Religion and Public Schools

A major front in the battle over religion's role in public affairs has been, and continues to be, our nation's elementary and secondary public schools. May prayers be offered as part of an official school graduation ceremony or pre-game football program? Do policies requiring the recitation in public schools of the Pledge of Allegiance with the words "under God" make this practice unconstitutional? If a public school allows a student chess club to meet on school property during non-instructional time, must it allow a student Bible club the same kind of access? If a student or her parents have a religion-based objection to a certain part of the curriculum, must the student be allowed to opt-out of such instruction?

These are just a few of the questions courts have addressed regarding the sensitive intersection of religion and public schools. Before considering more specific cases and principles in this area, it is helpful briefly to recall the constitutional significance of the people and institutions involved in these questions - students, parents, schools and teachers.

Like other citizens, public school students possess First Amendment rights to express themselves religiously and to practice their faith in other ways. Although schools enjoy substantial latitude to impose rules of conduct and determine pedagogical matters, students retain these basic rights within the confines of public schools. Parents' constitutional rights also are relevant in this arena - parents have the basic right, for example, to raise their children in a particular faith or none without interference from the state.

As governmental institutions, public schools are bound by the constitutional obligations that bind the state. While public schools must protect students' rights to express themselves religiously and practice their religion in other ways, they also must ensure that the school itself takes no part in advancing religion generally or preferring particular religions over others. Put simply, the school must neither encourage nor discourage religious belief and observance. And, while school administrators and teachers enjoy certain First Amendment rights to express their personal faith in their private capacities, they also are representatives of the government and therefore have constitutional obligations in their official capacities.

When considering matters of devotional religious expression in the public schools, a key dividing line is whether the speech is attributable to the government or to an individual. As the Court has said "[T]here is a crucial difference between government speech endorsing religion, which the Establishment Clause forbids, and private speech endorsing religion, which the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses protect." Thus, for example, while public school teachers are prohibited from leading their classes in prayer, students are free to pray by themselves or in groups, so long as they are not disruptive of school activities. As the Court has said: "[N]othing in the Constitution as interpreted by this Court prohibits any public school student from voluntarily praying at any time before, during, or after the schoolday." Moreover, the Court has required a state university to open its facilities to student-organized religious clubs when it made those facilities available to other student clubs, and it has upheld a federal law applying a similar policy to public secondary schools.

In 1995, a diverse group of organizations produced a document entitled, Religious Expression in the Public Schools: A Joint Statement of Current Law. It provides a concise summary of church-state law as applied to many of these issues. Other helpful guidelines include a question-and-answer pamphlet on religious holidays and public schools. More information regarding academic teaching about religion in the public schools may be found here.