Released time

In the United States public school system, released time is schools being able to "accommodate their schedules to a program of outside religious instruction."

The original idea of released time in the United States was first discussed in 1905 at a school conference in New York City. The proposal was that public elementary schools should be closed one day a week, in addition to Sunday, so that parents could have their children receive religious instruction outside the school premises. This idea was later implemented by Dr. William Albert Wirt, an educator and superintendent of the school district of Gary, Indiana, in 1914. In the first years of Wirt's implementation, over 600 students participated in off-campus religious education.

Most released time programs were held outside school property, and the public school system had no involvement in the religious programs taught there.

Released time began to grow rapidly. In 1922, programs were active in 23 states. Approximately 40,000 students, from 200 school districts, were enrolled in such programs. In 1932, 30 states had active programs in 400 communities with enrollment of 250,000 students. In 1942, participation reached 1.5 million students in 46 states. Released time reached its peak enrollment totals in 1947, when 2 million students were enrolled in some 2,200 communities. Legislation paving the way for released time programs had been adopted by 12 states. [1]

In 1945, Vashti McCollum brought legal action against the Champaign, Illinois public school district. The atheist McCollum was the mother of a student in the district. McCollum's suit stated that her eight-year-old son had been coerced and ostracized by school officials because her family had chosen to not participate in the district's in-school religious instruction program. The Champaign district's religious instruction was held during regular school hours in the classrooms in Champaign's public schools and was taught by members of a local religious association, with the approval of school officials.

McCollum's suit argued that religious instruction held during regular school hours on public school property constituted an establishment of religion, in violation of the US Constitution, and violated also the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

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