Welcome to Family Policy Matters, a weekly podcast and radio show produced by the North Carolina Family Policy Council. Hi, I'm John Rustin, president of NC Family. In each week on Family Policy Matters, we welcome experts and policy leaders to discuss topics that impact faith and family here in North Carolina. Our prayer is that this program will help encourage and equip you to be a voice of persuasion for family values in your community, state, and nation. I'm Mitch Prosser, Vice President of North Carolina Family Policy Council, filling in for Tracy this week.
Religious education during the school day just became easier to participate in for North Carolina families. A new state law passed in the state budget this year now requires all public school districts to establish a policy addressing release time religious instruction, or RTRI, allowing students to leave school grounds during the day for religious education. With an excused absence, so what does that look like for families, and how can families bring it to their local schools today? Christy Smith, North Carolina State Director of Lifewise Academy, joins us to explain how Lifewise is bringing Christian education to students across the state, and how you can get involved. Christy, thank you so much for joining us.
Absolutely, it's my pleasure to be here.
So, for those who aren't familiar with it, what is Lifewise Academy and what is its mission?
So Lifewise Academy was established in 2018 as a plug-and-play system, so that every community could establish its own Bible education program serving its local public schools.
So our mission is honestly to help communities come alongside those members to establish these programs in all of our school districts. Across the nation, and so that all fifty million public school students have the opportunity to study the Bible during school hours. What an amazing goal! What an admirable thing!
So, how did you first get involved with Lifewise? What drew you to the work that you're now doing?
Well, ironically, I was introduced to release time religious instruction at the end of 2019, which wasn't Lifewise. There was another group that was doing something similar out in California. I learned. About it, I actually asked my pastor. I said, "Can you find some money to fly me to California so I can learn how they do this and how I can replicate it in North Carolina?" And then later in 2023, I saw a Facebook post about LifeWise, not knowing that in 2019 they were piloting two schools to see if this plug-and-play system would work.
So in 2023, I signed my signature of support, but I signed having no idea that. It would lead me to a path of being the first named program director in North Carolina, and then later becoming the state director. Amazingly, God's providence led you on that path to get to where you are today. For those that aren't familiar, Lifewise began in Ohio, but it's now expanded into other states, including North Carolina.
So, how successful has that expansion been? What have you learned from bringing the program of Lifewise into different communities here in North Carolina?
Well, it's been beyond what we could have ever thought or imagined, which is biblical. We began, as I mentioned, in 2019 with just piloting two schools. We quickly grew to five in that same year, and so we set a goal for 25 schools by 2025. We found that we were just one year later serving 36 schools, with the first one outside of Ohio, and then we reset the goal to meet a. Thousand schools by 2026, we have now surpassed that goal, and that we're serving over a thousand schools by 2025.
And so now we've kind of resigned that the heart of God is for this opportunity to be for the nation.
So where we stand currently is that we are live in 34 states, and we have over 100,000 students enrolled in our classes nationwide.
So the growth is. That is amazing, and what amazing opportunity that you have! And God clearly is blessing this. I've heard once that where God guides, He provides. It's clear that that's what's happening here.
But let's get down to the nuts and bolts of it. Life Wise operates through RTRI or Release Time Religious Instruction.
So, how does that work during the school day, and why is this model that y'all are using so important for students? Yes.
So during the school day, we work individually with each public school's master schedule, and so our program directors will work directly with those principals on how our classes best fit into that daily schedule. And so most of the time, we see our classes occurring during electives or specials rotations. No core classes can be missed for a Lifewise class.
So. What that looks like is if students are registered for our classes, they will be brought to the office just like a normal transition, and there, our volunteers and teachers will pick them up, take them off school property, and that's part of RTI. We have to follow three criteria: off school property, parents permit it, and it has to be community funded, no tax dollars.
So the children will go to the office, be picked up, taken off site for. Their lesson and then brought back to campus at the end of that class period.
Sometimes there are opportunities during lunch and recess that the students can participate in our classes as well. The reason why during the day is so significant is that we are actually seeing greater participation during the school day. We love the before school programs, after school programs, and we support them greatly. But what we see during the school day is there's less competition. With extracurricular activities, then there's transportation issues, and so we are actually seeing greater enrollment and participation during school hours.
That's incredible.
So, is this program being implemented in elementary, middle, and high schools? Yes.
So, the majority of our programs are in the elementary and middle, and we do have offerings for the high school.
Now, I will say that our high school options are a little bit more complex because. Of the complexity of the high school schedule, and so, but we do have those offerings, but the majority of them are elementary and middle age courses where we have the greatest amount of participation. That's great. What kind of impact are you seeing in the lives of those students who participate in Lifewise? Do you have a particular story you could tell us about one of those students?
Yes, one of them that comes to mind. I had a friend of mine who is a public school teacher. LifeWise is serving that school, and she did call and share a testimony of one particular young lady who basically didn't really participate socially with any of her peers, nor during class. She was a very reserved child, very quiet, and not engaged with the whole of the class. And so, this child was enrolled in LifeWise classes, and my friend told me that this student returned back to school on the day after a life.
Class and the other students said, "Where were those kids? Why did they leave and why did they come back?" And she said, "Before the the teacher could even answer that these students are enrolled in Lifewise, that student stood up and went to the front of the classroom, and she said, 'We went to Lifewise because we are Lifewise kids, and it's fun.'" And we play games, and we learned that Jesus loves us and died for our sins. And she went and sat back down. And the teacher was blown away. She said, "This was a student who never spoke or really engaged at any deep level with any of her peers, and yet she just did public speaking in front of her entire class, answering the question for herself." That's incredible.
One thing's for sure: where Lifewise and RTRI is. Implemented, it seems like behavioral problems go down, academic performance goes up, graduation rates go up.
So it may be that a parent is driving down the road right now with their kids in the back seat of the car. They're listening to this and they're wondering, how in the world could I get release time, religious instruction, or life wise, how can I get that in my child's school or in the local community? How do parents do that? Yes, I'd love to. Answer that question, but can I highlight something you mentioned, which is the research that we see?
We just released research. We had a TPMA study done to see the effects of Lifewise programs on the schools themselves, and the research study shows that at the first year of a Lifewise program serving the school, attendance rates are nearly fifty percent higher in those schools where. LifeWise is being served, and then if I might share, the next one is behavior is better in these schools. We see a thirty-two percent reduction in out-of-school suspensions and incidents in schools that are served by LifeWise, and this is the one that is very encouraging, especially myself as a former public school educator. Is that academics improved by up to thirty-four percent in schools that have LifeWise programs as a Option for their schools.
Now, how can individuals get involved in their local communities? You can, of course, visit Lifewise.org, find your school, see what's going on in your district. At a deeper dive, we have our rep where you can get involved. But the way we operate is that we are community-driven.
So, I, as the state director, my North Carolina state team—you know—we're not going to come top-down and open a Bible program in your community. We Want this to be community driven? We believe that's where the sustainability resides, is when the community takes ownership and that it becomes their own program. And so we start by fifty signatures of support in any district or region, and then we build a launch team of three to five community members. Mitch, we have seen the gamut of community members that have rallied around and joined these teams, business owners.
Retirees, pastors—we've actually seen members from CBMC C12 jumping on these teams to make it happen. Regardless of whether they have students in the district or not, they just believe every child should have the opportunity to study the Bible. And so we build these teams, and those teams then work with our coach to move it forward in their area. It's incredible. I love the community involvement from the churches to civic organizations to.
Professionals all pitching in, all coming into the same agreement, as you said, with those signatures and saying, "We want this for our schools, for our children, for our communities and families." So, as we start to wrap this up, what do you hope Lifewise ultimately accomplishes, not just for students, for their families, for churches, for communities across the state of North Carolina? What I hope ultimately is accomplished is that every School district has this opportunity in their area for their students, for these families that would like to see their students have the opportunity to study the Bible that aligns with their faith. But also, I would like to see a trust relationship built between the school systems and a LifeWise program because we are there ultimately to serve their schools. The beautiful part of it is that yes, LifeWise teaches the Bible to these students, but Also, those program directors are ears to the ground, and they're listening for the needs in the local public school. And they will activate their teams to meet those needs.
One example was a principal said, "You know, I don't quite have the funds to feed our teachers for open house because those are long days." Well, then I went and activated the community and said, "This school has a need. Will the community meet that need?" It wasn't. Necessarily, Lifewise, but it was the connection that Lifewise made between the need of the school and having the community meet that need, and then in addition, it's allowing the students an opportunity and their families to connect deeper in their communities with local churches that are participating and supporting the Lifewise program.
So it is a holistic, not partnership, but an option that we have to just strengthen the bond. Of our community, from the school level all the way to the community level. That's excellent.
Well, as we wrap up today's episode of Family Policy Matters, where can people go to start learning more about Lifewise Academy? Yes, I would visit Lifewise dot org and then find your school.
So there will be a link there. Find your school. It is an amazing map that will take you to North Carolina, and you get celebrate what the Lord is doing all across our state. And then you can zoom down all the way to your district, find your local school, click on it, and then make sure to click your district link to for specifics on your area. And Christy, if people want to learn more about how they can get Lifewise started in their community or their child's school, they can contact your local community engagement director, Sandy Steiner, and her name is spelled S A N D Y S T E I N E.
er at lifewise.org. That's Sandy Steiner at lifewise.org, so that they can learn more about how to get LifeWise started in their school. Absolutely, Christie. Thank you so much for being on Family Policy Matters. Thank you so much for what you're doing as State Director of LifeWise Academy.
Thank you so much for sharing what LifeWise is doing for families, for communities, for children, and public schools across the state of North Carolina. Thank you so. Much for joining us today. Absolutely, thank you for having me. Thank you for listening to Family Policy Matters.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show and leave us a review. To learn more about NC Family and the work we do to promote and preserve faith and family in North Carolina, visit our website at ncfamily.org. That's ncfamily.org. And check us out on social media at ncfamilypolicy. Thanks, and may God bless you and your family.
