Only one school has hired a chaplain under state law
Just one chaplain has been hired at a Texas public school under a controversial state law passed by the Legislature last year, according to statewide staffing data released by the Texas Education Agency.
Newman International Academy, a charter school in Arlington, brought on the chaplain at the beginning of this school year at an annual salary of $49,759.
Some school districts declined to employ chaplains and instead simply let them volunteer their services. TEA does not track how many chaplains are volunteering in schools across the state.
The new law, signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, allows public schools to use state funds to hire religious chaplains. The policy originally was pitched by GOP lawmakers as a way to fill vacant mental health counselor positions, and some argued that more Christianity in public schools could reduce the risk of school shootings.
In response to the Uvalde school massacre, the Republican-led Legislature separately increased the amount of school safety funding for districts, and those dollars can be used for the new chaplain program.
Each of the roughly 1,200 school districts in the state was required to take a vote last fall on whether to allow chaplains on their campuses, which triggered political pressure from the right and left. Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union or the left-leaning Texas Freedom Network warned the law was unconstitutional and would subsidize Christian evangelism with public dollars.
The law does not require that chaplains have any certification, training or licensing, and does not limit the kind of responsibilities they can take on at school.
Most large districts have rejected chaplains outright, whether they’re paid or not. Some, such as Conroe ISD, already have had volunteer chaplains for years.
The lone Texas public school employing a chaplain has a history of toeing the line that separates religion from public schooling.
The nonprofit that runs Newman International is called Saint Servers International Inc. and was founded as a religious organization in 2008.
Under state law, charter schools are not allowed to be run by religious groups. The board amended its articles of incorporation to focus on education when it applied for a charter from the state two years later.
In a 2010 letter to the federal Internal Revenue Service explaining the change, an attorney employed by the school wrote, “You are no doubt aware that a governmental entity such as a charter school cannot advocate any religious teaching because of the Constitutional principal (sic) of the ‘separation of church and state.’ ”
TEA went on to offer conditional approval to the school, so long as “the organization take immediate action to amend its organizing documents to remove all religious purposes.” A board member who was employed by a local seminary also resigned so there would be no conflict.
Newman International Academy in Arlington, an eight-campus charter network, enrolled about 3,000 students this school year, with three-quarters being Black or Hispanic.
The district, which was mostly recently B-rated by TEA, received about $30 million in state dollars in 2021-22, the most recent year data are available, and about 40% of students tested at or above grade level in state standardized tests.
Administrators did not immediately respond to questions Friday.