Unlicensed chaplains won’t be allowed to volunteer or work as counselors on Fort Worth Independent School District’s campuses next year.
A vote held during a Fort Worth ISD school board of trustees meeting opted against allowing chaplains to volunteer or work in mental health roles on campus. Deliberations ran from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning.
Before deciding, the board heard from several parents who spoke against having a religious representative in their children’s schools.
“Not only may chaplains lack basic qualifications, their presence in schools is a violation,” one parent told the board, according to WFAA. “Even if the district decides only on [a] volunteer basis, they still can teach a religion that conflicts with students and parents.”
As previously covered in The Dallas Express, Texas lawmakers passed Senate Bill 763 earlier this year, allowing public school districts or open-enrollment charter schools to employ or accept volunteer services from chaplains to provide support to students and staff. Paid positions in which unlicensed chaplains would serve as mental health counselors were allowed to be funded through district safety funds. All public school systems must vote on whether they will allow chaplains to serve in schools by March 1.
A mental health crisis among U.S. youths has been at the forefront of stakeholders’ conversations since the isolating lockdowns seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, as previously covered in The Dallas Express. One assessment from the Hopeful Futures campaign concluded that approximately 363,000 children in Texas were experiencing major depression, with 255,000 of these children not receiving treatment.
Some viewed the move to allow schools to receive services from chaplains favorably. For instance, a State Board of Education member, Julie Pickren, called it “a huge benefit to our teachers [and] our children.”
“Chaplains would be huge for the mental health of our teachers just having a safe person to talk with or pray with or someone just to listen to them,” Pickren told The Dallas Express.
Similarly, the National School Chaplain Association said in a statement to WFAA that “[c]haplaincy is an effective role that has proven to dissipate tension, relieve anxiety, resolve conflict, and bring hope.”
Opponents, however, have suggested that having unlicensed chaplains providing mental health services could end up causing harm.
“They play an important role, [but] that role should not be in a classroom,” said Cantor Sheri Allen of Congregation Beth Shalom in Arlington, according to WFAA. “To put [students] in a position where they would have a chaplain, possibly not of their faith, preaching to them is not acceptable.”
Dallas ISD, the second largest district in Texas, also voted against allowing chaplains to serve on their campuses in October, as previously covered in The Dallas Express.
Much like the Fort Worth ISD, student achievement scores have been lackluster at Dallas ISD. Approximately 20% of Dallas ISD’s graduating Class of 2022 did not earn a diploma in four years, and only 41% of its students scored at grade level on the 2021-2022 STAAR exam. Fort Worth ISD’s students logged an on-time graduation rate of 85.7%, and just 32% scored at grade level on the STAAR, according to the 2021-2022 Texas Education Agency accountability report.