NEWS STORY: Education Department Issues `Guidance’ on Religion in Schools

c. 2003 Religion News Service WASHINGTON The Department of Education has issued new “guidance” on prayer in schools, drawing a mixed reaction from legal groups that keep a close eye on church-state issues. Education Secretary Rod Paige said the new guidance meets a requirement of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. “Public schools […]

c. 2003 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON The Department of Education has issued new “guidance” on prayer in schools, drawing a mixed reaction from legal groups that keep a close eye on church-state issues.

Education Secretary Rod Paige said the new guidance meets a requirement of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.


“Public schools should not be hostile to the religious rights of their students and their families,” said Paige in a Feb. 7 letter to public elementary and secondary schools accompanying the new document.

The seven-page document declares that schools with policies preventing “constitutionally protected prayer in public schools” run the risk of losing funding received under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

The guidelines review Supreme Court decisions relating to religion and schools and discuss the First Amendment’s ban on government-sponsored religious activity.

“For example, teachers and other public school officials may not lead their classes in prayer, devotional reading from the Bible or other religious activities,” the document reads.

But it also discusses instances where religious activity is considered permissible within school walls.

“Among other things, students may read their Bibles or other scriptures, say grace before meals, and pray or study religious materials with fellow students during recess, the lunch hour, or other noninstructional time to the same extent that they may engage in nonreligious activities,” the guidance reads.

It also permits students to form religious clubs, prayer groups and gatherings such as the “See You at the Pole” events that take place across the country each September. Such activities are permitted “to the same extent” as other noncurricular activities by student groups.

The guidance also addresses the role of teachers, administrators and other school employees. While they are are not permitted to encourage or discourage prayer in their official capacities, they can take part in unofficial religious activities.


“Before school or during lunch, for example, teachers may meet with other teachers for prayer or Bible study to the same extent that they may engage in other conversation or nonreligious activities,” the document says.

It also addresses the sometimes-controversial matter of moments of silence, saying “students are free to pray silently or not to pray, during these periods of times.”

The document says religious expression is permitted in some class assignments. If a student is assigned to write a poem and he or she chooses to submit a prayer, such as a psalm, it should be “neither penalized nor rewarded on account of its religious content.”

Americans United for Separation of Church and State questioned the legal interpretations included in the guidance.

“Federal courts have split over the legality of some religious activities in public schools, such as so-called `student initiated prayer,’ at public school events,’ said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “Yet these guidelines flatly state that such activities are legal.”

Other groups responded favorably to the document.

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which recently settled a lawsuit on behalf of an elementary school student who wanted to read from his “Beginner’s Bible” in class, hailed the new guidelines.


“This is a great moment for students in public schools all across America,” said Becket Fund President Kevin J. Hasson. “At last, we finally have `teeth’ in the guidelines that supposedly have governed school policies since the Clinton administration.”

Mathew Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, a Florida-based law firm that has been entangled in legal battles with public schools, said: “The message is simple _ school officials must stop discriminating against students and teachers who choose to pray or engage in religious expression.”

Nathan Diament, public policy director of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, called the guidance “a useful tool in promoting religious liberty for America’s student population.”

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