There are several effective ways to approach the school board with questions and concerns. Generally, school board members welcome the opinions of parents. You can call, email, or fax a board trustee with details about your issue, which in this case, is a policy allowing hiring a school chaplain. Always remember that school board members are elected to work for the parents. Meeting directly with an individual school board member can be an excellent way to get their perspective on the issue, provide more information, and share your concerns and resources. Sometimes, a one-on-one conversation will be more effective; if you bring others, keep it small, as bringing more than four or five people can be hard to manage. Be sure to bring people who represent different groups that have an interest in the issue. Out of respect, let the board trustee know how many people will attend the meeting ahead of time. Ask for an appointment to talk about a specific topic. Be clear about what you want the school board to consider regarding school chaplaincy. Identify your most important points and write them down. Talk about your connection to the issue. Parents and community members have a lot of expertise to bring to school board members. Telling personal stories about the impact of board policies has a lot of effects, and it can also help board members understand the impact of their policies. In addition, parents and community members can share their expertise about the best solutions to the challenges in the school. Follow up with a letter or testimony to the whole board. Even if you’ve spoken to each school board member individually, it’s always helpful to present your points officially to the entire school board through a letter or testimony at a school board meeting. School board members typically have official email addresses with the school district. Letters, emails, and phone calls can be a good way to communicate with them. School boards meet regularly to discuss issues and make decisions, typically at least once a month and typically on the same day or time (for example, the first Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m.) Most school boards publish their meeting schedules and are required to publish their agendas at least 24 hours in advance. If you are going to a school board meeting, bring along as many other parents, students, and community members as you can. Not everyone needs to speak; just being there will let the board members know you care. Plan a carpool, share childcare responsibilities, or meet for dinner ahead of time so you can all make it there together. The law does not clearly require school boards to take public comment on every policy or issue, but most school boards provide the opportunity for public comment. Sometimes, a board will call for public comment about a particular proposal. Other boards offer general time for public comment about any issue the public wants to bring to the board’s attention. The board meeting agenda will tell you whether your school board has a public comment period or not. If there is a public comment period, prepare 2-3 points you’d like to make and plan to speak for about 2-5 minutes. School boards are required by law to involve parents, teachers, students, and community members in developing and reviewing school discipline policies. Many school boards will set up a committee to do that work, and school board directors are often eager to hear from parents who volunteer their time. If you are interested in working on school chaplaincy, you should contact school board members and offer to participate in any workgroups on the issue. You can also reach out to the superintendent to offer to volunteer. During the Covid-19 lockdowns, parents around the country were horrified to learn that their children were being groomed for sexual perversion and being taught Marxism, CRT, and fake history. Parents and grandparents responded en masse by demanding reform at school board meetings. Unfortunately, parents were met with a spirit of “how dare you tell us what to teach your children”. At its climax, moms and dads were declared domestic terrorists, and the FBI began its investigation. Parents are awake to the Woke culture invading education, and the courts have recognized that freedom, as defined by the U.S. Constitution, applies equally to education. Indoctrination has come at a high cost. The U.S. currently has the worst-educated workforce in the industrialized world. 30 countries now outperform the United States in mathematics at the high school level. When God was honored, the U.S. lead the world in education. The general discontentment of the American people combined with the highly motivated parents has created an opportunity for real education reform for the first time in 50 years. Here is a practical three (or four)-step approach to discussing a questionable classroom activity or school policy with an education professional while maintaining a positive relationship. Knowledge apart from God and His truth is little better than complete ignorance, because the most important aspect of education is the imbuing of moral principles. All education is religious – it imparts a basic set of principles and ideals, a worldview. More and more educators are seeing the importance of addressing students’ intellectual and physical needs and their emotional, social, and health conditions. However, what is missing in the current dialogue about “Whole Child Education” are ideas for addressing the spiritual needs of students. When the subject of “religion in schools” comes up, it usually involves a debate over teaching about religion. The debate centers around what should be taught, when it should be taught, how much, and who should teach it. Chaplains answers these questions. Engaging students’ existing religious orientation as a learning asset to help them succeed academically and behaviorally is a win. Religion is a powerful force in helping students succeed, and schools are doing themselves a disservice if they ignore this force in their students’ lives. He spent his entire adult life working to reform America and to provide a foundation of liberty, happiness, and prosperity for all citizens. Education from a Christian perspective was key. In 1839 he wrote: “Practical truths in religion, in morals, and in all civil and social concerns ought to be among the first and most prominent objects of instruction. Without a competent knowledge of legal and social rights and duties, persons are often liable to suffer in property or reputation, by neglect or mistakes. Without religious and moral principles deeply impressed on the mind, and controlling the whole conduct, science and literature will not make men what the laws of God require them to be; and without both kinds of knowledge, citizens cannot enjoy the blessings which they seek, and which a strict conformity to rules of duty will enable them to obtain.” PARENTS
— ADVOCATE FOR STUDENTS
Help your children develop morally, spiritually, and academically by advocating for a school chaplain.
— Place Chaplains in Schools
Where to Begin
Are you concerned that your child’s faith and values are negatively impacted at school? Are you concerned that your school is more concerned with political ideology than education?
You are not alone.
Rather than looking at your child’s school as a battlefield that invites conflict, see it as a garden where you can till the soil, plant seeds, and reap a harvest. One challenge you will face in helping your school implement chaplains is misinformation and fear.
Our resources will help.
Below are steps you can take to bring chaplains to your school district. Don’t miss out on how God can use you to help your child while helping our school develop morally, spiritually, and academically fit students.
— WHERE MAJOR DECISIONS ARE MADE
The School Board
The principal or superintendent is the first step when requesting that a chaplain be hired to serve your school. However, it is likely that unless a chaplain policy is in place, the elected school board is the only body with authority to modify existing policies or adopt new ones.
For the most part, school board members are community representatives that have taken on the responsibility to improve education. Respect is an excellent place to start when approaching school board trustees. However, parents must become more proactive when school trustees do not receive parent-led initiatives.
Around the country, unhappy parents are uniting around the power of the internet to form action groups and develop strategies to influence school board decisions. In several places, parents have unseated school board trustees in elections to help ensure parents’ rights.
Scroll to see how to effectively connect with your School Board.
How to Gain Access to the School Board
Individual or Small Group Meetings with School Board Members
Tips for Meeting with a School Board Member
Follow-up with the School Board Member
Writing or Emailing Individual School Board Members
Plan For the Next School Board Meeting
Attend the School Board Meeting—With Others
Speaking/Commenting at a School Board Meeting
Influence School Board Decisions Through Committees or WorkGroups
— PUBLIC INFORMATION AND POLICIES
Making Your Case
If you want to change school district policies, you’ll have to convince your school board to work with you. School board officials, like all elected officials, work for the public in their district. As a parent or community member, you have a right to make your voice heard.
Keep in mind that the No Child Left Behind law forces schools to publish detailed information about issues such as teacher quality and student performance. Parents can use this public information to back up claims, create comparisons with other school districts, and work with the school boards to formulate and implement solutions.
Good old-fashioned research, combined with the proliferation of the Internet, affords parents a better-informed approach to their child’s schooling, as well as a louder voice in school board meetings.
— GENERAL DISCONTENTMENT & DEMAND FOR REFORM
Parents are Not Happy
— A PRACTICAL APPROACH
How to Address an Ungodly Issue in School
— RESOURCES FOR FAMILIES
Legal Support
The Pacific Justice Institute is a nonprofit law firm specializing in First Amendment Rights. They will send a personalized letter to the school officials of your choice. The letter will clarify students’ and teachers’ religious liberties citing Supreme Court cases, including the right to hire school chaplains.
If interested, please email chaplain@chaplainsinschool.org and include the following information: your name, address, phone, email, along with the educators’ full name, job title, name of institution, and complete address.
For more information on how to educate your school board that chaplains are legal, necessary, and possibly mandatory, please contact Lorena Garza at lgarza@chaplainsinschool.org.
How the youth are educated today will determine the course a nation takes in the future.
Why Public Schools Need to Engage the Spiritual Side of Students and How to Do it Without Mixing Church and State
Only focusing on how well students learn information – how well they score against academic standards – is like saying that because an auto mechanic knows how to build a car, he will know where to drive it. We confuse learning something — getting the answer right — with understanding its meaning for shaping their lives which often involves students’ religious faith.
Noah Webster understood this very well.
Numerous people in America today agree that a lack of moral values is the root of the country’s problems, yet without a standard of moral absolutes rooted in a sovereign God and His truth, and without these being taught and lived in the homes, in the schools, in the government, and in the media, America as a nation will not be able to impart these needed morals.
— REAL EDUCATION REFORM
The Opportunity is There
The vast majority of Americans across party lines are unhappy with the state of the U.S.
— MOBILIZE PARENTS QUICKLY
Social Networks
Many parents are reluctant to approach other parents in person about educational issues, especially in a larger public school setting with little parental cohesion, yet school board members are more likely to make changes if a large group of people are pushing for it. The solution is at your fingertips. Social media can be an effective tool to connect with other parents and community members who care about these issues. These social sites have proven to be a wonderful “semi-anonymous” asset to organize and mobilize enormous numbers of parents in record time.
/ / / Ways you can use social media:
/ / / Examples of successful social media groups: