This year, a North San Diego County school district roiled some Californians with concerns that its yoga program was too religious. As similar programs have spread around the country, yoga’s Hindu origins have raised questions about its compatibility with public school instruction.

But the nine schools in the Encinitas district had carried on the practice for years without much incident. “Encinitas introduced yoga as a pilot program to one of its nine elementary schools in 2011, resulting in just 40 to 45 of the 5,000 students being pulled out of the class by their parents,” Jurist reported. “Yoga is taught in many other schools in the U.S., but the Encinitas Union School District is reportedly the first of the school districts to offer classes on a full-time basis.”

As the Associated Press noted, the courses received three years worth of funding through the K.P. Jois Foundation, “a nonprofit group that promotes Ashtanga yoga” and “provides twice-weekly, 30-minute classes” at Encinitas schools.

A shaky case

Although both traditionally-minded Christians and strict secularists alike have been wary, the courts didn’t put much stock in plaintiff’s fears that yoga plunged students into inappropriate spiritual situations. Stephen Sedlock “said he became worried after reading an article that suggested yoga may not be safe for children,” according to NBC Los Angeles. “His wife, Jennifer, said the yoga program went against the first and second commandment of the Bible, which dictate ‘I am the Lord your God,’ and ‘you shall have no other gods before me.'”

The three-judge panel on California’s 4th District Court of Appeal disagreed. Located in San Diego, the panel unanimously denied that the state constitution’s religious freedom clause — seen as broader than the U.S. Constitution’s — barred instruction in yoga- and yoga-like poses.

“The record in this case contains abundant evidence that contemporary yoga is commonly practiced in the United States for reasons that are entirely distinct from religious ideology,” the panel ruled.

Threading the needle

In its defense, Encinitas was helped by the courses’ focus on physicality alone — and their strictly optional nature. But court records showed that the school district labored carefully in order to craft an approach to yoga that satisfied standards at the level of the constitutional, the state school system and parents themselves:

“The district hired its own expert to write a curriculum that conformed to California’s physical education standards. The district’s program focused on yoga poses, breathing, and relaxation, as well as helping instill such character traits as empathy and respect.

“After some initial parent complaints that the program was religious, the district made changes, such as removing Sanskrit and images of India, and renaming some positions (such as changing the ‘lotus’ position to ‘criss-cross applesauce.’)”

But in 2013, the Sedlocks decided to sue.

Although the language of California’s religious freedom protection differs from that in the federal Bill of Rights, state constitutional law has looked to Supreme Court jurisprudence in determining the merit of claims bearing on relevant claims. As a result, the court in the Sedlocks’ case looked to the so-called Lemon test, named for a landmark Supreme Court ruling handed down in 1971.

The Lemon test set up a three-part standard to give a contested program legitimacy. Then-Chief Justice Warren Burger formulated the standard:

“First, the statute must have a secular legislative purpose; second, its principal or primary effect must be one that neither advances nor inhibits religion; finally, the statute must not foster “an excessive government entanglement with religion.”

The use of the Lemon test has not always been consistent, and the court has come under fire from analysts who have described it as an exercise in judicial activism. But in the Encinitas case, it contributed to a ruling that will likely hold. The Sedlocks were reportedly considering their options as to how to proceed, but no announcement of an appeal has been made.

Marc Babin, who created an organization called Cal200 to further his aims, sued California in 2013 to enforce the state law governing time spent in public school on physical education. According to EdSource, Babin alleged that “37 school districts, including Los Angeles Unified, the largest district in the state, are out of compliance with state physical education law.”

Current requirements hold schools to a standard of 200 minutes of P.E. every 10 days in the first six grades of schooling. Rather than litigate the issue, the state agreed to compel elementary schools throughout the state to document their compliance with the law.

Sweeping effect

Schools from the Bay Area and Central Coast to the Central Valley and Southern California are impacted by the settlement. It will will begin to take effect after Judge Mary Wiss of the San Francisco Superior Court gives her official approval in March. By far the heaviest burden has fallen on Southland schools, especially the LAUSD.

Seeking to head the lawsuit off at the pass, LAUSD worked last year to demonstrate it was complying with the minimums imposed by state law. As the Los Angeles Times reported, LAUSD, Palm Springs Unified and other districts “asked teachers to show that they are meeting state requirements for physical education,” with lesson plans that “outline schedules for instruction, activities and classes.” As the suit proceeded through court, noted the Times, LAUSD claimed Babin’s allegations were not frivolous, but that they “had already been rectified.”

Donald Driscoll, Babin’s attorney and a fellow parent who began pushing for P.E. compliance in 2009, begged to differ. LAUSD, he said last year, “has been a particular offender. They give lip service to the idea that P.E. is important. That just plain doesn’t work. What that produces is kids who don’t get enough exercise.”

Now, Driscoll and Babin will get to see what kind of results state law can actually attain.

Tracing the problem

The terms of the settlement impose rigorous new administrative requirements that are all but certain to further strain many schools struggling to keep up with California’s transition to Common Core standards. As Jane Meredith Adams writes:

“Under the settlement agreement, elementary school teachers in the districts must report the minutes they spend teaching physical education, publish the schedule to parents and be subject to spot checks from principals. If teachers skip scheduled physical education instruction, they will note the reason why and report when those minutes were made up. The schedules will be submitted to local school boards for review.”

Adams pins the blame for the strain on cuts to the state’s education budget, noting that many elementary schools have given dedicated P.E. teachers the axe. As a result, “classroom teachers are asked to squeeze in physical education while simultaneously improving academic test scores.”

But the impact of Common Core training and expectations is severe. Last month, the Sacramento Bee editorial board was flatly warned by Michael Kirst, president of the state Board of Education, that this year’s first-time results of the statewide “Smarter Balanced” test will be “shocking.”

As the editorial board underscored:

“6.2 million children are being taught here by some 280,000 teachers in about 1,000 school districts. Two-thirds of those kids are poor, in the foster-care system or unable to speak English fluently.

“So far, only about a third of our teachers have been trained in the new standards, with Common Core math teachers particularly hard to come by. Despite floods of state money – K-12 education soaks up about 40 percent of the state budget – California’s education spending per pupil ranks near the bottom.”

Those structural problems are not about to change. Add the rigors of state-mandated P.E. to the mix, and California’s public elementary schools are in for a punishing regimen.