Testimony in Opposition to HB531

Rev. Dr. Ben Huelskamp, LOVEboldly's Executive Director, was unable to testify in person today against HB531 (the School Chaplain Bill). He submitted written testimony instead.

Introduction

Chair Fowler-Arthur, Vice Chair Odioso, Ranking Member Brennan, and members of the House Education Committee:

Thank you for the opportunity to submit written testimony in opposition to House Bill 531 (HB531), the School Chaplains Act. My name is the Rev. Dr. Ben Huelskamp, and I serve as Executive Director of LOVEboldly, an Ohio faith-based nonprofit whose mission is to create spaces where LGBTQIA+ people can flourish within Christianity. I write to you today not as an opponent of faith, but as a person of faith, one who believes precisely because of that faith that HB531 should not become law.

I have followed this legislation since its predecessor was introduced in the 135^th General Assembly in 2023. The substantive concerns I raised then have not been resolved. HB531 introduces volunteer chaplains into Ohio’s public K-12 schools with inadequate training standards, no meaningful supervision framework, and no protections for the most vulnerable students those schools serve. I urge this committee to not allow HB531 to move beyond these hearings.

The Bill’s Premise Is Unexamined

Ohio faces a genuine shortage of school counselors. The American School Counselor Association recommends one counselor per 250 students; Ohio’s current ratio is approximately 1:380. That is a real problem worthy of legislative attention. But the answer to a counselor shortage is not to place untrained volunteers with religious authority into schools. The question the bill’s sponsors have not answered, and that this Committee should press, is: why chaplains specifically?

Sponsor testimony pointed to chaplaincy programs in universities, hospitals, prisons, and the military. These are contexts populated overwhelmingly by adults who have consented to the environment they are in. K-12 public education is categorically different. Children are compelled to be there. They are more vulnerable. They deserve more protection, not less.

The Bill Lacks Adequate Supervision and Accountability

 

HB531 requires only that chaplains pass a criminal background check and receive endorsement from a recognized ecclesiastical agency. Beyond those minimal thresholds, the bill offers no guidance on supervision, who provides it, how often, or to what standard. This is not a framework. It is an absence of one.

Consider what this absence means in practice. Will already-stretched school administrators absorb supervisory responsibility for chaplains with no additional resources or training to do so? Will districts be liable for the conduct of volunteers operating under religious endorsement but school authority? The bill creates these conditions while offering districts no tools to manage them. That is not permissive flexibility, it is structured neglect.

Professional chaplaincy, the kind practiced in hospitals, the military, and prisons, requires extensive clinical training, supervised fieldwork, and ongoing accountability to professional standards. An ecclesiastical endorsement is not a substitute for that preparation. I am a trained pastor with both a masters degree and a doctorate in education, and I would not consider myself qualified to serve as a chaplain in a K-12 school. The bill asks less of its chaplains than my own credentials would suggest is minimally appropriate.

LGBTQIA+ Students Face Particular and Serious Risk

 

HB531 contains no requirement that chaplains treat sexual orientation and gender identity as legitimate aspects of student identity rather than as pathologies to be corrected. In the absence of that requirement and in the absence of meaningful supervision a chaplain holding non-affirming theological views could expose LGBTQIA+ students to harmful, pseudoscientific practices. This is not a hypothetical: conversion practices have been documented in religious volunteer contexts in schools in other states. Ohio should not create the conditions for that harm here.

Sponsor testimony cited a statistic from the National School Chaplain Association claiming no suicides in schools with chaplains present for two or more years. If accurate, that is worth examining carefully. But we also have robust research demonstrating that LGBTQIA+ students who feel affirmed and supported by their school community experience significantly lower rates of suicidal ideation. The path to that outcome runs through affirming school cultures — not through unregulated volunteer chaplains whose theological commitments regarding LGBTQIA+ identity are nowhere addressed by this legislation.

It is worth noting that HB531 is moving through the legislature alongside several bills that would restrict the rights and recognition of LGBTQIA+ students in Ohio schools. The cumulative effect of this legislative environment is to increase risk for some of the most vulnerable students in our public schools. This committee should weigh that context.

The Bill Creates Risk for Religious Minority Students

Ohio’s school districts vary enormously in their religious demographics. In rural communities, available clergy may represent a very narrow range of traditions. Even in more diverse communities, a chaplain drawn from one tradition will face genuine limits in their capacity to serve students from other faiths or from no faith. The bill provides no guidance on how chaplains should navigate this reality, and no requirement that they be equipped to do so.

Public schools serve all students. Structures embedded in those schools must be accountable to that same breadth. HB531 falls well short of that standard.

Conclusion

 

I am a person of faith. I believe deeply in the capacity of faith communities to support people, including young people through difficulty. That belief is precisely why I oppose HB531. This bill does not create a robust, accountable, well-trained chaplaincy program in Ohio schools. It creates a permission structure for religious volunteers to operate in proximity to vulnerable children with minimal standards, minimal supervision, and no explicit protections for students whose identities many religious traditions do not affirm.

If this legislature wishes to address the school counselor shortage in Ohio, I urge investment in actual school counselors, trained mental health professionals who are accountable to educational and clinical standards, and who are equipped to serve every student regardless of faith, identity, or background.

I respectfully urge this Committee to oppose HB531 and stop it at this point in the legislative process.

Rev. Dr. Ben Huelskamp

Executive Director, LOVEboldly

bhuelskamp@loveboldly.org

www.loveboldly.org