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CFISD Chaplain Policy Deliberations
Passed in the 88th Texas Legislature and signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott on June 18, 2023, SB 763 allows public school districts and open-enrollment charter schools in Texas to employ chaplains or accept chaplains as volunteers on campus.
SB 763 Title: An Act relating to allowing public schools to employ or accept as volunteers' chaplains
These chaplains can provide support, services, and programs for students, including mental health support and suicide prevention, though they are not required to be certified or licensed as professional counselors.
The law requires local school boards to take a recorded vote on whether to adopt a policy authorizing chaplains within six months after the law's effective date (September 1, 2023), with a deadline of March 1, 2024.
One of the "conservative" candidates currently running for re-election, despite previously campaigning as a "Christian Conservative" led the board in voting against establishing a chaplain policy in CFISD. See below for the receipts.
First Reading
At the CFISD Regular Session Board Meeting on February 12, 2024, after lengthy deliberations and considerable public testimony from predominately progressive community members, the CFISD Board passes a resolution that effectively votes against establishing a chaplain policy, however allowing a chaplain to volunteer as any citizen (current practice).
Five (5) for existing policy, two (2) against, effectively against establishing a chaplain policy.
Second Reading
At the CFISD Regular Session Board Meeting on March 4, 2024, after lengthy deliberations and considerable public testimony from predominately progressive community members, the CFISD Board passes a resolution that effectively votes against establishing a chaplain policy, however allowing a chaplain to volunteer as any citizen (current practice).
Five (5) for existing policy, two (2) against, effectively against establishing a chaplain policy.
Legislative Intent
Texas House Representative Dr. Tom Oliverson provides public comments (one minute) on the legislative intent for SB 763. Representative Oliverson advocated for the passing of a chaplain policy, outlining the guardrails supporting the laws intent.
Key points made in Representative Oliverson's Comments:
- CFISD needs to make the chaplain policy voluntary, e.g., parents need to opt-in.
- CFISD chaplain policy should require parental consent.
- CFISD parents must be informed that a chaplain service is available at their schools.
- CFISD students have to seek out this type of interaction and care.
- CFISD chaplain policy should require certification.
Representative Oliverson concludes "This is a good policy, and you should support it".
Constitutionally Supported
Jonathan Covey, policy director for Texas Values, experts in constitutional law, supports the chaplain policy, emphasizing that Supreme Court precedent—including recent decisions like the 2022 Kennedy case—upholds such policies as constitutional under a broad interpretation of free exercise. He reassures that even the ACLU acknowledges these policies align with the Constitution and urges support for the chaplain policy.
Not Replacing Counselors
Julie Pickren, State Board of Education District 7, clarified that school chaplains and school counselors serve distinct roles under Texas Education Code, with chaplains providing spiritual care under Chapter 23, while counselors focus on academic, career, personal, and social development under Chapter 33. She emphasized that chaplains and counselors do not compete, and schools can have both to meet different needs for students.
Progressive Resistance
In defense of the CFISD Board Trustees, there was considerable public testimony against a chaplain policy. Therefore, the Board had to determine whether or not this testimony was representative of the district. You can watch the full meeting and see all the arguments from public comments. This excerpt is from a Minister with the Satanic Temple of Houston, closing her comments with a "Thank you and hail Satan".
Additional Information Regarding a Chaplain Policy
Research found that chaplains play a highly valued and unique pastoral care role in government schools, providing emotional, social, and spiritual support that complements the work of counselors and teachers. Principals rated chaplains highly for offering students opportunities to talk through concerns, supporting at-risk students, promoting moral values, improving school morale, and addressing issues like bullying, with largely positive feedback from staff, students, and parents.
Research reveals that chaplains significantly contribute to both individual pastoral care and the broader school ethos, acting as a ‘translator’ between personal and institutional needs. The study identifies five distinctive features of chaplaincy—impartiality, relationships, peaceful presence, authority, and depth—that enable chaplains to effectively embed and influence school ethos despite the tensions in balancing commitments to individuals and the school community.
Healthcare chaplaincy is transforming into a denominational and non-denominational profession, with chaplains not just caring for patients of their own worldview tradition, but for all patients irrespective of their worldview.
Research has demonstrated spirituality’s role in health and health care, making the spirit and spirituality a topic of increasing importance to hospitals, doctors, and other healthcare workers as well collegiate, corporate and corrections institutions.
The U.S. Supreme Court has made clear that the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause does not “‘compel the government to purge from the public sphere’ anything an objective observer could reasonably infer endorses or ‘partakes of the religious.’”
Texas attorney general opinion regarding the constitutionality of a Chaplaincy Program.