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NORTH CAROLINA

North Carolina

North Carolina, like many other states, does not have specific laws regarding Released Time. As a result, a Released Time program in North Carolina would need to obtain permission from the principal, superintendent, or local school board for students to participate in the program.

It would also need to ensure compliance with the court approved guideposts for Released Time programs. These include:

1) The school cannot fund the Released Time program, other than de minimis administrative costs (such as the costs of a school board approving a local Released Time policy).

2) Released Time programs cannot take place on school premises; and

3) Student participation in Released Time programs must be voluntary. There cannot be any coercion on the part of any school official.

However, these three points are not exclusive. One should conduct thorough research on the latest state and federal laws and court decisions to determine if there are any updated guidelines for a Released Time program to follow.

Keep in mind that school officials are not required to approve a program. An organization that wishes to start a new program should determine who in the school district can authorize a program and make an appointment to see that person. If the principal refers the organization to the school board, it would be wise to meet individually with school board members before presenting the concept at a meeting of the whole board.

General Information

N.C. Gen. Stat. Ann. § 115C-378

(c) The principal, superintendent, or a designee of the principal or superintendent shall have the right to excuse a child temporarily from attendance on account of sickness or other unavoidable cause that does not constitute unlawful absence as defined by the State Board of Education. The term “school” as used in this section includes all public schools and any nonpublic schools which have teachers and curricula that are approved by the State Board of Education.

Statutes

None.

Regulations

1987 N.C. Op. Att’y Gen. No. 57-26

“In the absence of any statute or regulation to the contrary, the authority to determine questions regarding the public schools generally rests with local boards of education. G.S. 115C 40 provides: ‘Local boards of education, subject to any paramount powers vested by law in the State Board of Education or any other authorized agency shall have general control and supervision of all matters pertaining to the public schools in their respective local school administrative units....’ This authority, in our opinion, includes the power to permit or refuse the release of students to private schools for part of the school day.” The opinion further states that although the local school board may have authority to permit students to be released, “they do not have the authority to waive curriculum, promotion, and graduation requirements.”

Attorney General

Smith v. Smith, 523 F.2d 121 (4th Cir. 1975)

In Smith, a lawsuit challenged the Harrisonburg, Virginia Released Time program whereby public school students were released during school hours for religious instruction off school premises by a nonprofit organization supported by a council of churches. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals relied on Zorach v. Clauson to uphold the program. The court found the program to be constitutional because it (1) had a secular purpose in accommodating the wishes of the parents, (2) did not excessively entangle the state with religion since the religious instruction did not take place in the class rooms, and (3) its primary effect neither advanced nor inhibited religion. The court concluded that “public school cooperation with [released time programs] is a largely passive and administratively wise response to a plenitude of parental assertions of the right to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control.” Id. at 125.

Moss v. Spartanburg County School District Seven, 683 F.3d 599 (4th Cir. 2012)

In Moss, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a South Carolina school district’s practice of awarding academic credit through a religiously-affiliated private school, reiterating that Zorach is good law and holding that Released Time programs, and the academic credit received for them, is an accommodation of the parents’ right to choose the type of education their child receives.

* The rulings of the 4th Circuit of Appeals are binding precedent in Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Case Law