VERMILION, Ohio — Vermilion Schools administrators were perhaps the most vocal opponents of letting students leave school grounds for religious instruction.

But now they, like many other Ohio school districts, permit young learners to enroll in such programs. One of the largest religious release instruction programs, LifeWise Academy, now has a program within the district.

But not everyone is on board with students leaving campus during school hours. On Monday, a divided Ohio County Board of Education voted 3-2 to reject a request from LifeWise to transport students for classes during their lunch periods.

LifeWise is an Ohio-based nonprofit that teaches Christian-based instruction to public school students who receive parental permission to enroll in the program. The instruction is free, during the school day, off-campus and hosted during non-core class time, such as lunch or specials.

‘May’ to ‘shall’

Vermilion Schools administrators had blocked LifeWise from its district about a year ago.

So what changed? The law itself.

The state legislature approved — and Gov. Mike DeWine signed — House Bill 8, which forced Ohio school boards to create policies that allow religious release programs like LifeWise to operate within their districts. Vermilion’s board of education approved a policy after the legislation change.

“Before, it was the school district ‘may’ approve release time for religious instruction, and then they changed it to ‘shall,'” Hile said. “That took the decision out of the board’s hands.”

Hile said the school board originally rejected the program after doing its due diligence of meeting with the community, LifeWise representatives and LifeWise opponents. The original rejection came from concerns about taking students out of buildings during the day and the dynamics between students who were in and out of the program.

The idea of offering the program after school was discussed, but in the end, LifeWise did not agree and the board turned it down.

New wording, same opinion

Even though the law changed its wording, Hile did not change his opinion on it. He clarified LifeWise specifically was not an issue but rather the idea of what the law allows.

“It’s really not an opinion on the program,” Hile said. “I haven’t been to a session with kids, and I don’t know really what they do. My biggest concern is taking students out of school during the school day.”

There are more than 8,000 hours a year, and about 1,000 of them are spent at school, according to Hile.

“That leaves another 7,000 hours to do whatever you want with your child outside of school,” Hile said. “With all that time, in my opinion, this is not something that students should be taken out of school for.”

Hile added that there are programs after school and parents look for these programs because they work better with their work schedule. He said offering LifeWise could be beneficial to the program.

“It wouldn’t matter if it were a religious program or something else,” Hile said. “I would be opposed to students being taken out of school.”

Who’s in charge?

Hile was questioned on who would lead the program and what the vetting process for the instructors looks like, but the district is not connected to these decisions.

“We don’t have any responsibility for any of their personnel or anything like that,” Hile said.

A LifeWise spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.