A Washington state school district has reached a settlement with a Christian organization that provides off-campus Bible instruction to public school students, agreeing to apologize, revise its policies and pay $275,000 in legal fees following a dispute over religious discrimination.
Under the agreement with LifeWise Academy, Everett Public Schools also committed to providing religious liberty training for its school board members and modifying policies governing religious activities.
The settlement follows a lawsuit filed by LifeWise, which accused district officials of excluding the organization from community resource fairs and preventing it from distributing flyers in locations accessible to secular organizations.
LifeWise offers religious instruction to public school students during designated release times outside regular classroom instruction.
In a public statement signed by Superintendent Ian Saltzman and the district’s board of directors, officials acknowledged that their policies had negatively affected students participating in the program and their families.
“The District recognizes that the implementation of its policies created difficulties for LifeWise students and their families, particularly with respect to the procedures for releasing students for religious instruction and the handling of materials students received through LifeWise,” the statement said.
The board also expressed regret over “comments made at various Board meetings that concerned LifeWise,” acknowledging that those remarks were “offensive and hurtful to the families participating in LifeWise programming.”
The Christian organization received legal representation from First Liberty Institute (FLI), a conservative legal advocacy group specializing in religious freedom cases, alongside the law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP.
Stephanie Taub, senior counsel at FLI, described the agreement as an important outcome for religious education programs seeking equal treatment in public schools.
“Religious discrimination has no place in public schools,” Taub said in a statement Tuesday. “We are grateful to have reached this settlement on behalf of LifeWise. This is a tremendous victory not only for our clients but for all religious release time programs.”
LifeWise CEO Joel Penton also expressed satisfaction with the resolution, emphasizing the organization’s expectation that its programs would be treated equally alongside other voluntary educational activities.
“We are pleased that LifeWise will receive the same access and respect given to other optional programs,” Penton said. “We look forward to continuing to provide children in the Everett community with Bible-based character education.”
The legal dispute had previously resulted in a partial victory for LifeWise in federal court. In April, U.S. District Judge Lauren King of the Western District of Washington granted part of the organization’s request for a preliminary injunction against the school district.
In her ruling, King determined that the district “has engaged in viewpoint discrimination” by restricting LifeWise’s participation in certain activities because of its religious character.
