Released Time

Supreme Court Cases

The Supreme Court of the United States first dealt with religious instruction in public schools in 1948, in Illinois ex rel. McCollum v. Board of Education. At issue was a board program that allowed religious instruction during the public school day. Under the program, Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish members of the community entered the schools to provide 30 minutes of religious instruction per week to lower-level students. Upper-level students received 45 minutes of instruction.

In addition, school officials kept attendance records on the students who attended the religious instruction classes with parental permission. Insofar as the program used school buildings and facilities and officials cooperated closely with the released-time program, the Supreme Court struck it down on the basis that the state's compulsory attendance law abetted the religious instruction. More specifically, the Court spoke of the need for the complete separation of church and state.

Fours years later, the Supreme Court addressed released time directly in Zorach v. Clauson (1952). In Zorach, the City of New York released students for religious instruction during the school day as long as their parents gave their permission. The religious school reported attendance to public school officials on a weekly basis. Unlike McCollum, the instruction was not conducted in public school classrooms, and no public funds were used to support the program. The Court found that this program did not amount to the establishment of religion because it accommodated the religious wishes of the parents. Since Zorach, courts have reached mixed results in cases involving released-time programs.

Other Rulings

The Supreme Court of Washington (Perry v. School District No. 81, Spokane, 1959) struck down a released-time program on the basis of the state constitution. The court was of the opinion that the program was unconstitutional because it allowed public funds to be used for religious purposes and public educational officials made announcements about it in school to captive student audiences.

In a case with a twist, a federal trial court in Virginia granted a temporary restraining order that essentially stopped a released-time program from operating (Doe v. Shenandoah County School Board, 1990). The court maintained that the program was unacceptable because its sponsors parked the school buses they owned and used for the instruction, which looked like the public school's buses, on or close to [Page 683]school premises and sought to enter the schools to solicit student participants.

On the other hand, the Fourth Circuit previously upheld a released-time program in Virginia (Smith v. Smith, 1975). In applying the tripartite Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971) test, the traditional standard in matters involving religion and public education, the court ruled that the program had the secular purpose of accommodating parental wishes, did not advance or inhibit religion, and did not create excessive entanglement because the involvement of school officials was minimal and passive.

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