A one-word change to Ohio laws is responsible for the new LifeWise program that launched in five Newark City elementary schools this fall, several years after the Christian education program initially attempted to launch in the school district, according to school district Communication Coordinator Seth Roy.
LifeWise, founded by former OSU football player Joel Penton, is an organization that offers Bible studies to public school children during school hours. LifeWise students leave during the school day once a week to learn curriculum originally designed for Sunday schools.
Earlier this year, lawmakers changed the Ohio Revised Code language regarding “released time” from school for religious instruction. Released time is defined as a time during school hours that a student can be allowed to leave to receive religious education.
The 2014 version of the law states: “A school district board of education may adopt a policy that authorizes a student to be excused from school to attend a released time course in religious instruction.”
The April 2025 version of the law changed may to shall, requiring all Ohio school districts to adopt policies allowing released time for religious instruction.
“LifeWise had originally come to Newark a couple years ago,” Roy said. “We initially did not have them start the program.”
But when Newark City Schools changed its policy to reflect the update, LifeWise returned to the district with plans to implement a new program. Newark City LifeWise Program Director Adrienne Tice met with the Newark City School District and Superintendent David Lewis shortly after the policy change.
“We didn’t want to go around them, so we met with the superintendent, and we felt it went so well,” Tice said.
Tice did not grow up in a religious environment. She said her parents never talked about Jesus or attended church – until her father’s diagnosis came in: stage four melanoma.
“He started encouraging us to go to church and read a Bible and all of these strange things for us,” she said. “We’d never heard our dad talk like that.”
Religious education during the school day, such as the education LifeWise academy offers, is legal under three conditions, according to a 1952 Supreme Court decision Zorach vs. Clauson.
First, religious education must take place off of the school’s campus, and LifeWise educators must transport students from school to a nearby church partnered with the program. LifeWise school buses or vans are hard to miss with their bright red paint and LifeWise Academy in yellow lettering.
Second, no government funds may be used for the program. All of the funding for LifeWise is usually collected through community donations or church fundraisers.
Third, parents must give consent for their students to attend LifeWise sessions. The school plays no role in assisting students with signing up for the program, according to Roy.
“Students aren’t coming to us to sign up for the program or anything; it’s all through LifeWise,” Roy said. “The only students who would go would be those students whose families have signed them up for the program.”
LifeWise in Newark will be offered to fourth and fifth graders at Ben Franklin, John Clem, Legend, Carson and Hillview schools by Sept. 8. McGuffey and Cherry Valley elementary schools have been delayed, but Lifewise is still working to launch in these two schools.
Tice’s goal with LifeWise is to help fifth graders navigate a tricky transition: middle school.
“The fifth to sixth grade transition is the hardest transition in school,” Tice said. “So if we could come alongside the fifth graders and give them something consistent, then we think that that might help ease a burden that the schools face right now.”
Establishing a Newark branch of LifeWise is personal for Tice, who once attended John Clem Elementary in Newark. Now, she hopes to help John Clem students by being the support system she wished she had at the time.
“I get to find little Addie, and I get to tell little Addie that someone loves her – that God loves her, and that she has intense value, and she was created for a reason,” Tice said. “Maybe, just maybe, I would get to change the trajectory of one child’s life by simply letting them know that they are loved and they are valued and they are worthy of respect and dignity.”
Much of the concern expressed by some parents and teachers about LifeWise Academy stems from the fear of students missing out on important aspects of their education.
“We really do not want students to miss out on certainly any academic time or on gym, music or art,” Roy said.
These concerns are what led David Hile, superintendent of northern Ohio’s Vermilion Local School District who previously served as the Licking Valley superintendent for 14 years, to fight the change in Ohio law that requires districts to have a released-time policy.
During consideration of a previous bill aimed at making the same change to the Released Time law, House Bill 445, Hile testified vehemently against the change in a letter he wrote to the house.
Hile wrote that the decision to allow programs such as LifeWise should be made by the local community: What is the point of having a school board, if the state government is making the decisions, Hile asked?
“In the fall of 2023, in the Vermilion Local School District, local pastors and supporters of Lifewise began lobbying the school district to offer the Lifewise option,” Hile wrote.
Ultimately, the school board decided that LifeWise would be a great before- and after-school program for interested students. However, the board thought the program would be too much of an interruption during the school day.
“This is exactly how democracy is supposed to work!” Hile wrote. “Why would legislators in Columbus want to subvert and override that democratic process?”
LifeWise will pick up Newark’s fourth and fifth graders during lunch and recess times to avoid concerns about students missing school work.
“We asked the schools what would be the best for them,” Tice said. “We don’t want to take away from art or music, all of those things are incredibly bad for us. We feel like (the school knows) their students the best, and they could give us the best option for using schools, and they decided on lunch and recess.”
Classes such as art and music offer creative expression, an emotional outlet and increased cultural awareness according to the Virginia Education Association. But the American Association of Pediatrics points out that recess can be just as important for elementary school students that have the same energy levels as adult endurance athletes.
Missing class time is not the only concern that parents and teachers have with the bible study program. The Secular Education Association, previously known as Parents Against LifeWise, curated a list of grievances parents and school officials have with LifeWise, which can be found on its website.
Some parents take issue with the mandated reporting process for complaints of misconduct by students. On its website, the SEA provides documents saying that LifeWise educators should reach out to supervisors first before reporting accusations of misconduct.
Critics said they felt a similar frustration after LifeWise academy made headlines for its past problems with background checks for employees.
Last year, a Firelands Local School District LifeWise program director was fired after it was revealed the former teacher had previously been fired from a school and surrendered her teaching license for allegations of inappropriate conduct with students.
LifeWise CEO Joel Penton said at the time that the accusations were not detected by the background check because no criminal charges had been filed.
The academy previously used Protect My Ministry for its background check process. Now, the organization uses ProScreening.
LifeWise also recently received pushback on its employment policies after a former employee spoke out and sued LifeWise for discrimination in the workplace.
Former LifeWise teacher Rachel Snell told The Columbus Dispatch that she felt pressure from supervisors to not log all of the hours she spent preparing teaching materials, so she would not go over the number of hours she was allowed to work.
When she did go over those hours, Snell said she was subsequently fired for insubordinate behavior and accused of making political posts online, an accusation Snell said is made up.
LifeWise filed a complaint with the Ohio Supreme Court in an attempt to receive religious exemption from the investigation, arguing that LifeWise is a religious institution and therefore has the right to make decisions about employees without interference.
In a recent update, Snell withdrew her complaint and the Ohio attorney general dismissed LifeWise’s complaint as moot.
Some parents take issue with some of the beliefs expressed by LifeWise Academy. On its FAQ webpage, LifeWise states that topics such as divorce, pre-marital sex or same-sex relationships are not included in the curriculum.
But if these topics were to arise, “we reflect on the teachings of the Bible to inform our response if students ask questions,” according to the website. The LifeWise Worldview statement online discusses more about the beliefs of LifeWise Academy.
Internal documents obtained by the SEA provide LifeWise educators guidance on how to answer what LifeWise considers challenging questions.
One of the questions outlined in the document asks, “What does the Bible say about being in a same-sex relationship?”
LifeWise provides this answer to educators: “God designed the first man and woman to have a loving relationship with one another in marriage (Genesis 2). This was and still is God’s perfect plan. God’s Word tells us that anything different from this kind of romantic relationship between a husband and a wife is sin,” according to the document.
Other criticisms include students feeling pressure from peers to join LifeWise or from a fear of missing out. To address this issue, some school policies have limited LifeWise’s ability to hand out candy or trinkets as incentives for students to participate. Groups in support of LifeWise say that these policies limit religious freedom and suppress protected speech.
While LifeWise is planning to launch in five of the seven Newark elementary schools so far, Tice said she hopes to reach the funding goal to launch in all seven soon.
“If the community wants it, they’ll fund it,” Tice said. “Then we’ll be the conduit that makes (Bible education) happen.”
To launch in every school, Tice wants to raise $70,000. So far, the Newark branch of LifeWise has raised $15,000.
“We just trust whatever God gives us is how we’re going to go forward,” Tice said.
To start a LifeWise program, the community must collect a minimum of 50 signatures through the LifeWise website.
Newark collected 377 signatures. Now, 21 students in the district are signed up to participate this fall.
In Licking County, LifeWise has connections with 12 school systems, including Newark City School District. Those locations include:
- Career and Technology Educational Centers (Newark)
- Granville Exempted Village (Granville)
- Heath City (Heath)
- Johnstown-Monroe Local (Johnstown)
- Lakewood Local (Hebron)
- Licking Heights Local (Pataskala)
- Licking Valley Local (Newark)
- Newark City (Newark)
- North Fork Local (Utica)
- Northridge Local (Johnstown)
- Par Excellence Academy (Newark)
- Southwest Licking Local (Pataskala)
Maddie Luebkert writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.