
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 1, 1994                   TAG: 9312300234
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: PENSACOLA, FLA.                                LENGTH: Short

RELIGION BRIEFS

Escambia will become the second county in Florida to give high school students the option of leaving campus an hour daily for religious instruction.

The hour will come out of study hall, extracurricular or other nonacademic time under a policy the Escambia school board adopted recently on a 3-2 vote.

Participants would be required to take the same number of credits, including elective courses, as other students when the policy goes into effect next August.

Principals also will be able to prohibit students from participating if that would interfere with their academic progress, school district spokeswoman Barbara Frye said. Classes will be conducted by churches or other religious groups on their own property.

Brevard was the first of Florida's 67 counties to allow time off for off-campus religious education. State law gives school boards the option of permitting such voluntary studies off school grounds.

by CNB