Grapevine-Colleyville ISD parent Ashley Dobay says she still has concerns four months after her daughter’s school district voted to employ chaplains in mental health roles if they had the qualifications to work as a school counselor.
The district was one of three in Tarrant County that voted to allow chaplains to work or volunteer at its schools. Tarrant school board members spent the past academic year responding to a recent Texas law allowing public and open-enrollment charter schools to employ or accept volunteer chaplains to provide behavioral or mental health support.
Almost half of the 20 districts in the county voted to not hire chaplains as counselors, but allowed them to volunteer just like anyone else. Experts share that the law stirred tensions over how districts would strike a balance between religious expression and the separation of church and state in public schools.
In December the district updated its policy stating that individuals would not be allowed to serve the district as chaplains. However, “an individual considered to be a chaplain” could be employed as a school counselor if they had the proper qualifications.
Dobay is a mother with two kids in the district. Her family used the school’s counseling services last year when her daughter was having a hard time going to school, she said. Dobay said she was concerned whether her daughter’s experience with a chaplain would be the same as it was with the counselor she worked with previously.
“I was just a little concerned about taking away jobs from our counselors and putting people that don’t share the same beliefs as everyone,” Dobay said.
What is a chaplain?
Chaplains offer spiritual guidance and moral support in settings such as hospitals or the military. Rather than preaching messages of one faith, chaplains are supposed to provide nondenominational religious services to serve a variety of faiths or those who don’t have a specific religious affiliation, according to Advent Health University.
How did Tarrant school districts vote?
The Fort Worth Report reached out to all 20 Tarrant County school districts to see how they responded to the law.
Several school districts across Tarrant County shared a similar stance that chaplains could not be hired for mental health roles but could volunteer, although not at the capacity of replacing mental health counselors. Chaplains interested in volunteering would have to undergo a background check.
Nine Tarrant County school districts voted not to hire chaplains as counselors, but would accept them as volunteers:
- Birdville ISD
- Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD
- Fort Worth ISD
- Godley ISD
- Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD
- Keller ISD
- Northwest ISD
- Lake Worth ISD
- Mansfield ISD
The following school districts decided not to hire or accept volunteer chaplains into their schools
- Arlington ISD
- Azle ISD
- Everman ISD
- White Settlement ISD
A factor that played into the decisions was that the districts were fully staffed with counselors and social workers already. A spokesperson for White Settlement ISD said the district works with a third-party counseling business to provide additional counselors and family counseling to its district.
The following school districts voted that their districts could employ a chaplain applying to work as a school counselor as long as they have the credentials and qualifications to work as a counselor:
- Aledo ISD
- Carroll ISD
- Grapevine-Colleyville ISD
Castleberry ISD voted to not hire chaplains in its schools but did not specify whether they could volunteer. A spokesperson for Kennedale ISD said the district decided not to enact a specific policy regarding chaplains, but they could volunteer as community members.
Crowley ISD said its board of trustees is still reviewing the bill and its potential impacts. The Report did not hear back from Burleson ISD before publication.
Tensions over districts navigating legislation
The votes stirred up tension among school districts such as Keller ISD, where a trustee stepped down during a discussion on whether to allow chaplains to volunteer in classrooms. Experts previously told the Fort Worth Report that the law’s “vague” language was confusing.
Jeremy Pope is both a parent and chaplain in Fort Worth, specializing in spiritual and emotional care in hospital settings. One of Pope’s concerns is when someone calls themselves a chaplain but lacks the qualifications. Typically, professional chaplains are required to have a graduate theological degree and be supported by an approved faith organization.
Now that the law is in effect, Pope said he’s also concerned with what other ways school districts will address an existing nationwide shortage of school counselors.
“Counselors deal with some really serious mental health issues. They deal with career issues, those sorts of things,” Pope said. “So I want to know, as a parent, who’s going to be helping my child make these decisions?”
Lawrence Sager is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Law and specializes in both constitutional law and religious law. He said school districts have to strike a “delicate balance” between religious expression and the separation of church and state in schools when making their decisions.
“It doesn’t deny this group access to charitable contributions to the school enterprise. But it doesn’t put the school in a position of seeming to sponsor religion.”
Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member, covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org or @marissaygreene. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.