KY lawmaker says he’ll drop request to include ‘moral instruction’ time in education bill

The Republican Kentucky lawmaker who inserted new rules around religious teaching into an education bill has now said he’ll take them out.

Sen. Aaron Reed, R-Shelbyville, said Wednesday he will kill a floor amendment made to a House bill that would have required public school districts in Kentucky to allow students to go off-campus during the school day for religious instruction.

The bill, House Bill 253, was sponsored by Republican Rep. James Tipton and had started as a bill meant to get rid of “three-cueing,” a type of instructional reading model, in public schools. But significant changes were made once the legislation got to the Senate: One change in a Senate committee proposed making it illegal for school districts to enter into nondisclosure agreements relating to misconduct involving minors or students. The other, Reed’s floor amendment, would have required the board of education of a local school district to allow students to attend “moral instruction.”

“I will remove it once it’s on the Senate floor,” Reed told the Herald-Leader Wednesday.

Tipton said he wanted it taken out.

“I asked for it to be removed. I have worked for four years to get the school employee misconduct language in statute,” Tipton said. “I did not want anything that might be controversial to prevent HB 253 from being passed.“

Other efforts for more religious, moral instruction

House Bill 829, filed earlier this year by Rep. Shane Baker, R-Somerset, says boards of education of local school districts “shall” allow students to be excused from school to attend moral instruction for at least one hour. That bill has not moved in the General Assembly.

Reed’s amendment to Tipton’s bill was similar, stating that boards of education shall allow students to be excused for at least one hour one day each week for moral instruction at no cost to the district. Moral instruction could not take place on school property.

“I have suggested that we have an agenda item over the Interim to discuss the HB 829 language,” Tipton said. “I believe it is always better to vette a bill through the committee process.”

Current law requires that school boards must consider, but can turn down, “moral instruction” proposals.

Several Kentucky school boards rejected such proposals last year, including those in Warren, Kenton and Oldham counties.

LifeWise, an Ohio-based Christian nonprofit that provides off-campus Bible classes to students during the school day, has made efforts to operate in Kentucky. It currently operates in about 1,000 schools across 34 states during school hours.

In September, the McCracken County Board of Education voted 4-1 to approve LifeWise Academy’s request to provide Bible-based “character education” to Lone Oak Intermediate School students off campus during school hours, according to WPSD Local 6. Marshall County also has agreed to have LifeWise provide education services.

LifeWise organizes a local team to provide the programming, transportation, and staff without receiving any taxpayer funding, the Family Foundation, a conservative Christian advocacy group, said.

This story was originally published March 25, 2026 at 2:43 PM.