On Thursday, the Education Department issued updated guidance on prayer and religious expression in public K-12 schools, rejecting what it describes as “the familiar but legally unsound metaphor of a ‘wall of separation’ between religious faith and public schools.”
The guidance is a departure from 2023 memo issued by then-Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, which held that teachers, administrators, and school employees “may not encourage or discourage” religious activities, and that a schools may take “reasonable measures” to ensure students are not pressured to join in on a teacher or coach’s private prayer.
What’s in the Latest Guidance?
- Students, teachers, and school officials have the right to pray in school as an expression of their individual faith, so long as they aren’t disrupting learning, doing so on behalf of the school, or in contexts that students cannot opt out of.
- Teachers and school officials don’t need to pray privately, and “visible, personal prayer… does not itself constitute coercion.” For example, if a teacher or coach chooses to pray and students voluntarily join in, that’s fine, but a teacher may not instruct or pressure students to pray with them. ED cites the Supreme Court ruling on Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, in which the justices voted 6-3 to certify that a high school football coach’s post-game prayers were protected by the First Amendment. [SCOTUS Blog]
- Religious speech should be treated the same as secular speech, and teachers must allow students to discuss their religious beliefs in assignments and exams without academic penalty. Based on the example used by the Department, this point is likely a reference to how Oklahoma University handled the grading of an academic essay that cited the Bible last year. [Oklahoma Voice]
- Public schools must provide the same recognition and support to religious student organizations as they do secular student organizations.
What’s Next
Legal challenges to the new guidance are expected. At the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, President Trump remarked that the Education Department’s new guidance is a “big deal,” and that “the Democrats will sue us [over the guidance], but we’ll win it.” No lawsuits have been filed yet.
This article is sourced from Whiteboard Notes, our weekly newsletter of the latest education policy and industry news read by thousands of education leaders, investors, grantmakers, and entrepreneurs. Subscribe here.
