AUSTIN (LifeSiteNews) — Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbot has signed a new law guaranteeing the right of parents to take time out of their child’s school day for religious instruction.
SB 1049 adds “released time courses,” defined as a “course in religious instruction offered by a private entity,” to the list of reasons that school districts must allow excused student absences, for a maximum of five hours per week (including travel time). Schools must adopt a policy for receiving and accepting such requests by January 1, 2026.
“Parents have the right and responsibility to guide the upbringing and education of their children. The government should not stop families from raising their children in their family’s faith,” Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Greg Chafuen responded in support of the new law.
“SB 1049 respects parents’ educational decisions, allowing public school children to be briefly excused from school to receive free, off-campus religious instruction taught by private charitable organizations. As the U.S. Supreme Court explained, respecting parents’ decisions for their child to participate in released time programs ‘follows the best of our traditions’,” he continued. “ADF commends Sen. Phil King, Rep. James Frank, the Texas Legislature, and Gov. Abbott for making sure parents are in the driver’s seat when it comes to their kids’ education.”
The new law follows Abbott signing laws requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in schools and establishing the the largest voucher program in the country for families to send children to the private school of their choice. The measures support a broader vision of education in which parents have the ultimate say and religion is a vital support rather than a rival.
Supporters stress that such a view of religion’s role is not an unconstitutional “establishment of religion,” but rather how the relationship between church and state was envisioned as far back as the American Founding.
“The very same Congress (specifically, the First Congress) that approved the language of the Establishment Clause [of the First Amendment] also provided for the appointment of chaplains in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives,” American Center for Law & Justice attorney Geoffrey Surtees has written.
“In fact, on the very same day that it approved the Establishment Clause, the First Congress also passed the Northwest Ordinance, providing for a territorial government for lands northwest of the Ohio River, which declared: ‘Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged,’” he added.
