The U.S. Department of Education on Thursday urged K12 leaders to permit religious expression in schools under certain conditions.
Students, staff and parents have a constitutional right to adhere to their religious beliefs and practices while at school, as long as they respect the rights of others, according to new guidance from the Trump administration.
Schools may not engage in religious activities or speech as an institution. School cannot favor secular views over religious beliefs or one religion over another
Local education agencies must provide certification to state education agencies each year that no policy prevents participation in constitutionally protected prayer.
“Our Constitution safeguards the free exercise of religion as one of the guiding principles of our republic, and we will vigorously protect that right in America’s public schools,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement.
What does this look like in practice? The department provides some examples.
Schools can still regulate student speech that disrupts classroom instruction. For instance, a student can’t pray out loud during class in a manner that prevents others from learning. Any such disruptions must be handled consistently with other types of interference, according to the guidance.
School officials must also permit students to pray privately, whether in class, at an athletic event or before a meal.
“These policies also apply when a student is off-campus but taking part in a school-sponsored event,” the guidance reads. “A school may no more prohibit a student football player from praying before an away game than it could prevent him from praying before a home game.”
This also applies to students praying in a group setting. The department prohibits school leaders from preferring secular student groups to religious student groups or discriminating among religious groups of different faiths.
As for public school employees, the administration ensures that their First Amendment rights need not be forfeited. Leaders are required to permit the same right to expression as students, including prayer, as long as it does not coerce others into joining or affirming their prayer or function as the official speech of the school as an institution.
For example, a teacher may bow their head to say grace before lunch, and students are allowed to join. However, the teacher cannot instruct their class to pray with them.
“This is not the familiar but legally unsound metaphor of a ‘wall of separation’ between religious faith and public schools,” the guidance concludes. “It is rather a stance of neutrality among and accommodation toward all faiths, and hostility toward none.”
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