Group asks KY board to reconsider vote against off-site Bible classes during school
A conservative Christian public policy organization is urging the Warren County School Board to reconsider a vote against providing off-campus Bible classes to students during the school day.
The 2025 General Assembly passed Senate Bill 19, sponsored by Sen. Rick Girdler, R-Somerset, which created a process for local school districts to allow off-campus moral instruction, including Bible classes.
The classes “would be optional for families and students to participate in, and the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment allows these optional off-campus Bible classes,” Family Foundation officials said in a Friday news release. “Now local school boards must approve prospective programs that seek to offer those classes to families in the local school system.”
The Family Foundation has partnered with LifeWise Academy to share information about the new law and to help parents to bring the optional off-campus Bible classes to local school districts.
LifeWise is an Ohio-based Christian non-profit that provides off-campus Bible classes to students during the school day. Over 1,000 schools across 34 states allow students to participate in a LifeWise program during school hours. LifeWise organizes a local team to provide the programming, transportation, and staff without receiving any taxpayer funding, the Family Foundation said.
In late August, the Warren County School Board voted against LifeWise’s program proposal 3-2.
“We are urging the Warren County School Board to reconsider their vote,” the Family Foundation said in the Friday news release.
Warren County school district officials did not immediately respond to an email from the Herald-Leader Sunday.
“Additionally, the Oldham County School Board is currently considering a proposal from LifeWise but has not scheduled a vote yet. Unfortunately, opponents of religious liberty have taken to the media to try and deny Oldham County families this wonderful opportunity,” the Family Foundation news release said.
The Kentucky Lantern reported that Lifewise has ambitious plans in Kentucky.
Cassie Allchorne, the program director of Oldham County’s LifeWise Academy, told the Lantern that LifeWise has about 45 planning teams that are forming or are fully formed across Kentucky’s 171 public school districts.
“Marshall County is the only active LifeWise program in Kentucky, with six schools in that district having the program this fall. LifeWise has been in the district since 2023. State law previously allowed school based decision making councils to decide if off-campus moral instruction programs could be offered to students,” the Lantern reported.
WPSD, a news station in Paducah, reported that LifeWise will propose the classes to the McCracken County School Board.