Provides that public school boards may adopt a policy to authorize released time for K-12 public school students, subject to parental approval. (gov sig) (OR NO IMPACT See Note)

Senate Bill 112 creates a new statutory framework authorizing Louisiana public school boards to adopt policies permitting students to participate in released time courses for religious instruction during school hours. The bill enacts R.S. 17:288.1 through 288.4, establishing what it calls the School Released Time Education Act. The core mechanism allows school boards to implement released time programs where students with parental written consent attend religious instruction courses taught by sponsoring entities (churches or tax-exempt religious organizations) at off-campus locations for between one and five hours per school week. The law includes detailed requirements for parental authorization forms that must contain specific liability disclaimers, mandates criminal background checks for instructors, requires sponsoring entities to maintain attendance records, and prohibits courses from being held on school property unless allowed under a neutral equal access policy. The bill also authorizes the Department of Education to provide course credit codes allowing schools to award academic credit for completed released time courses, including use of existing Bible history and literature course codes.

School boards, students, parents, and religious organizations constitute the primary groups affected by this legislation. School boards gain discretionary authority to establish released time policies but remain protected from liability for injuries occurring at off-campus courses or during transportation to and from those courses. Parents obtain a mechanism to authorize religious instruction for their children during the school day while receiving explicit notice that schools assume no liability for injuries, transportation, or other harms. Students who participate must be counted absent from school during released time course hours and subject to the state's truancy provisions if they fail to attend either the course or school. Sponsoring religious entities assume full liability for student safety and welfare while students are under their control and must conduct and comply with criminal background checks on instructors. The bill also applies these provisions to charter schools by adding released time to the list of statutory mandates applicable to them under R.S. 17:3996(B)(92).

This legislation operates within Louisiana's constitutional and statutory framework governing parental rights and public education. It explicitly references the 1952 United States Supreme Court decision in Zorach v. Clauson, which established the constitutionality of released time programs conducted with parental consent and without public funding. The bill incorporates findings from Louisiana Children's Code Article 101 regarding parental prerogative in educational, moral, ethical, and religious decisions affecting children. The statutory structure interacts with existing truancy laws under R.S. 17:233 by requiring schools to count released time absences in truancy determinations and with criminal background check statutes under R.S. 15:587.1 for instructor vetting. The legislation establishes immunity provisions shielding school boards and school officials from tort liability, a significant alteration to the ordinary liability framework governing public agencies. The neutral equal access language in R.S. 17:288.3(H) reflects Establishment Clause and free speech protections, requiring schools to provide released time courses the same access to school property and benefits available to secular community groups.