Signed by Governor Eric Holcomb

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that authorizes academic credit for religious education courses.

Highlights:

• Authorizes a public secondary school to award academic credit to a student who attends religious instruction if the governing body of the school adopts a policy that allows the awarding of credit (Sec. 1). 

• Requires the policy adopted by the governing body of a school to provide, at a minimum,  the following requirements (Sec. 1):

• Classes in religious instruction are evaluated on the basis of purely secular criteria in the same manner as similar classes taken by a student at a nonpublic secondary school who transfers to a public secondary school are evaluated to determine whether the student receives transfer credit for the classes;

• The secular criteria may include the following in addition to other secular criteria established by the governing body:

• The number of hours of classroom instructional time;

• A review of the course syllabus that reflects the course requirements and materials;

• Methods of assessments used in the course; and 

• Whether the course is taught by a licensed teacher.

• The decision of whether to award academic credit is neutral to, and does not involve any test for, religious content or denominational affiliation; and 

• A provision that a student who attends religious instruction will first seek to use a time period during a student instructional day that is not devoted to student instructional time to attend their religious instruction. If a student is not able to attend religious instruction at a time other than during student instructional time, the student may attend religious instruction more than 120 minutes per week.

• Specifies that a student may be awarded no more than 2 elective academic credits for religious instructional courses (Sec. 1). 

Full Bill Text