Desantis' admin defines "religion" in attempt to block Satanic Temple folks from serving as public school chaplains

https://www.fasa.net/Leader2Leader/florida-education-officials-offer-model-policy-for-volunteer-school-chaplains

The Florida Department of Education on Tuesday issued what it described as a “model policy” to help school districts carry out a controversial new law that allows volunteer school chaplains.

Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. said in a statement the model policy provides guidelines “to ensure that credible chaplains can volunteer in Florida’s schools.” Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Legislature this year approved the law, which gives school districts the option of authorizing chaplains to provide services to students.

“These chaplains will serve as an additional resource for students,” Diaz said in the statement. “Florida welcomes only legitimate and officially authorized chaplains to become volunteers at their local schools and to provide students with morally sound guidance.”

During the legislative session, opponents questioned the constitutionality of allowing school chaplains and whether it would lead to religious proselytization. Questions also have swirled about whether representatives of groups such as the Satanic Temple could serve as chaplains.

The Department of Education’s two-page model policy goes into more detail than the law. For example, it defines a chaplain as a person “who is officially authorized by the leadership of a religion under the religion’s governing principles to conduct religious exercises.”

As an extension of that, the model policy defines religion as “an organized group led, supervised, or counseled by a hierarchy of teachers, clergy, sages or priests … that acknowledges the existence of and worships a supernatural entity or entities that possesses power over the natural world, … regularly engages in some form of ceremony, ritual, or protocol, and … whose religious beliefs impose moral duties independent of the believer’s self-interest.”

The model policy also recommends minimum requirements for chaplains, including that they have local religious affiliations; have bachelor’s degrees; and have graduate degrees in counseling or theology or can demonstrate seven years of experience as chaplains.

The department also recommends that chaplains demonstrate “a sincere desire to meet the objectives of the Volunteer School Chaplain Program and enhance student welfare. A principal may deny the application of any individual to become a volunteer chaplain if the principal determines that the individual is not applying to fulfill the program’s purpose or the applicant’s participation will be contrary to the pedagogical interests of the school and the chaplaincy program.”