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.