Released-time religious instruction volunteer teachers prepare mobile classrooms for 66th year at Yorba Linda, Placentia elementary schools
More
than 50 volunteer teachers and aides are readying seven mobile
classrooms – better known as “chapels on wheels” – to launch
another year of released-time Christian education for the 21
elementary schools in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School
District.
Classes
begin Oct. 7 for fourth and fifth grade students whose parents fill
out the necessary forms to allow their children to participate in
Bible-related activities. Instruction takes place during lunch hours
in the mobile classrooms parked just off campus.
This
marks the 66th year of the off-campus instruction in Yorba Linda,
with the first classes at the Yorba Linda Elementary School in 1953.
The program expanded as the Yorba Linda School District opened new
campuses, and Placentia elementary schools were added after the
Placentia and Yorba Linda districts merged in 1989.
Released-time
instruction dates back to 1914 in Indiana. A 1952 Supreme Court
decision allowed voluntary released-time religious instruction, as
long as public funds or school classrooms were not used to support
the activity. Today, an estimated 250,000 students participate in
programs nationwide.
California
law allows school boards to adopt policies permitting release of
students to “receive moral and religious instruction at their
respective places of worship or at other suitable...places away from
school property.”
Longtime
leader of the Placentia-Yorba Linda program is Cyndy Ricketson, who
has helmed local released-time instruction for 26 years. She notes
the program has grown from the initial single chapel serving a few
schools to the seven chapels serving 21 schools today.
Average
attendance is about 450 students each week, which ranges from 380 to
500 students depending on the time of year. The program operates from
October to May, and includes sixth grade students on a
space-available basis at school sites with that grade level.
Although
not affiliated with the school district, state law allows teachers to
distribute released-time consent forms to students at the beginning
of the year. Parent approval is required for students to attend the
off-campus classes once weekly during school lunch hours.
Lunch
hours are about 45 minutes from bell-to-bell, with the volunteer
teachers and aides meeting the students on campus and walking them to
the mobile classrooms, usually parked in front of the schools.
Students
eat their lunches in the mobile classrooms, which seat 28 students,
two at each desk, “comfortably,” according to Ricketson. Students
are escorted back to campus at the end of the released-time period.
Estimated
cost to run the non-profit, 501c(3)-qualified program is $60 yearly
per student, raised from individual donations and contributions from
Calvary Church of East Anaheim. There is no charge for participating
students and parents.
Other
Orange County released-time programs are offered in Fullerton,
Anaheim, Orange and Santa Ana.
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