community contact about RTRI in months but acknowledged the board is watching state guidance and materials (including possible policy templates from Neola).
What’s next: Young asked for the board to consider stronger written safeguards (background checks, liability language, MOUs/contracts and clear boundaries on staff time and resources); administration did not announce a new policy at the meeting and indicated it would monitor guidance and return recommendations to the board.
