Washington school district pays $275,000 after making kids seal their Bibles in envelopes

A vote and an apology

The board of Everett Public Schools in Washington state voted on October 13 to settle a federal lawsuit brought by LifeWise Academy, a nonprofit that takes public school children off campus for Bible classes during the school day. The suit challenged district rules that, among other things, required children to keep materials from the classes, Bibles included, sealed in an envelope in their backpacks, and required parents to send a new permission note for each week’s class.

First Liberty Institute, which represented LifeWise with the law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, announced the settlement the same day. LifeWise followed with its own release on October 14. The plaintiffs were LifeWise, Inc. and Sarah Sweeny, a LifeWise staff member whose children attend the program and who helped start it in Everett.

What the settlement says

According to First Liberty and LifeWise, the district agreed to four things: religious liberty training for the board, changes to the district’s policies on religious activities, a written apology on the district’s website for six months, and $275,000 in attorney’s fees. The Everett Herald reported that the payment will come from the district’s general fund, and that a district memo said the settlement includes “several non-economic terms,” does not admit wrongdoing, and “resolves the matter in its entirety.” The full agreement had not been made public when the Herald reported on October 14.

The apology, as quoted by First Liberty, speaks to comments made at board meetings. “The District recognizes that comments made at various Board meetings that concerned LifeWise, including by Directors, were offensive and hurtful to the families participating in LifeWise programming,” it reads. “For that, the District and its Board of Directors offer a sincere apology.”

“The District values the rights of all families to raise their children according to their own religious beliefs.”

Everett Public Schools · settlement apology, as quoted by First Liberty, Oct 13, 2026

How the dispute began

LifeWise began classes for Emerson Elementary School students in January 2025, at a church a few blocks from the school, during lunch and recess. Such programs rest on Zorach v. Clauson, the 1952 Supreme Court decision that allows public schools to release students for religious instruction held off school grounds, paid for privately and with parents’ consent. The Ohio-based group runs programs in hundreds of districts nationwide.

The program has divided Everett parents. Some welcome the chance for religious teaching during the school day; others see it as a distraction from school or contrary to the separation of church and state, and some object to the group’s backers and its views on LGBTQ+ people. At a December 2025 board meeting, director Charles Adkins called LifeWise “an organization of homophobic bullies” and said, “I do in fact hold animus toward LifeWise Academy.” The district later told the court that he spoke for himself and not for the board, and that the board never voted to change its rules on released time after LifeWise arrived.

LifeWise sued on December 18, 2025, in the U.S. District Court in Seattle, naming the district and Superintendent Ian Saltzman. It also objected to being turned away from a district community resource fair and to limits on its flyers.

What the court found

On April 24, 2026, Judge Lauren King granted part of LifeWise’s request for a preliminary injunction. She ordered the district to let LifeWise take part in its resource fairs and post flyers where secular groups may, including a flyer showing a boy praying; to accept permission slips that cover a whole semester and name up to four adults who may pick the children up; and to let Sweeny’s children read LifeWise materials whenever students may read other non-school books.

The order lays out both sides of the envelope rule. The district’s guidelines said religious materials handed out off site were to be “sealed in an envelope and placed directly into the student’s backpack immediately upon their return to school.” The district said the rule followed classroom disruptions from candy and flyers, and matched how it treats toys and handouts from any group, religious or not. The judge found the reports of disruption “few, vague, secondhand,” and wrote that the rule swept in Bibles, not only the items said to cause trouble. Her ruling was preliminary. A trial had been set for April 2027.

The district’s position

In court the district had denied the claims, writing that “many of LifeWise’s contentions are simply untrue, and where they are true, the District’s actions were reasonable, viewpoint-neutral.” After the vote it posted a statement, signed by the board and Saltzman, saying it respects the April ruling and recognizes that its policies “created difficulties for LifeWise students and their families, particularly with respect to the procedures for releasing students for religious instruction and the handling of materials students received through LifeWise.” It said the settlement lets it avoid “protracted” litigation and its cost.

Asked by Fox News Digital whether its rules had changed, the district said: “There were no changes to the policy. The Student Release Guidelines have been updated to comply with the terms of the settlement.” LifeWise, for its part, says the agreement means students may openly carry a Bible.

“This settlement is a welcome victory for Everett families who simply want the freedom to choose Bible education for their children during school hours,” said LifeWise CEO Joel Penton. First Liberty senior counsel Stephanie Taub called it “a tremendous victory not only for our clients but for all religious release time programs.” Adkins did not respond to the Herald’s requests for comment.

Read it for yourself

Open VRSZ, tap Deuteronomy 6:7, and read what the commentators say about teaching Scripture to children.