Allow a school board to employ a chaplain, including in a volunteer capacity, at a school

Brief

What this bill does

If it passes, what actually changes?

This is a school-staffing bill. It creates a new option for Nebraska school boards to bring chaplains into schools, and it switches off the usual certification enforcement rules for them.

• Adds a new section letting a school board employ a chaplain, paid or volunteer, at a school.
• Defines chaplain as clergy licensed, ordained, or endorsed by their religious organization and trained for secular settings.
• Lets chaplains provide academic, career, emotional, and behavioral health supports without any state teaching certificate.
• Amends 79-804 and 79-805 so uncertificated-staff funding penalties and board personal liability do not apply to chaplains.
• Amends 79-814.01 to require a State Patrol and FBI fingerprint background check, with fees paid by the chaplain.
• Requires each board to adopt a policy covering chaplain employment, discipline, continued education, and termination.

What it says it is for

Does it do what it claims?

The title matches the operative sections closely. What the title understates is how much existing enforcement the bill turns off for chaplains.

• Title's core promise matches Section 1: a board "may" employ a chaplain, including in a volunteer capacity.
• Title's certificate exemption matches Section 1(2)(a), waiving teaching, administrative, and special-services certificates.
• Title's "powers and duties to the State Board of Education" appears only as fee-setting in 79-814.01(3).
• "Harmonize provisions" carries real substance: chaplains are exempted from 79-804 money-withholding and 79-805 board liability.
• Nothing in the text funds chaplain positions; the title promises no money, and the bill provides none.

Where Scripture bears on it

What does the Bible say about this?

Scripture is not shy about setting a bar for who may hold spiritual office, and 1 Timothy 3:2 states it directly: "A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;" — a standard of character and fitness to instruct, which is precisely the ground LB549 occupies when it strikes the teaching certificate and puts a criminal history check in its place. The felt need behind the bill also has an old name, given in Numbers 27:17, that the people "be not as sheep which have no shepherd" — students carrying emotional and behavioral burdens with too few adults assigned to them. What these verses do not settle is the whole civil question in front of Nebraska. Neither says whether a public school, paid for by taxpayers of many faiths and of none, is the place to seat a shepherd; neither tells us which religious organization's ordination or endorsement should count; neither says whether a background check and a locally written policy are an adequate substitute for the standard of blamelessness; and neither addresses what a chaplain may do when a child in his care believes differently than he does.

The case each way

What is the strongest argument for, and against?

The disagreement is over whether this adds needed adult support in schools or places clergy in public schools without the usual safeguards.

• For: Schools face counselor shortages, and this adds adults offering emotional and behavioral support at low cost.
• For: Participation is entirely optional; Section 1(5) says no board is required to employ a chaplain.
• For: Chaplains face fingerprint-based FBI checks and a locally adopted discipline and termination policy.
• Against: Chaplains need no counseling credential, no teaching certificate, and no state-set training standard.
• Against: Exempting chaplains from 79-804 and 79-805 removes the enforcement tools that back certification rules.
• Against: Section 1(2)(b)'s disclaimer that employment is not an endorsement does not itself limit a chaplain's conduct.

What is unsettled

What should I be careful about?

This reading covers only the bill text as introduced; it cannot tell you how the option would actually be used.

• The text contains no dollar figures and no appropriation, so the cost to schools is unstated.
• "Trained to serve in secular environments" is undefined, with no state standard and no named verifier.
• Section 1(2)(a) says "various duties" without limits, leaving a chaplain's real role to each board.
• Section 1(4) requires a board policy but sets no minimum content beyond four listed topics.
• Under 79-814.01(2) the Commissioner "may" deny eligibility, so denial is discretionary, not automatic.
• No effective date, parental consent, opt-out, or religious-neutrality enforcement mechanism appears in the text.

Text (1)

• Introduced (application/pdf)

Each link opens the Legislature's own document. The text itself is not in our database yet (fetched lazily); when it lands these pages will carry it verbatim.

All Actions (5)

Votes (0)

There have been no roll call votes on this bill.

Sponsors (1)

• Sen. Loren Lippincott [District 34] — primary sponsor

Amendments (0)

There are no amendments to this bill.

Fiscal Notes & Statements (2)

• Fiscal Note — Fiscal Note
• Statement of Intent — Statement of Intent

The Legislature's own companion documents; each link opens the official copy.

Committees (1)

Related Bills (0)

No related bill information was received for LB549.