- Arizona lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow volunteer chaplains to provide support and services to students in public schools.
- The bill requires schools to disclose the chaplain’s religious affiliation and obtain parental consent for student participation.
- Similar laws allowing school chaplains have been enacted in Texas, Florida, and Louisiana in recent years.
The legislative committee has advanced a bill that would allow chaplains to provide services to students in Arizona’s public schools.
Senate Bill 1269, introduced by Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, would permit school districts and charter schools to allow volunteer school chaplains “to provide support, services or programs” to students.
Participating schools would be required to list the “religious affiliation, if any,” of each volunteer chaplain. Schools would be required to alert parents to the programs and services offered by the chaplains and would need to obtain parental consent for students to participate in those services.
The bill passed the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday along party lines, with Democrats opposed. One senator who voted in support of the bill, Carine Werner, R-Scottsdale, serves on the Scottsdale Unified School District Governing Board.
Rogers offered little commentary on her proposed legislation Wednesday, simply calling it a “great bill” that has been adopted by other states. When Sen. Eva Diaz, D-Tolleson, asked if it wouldn’t be more appropriate for parents to take their children to visit chaplains outside of public schools, Rogers said her bill would give parents options. In other states that have passed laws allowing school chaplains, supportive lawmakers have said the chaplains can offer mental health support to students.
Honored for his work:Clarendon Elementary School principal wins $25,000 Milken Educator Award
One individual spoke in opposition to the bill Wednesday: Oliver Spires, a minister from The Satanic Temple Arizona. Spires said the bill could open school districts up to lawsuits and would disproportionately impact students of minority religions. He also wondered how nonreligious students would benefit. A list of chaplains that school districts would be required to provide, Spires said, would give the appearance of “a clear violation of the separation of church and state.”
But if the bill were to pass, Spires requested that The Satanic Temple be allowed to serve in schools as well.
“If a district listed Satanists on their chaplain advertisements, would they have your support?” Spires asked. Lawmakers did not respond to the question.
Lobbyists for organizations including the Arizona School Boards Association, the ACLU of Arizona, the public school advocacy group Save Our Schools Arizona and the Arizona Education Association, a statewide educators’ union, have also signed on in opposition to the bill.
The Maricopa County School Superintendent’s Director of Government and Public Relations Shane Wikfors signed in support of the bill, but after being reached by The Arizona Republic for an interview or comment, his position was changed to “neutral.” The Maricopa County School Superintendent’s office did not provide a comment on the change Wednesday.
The Satanic Temple, a nontheistic organization that uses its position as an IRS-designated tax-exempt church to advocate for religious freedom and the separation of church and state, similarly protested a law allowing school chaplains that took effect in Florida last year. The organization describes itself as serving as a “‘poison pill’ in the Church/State debate” by asserting religious rights and privileges “where religious agendas have been successful in imposing themselves upon public affairs.” After The Satanic Temple offered services from its “Ministers of Satan” to one Florida school board, the board pulled its school chaplain plan from consideration, according to reporting from the Tallahassee Democrat.
School chaplain bills have passed in Texas, Louisiana, Florida
Under SB 1269, the school chaplains would be required to undergo background checks like other school volunteers, but no training or licensing requirement is outlined in the bill.
Chaplains, who typically represent faith groups, commonly serve in hospitals and prisons and alongside law enforcement to provide support, often during crises. In these roles, they are subject to a range of certification and training requirements. Volunteer chaplains for the Arizona Department of Public Safety, for example, must be “ordained or licensed and in good standing with the chaplain’s faith group,” have a “current Ecclesiastical Endorsement as a fully qualified clergy person of the certifying faith group” and possess a minimum combination of education and experience, along with other requirements.
In the past two years, states including Texas, Florida and Louisiana have passed laws allowing chaplains to serve students in public schools, and many more have considered legislation to do so, including Indiana, South Dakota and Missouri this year.
Texas’ bill, which was signed into law in 2023, allows schools to employ chaplains with school safety funding. As of spring 2024, however, only one chaplain had been hired at a Texas public school, according to reporting from the San Antonio Express-News, though other schools have allowed them to serve as volunteers. In Florida, lawmakers who supported their state’s version of the school chaplain bill said it could address concerns about student mental health and the need for more school counselors, according to reporting from the Pensacola News Journal.
In Arizona, the proposed school chaplain legislation comes as some school districts across the state with conservative school boards have moved to enact stricter requirements for counselors and social workers and narrow their roles.
Reach the reporter at mparrish@arizonarepublic.com.