Dekalb County Released Time Bible Education



“ Improving Schools By Changing Hearts”

DEKALB COUNTY RELEASED TIME BIBLE EDUCATION:  Dekalb County Released Time is an outreach of Ponderosa Student Ministries and Ponderosa Bible Camp in Mentone, Alabama.  Ponderosa Student Ministries is a division of Children's Bible Ministries, Inc.  Children's Bible Ministries is currently in eight states with twelve divisions under their umbrella.  Children's Bible Ministries promotes the three C’s of classes (Released Time), camp (Summer Camp & Retreats) and correspondence Bible lessons (Mailbox Club).  Currently Children's Bible Ministries reaches 18,000 students annually through Released Time Bible classes.



MISSION OBJECTIVE:  “Improving schools by changing hearts” is accomplished by introducing students to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and teaching them to live according to His Word.



GOAL:  To establish a weekly Released Time Bible Education Program in all eleven public schools in Dekalb County, AL and surrounding counties for grades K-12.  We plan to start classes in at least two schools every year having started in 2002.  This would put us in all eleven schools by the end of the 2007-2008 school year, and will lay the groundwork to expand into surrounding counties.



 CONCEPT:  Released Time Bible Education (RTBE), started in 1914, is practiced nationwide and permits public school students to receive religious education during the school day with parental permission.  The U.S. Supreme Court declared this form of Bible education during the public school day constitutional in 1952 in Zorach v. Clausen.  Currently there are 250,000 public school students involved in various and widely diverse Released Time programs in the U.S.



On June 25, 2002, the Dekalb County School Board voted to allow Released Time classes to be established in all eleven county schools.  On November 12, 2002, the first Released Time class started at Sylvania School, followed by Ider School on January 30, 2003, Ruhama School on November 13, 2003, Valley Head School on February 4, 2004, Moon Lake on November 2, 2004, Plainview School on March 3, 2005, Henagar School on November 9, 2005 and Fyffe School on November 15, 2005 Crossville School on March 16, 2006, Geraldine School on January 10, 2007 and Collinsville School on March 26, 2008.  We are now in eleven county schools with over 1,000 students in grades 2-6 attending each week.