Under the U.S. Constitution, public schools cannot promote or advance any particular religion, and they must respect the individual religious beliefs of students and staff.
What that looks like in practice raises complex questions and spirited debate about topics like prayer, and freedom of speech—and how those dovetail with larger issues of curriculum and school climate.
Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about religion in school, the separation of church and state, and school prayer.
Is prayer allowed in schools?
Yes. Students of all religious backgrounds can pray at school when not engaged in school activities or instruction, and teachers and administrators can neither sanction nor discourage such prayers.
Students’ rights to pray at school are protected by both the Constitution and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which requires districts to certify in writing that they have “no policy that prevents, or otherwise denies participation in, constitutionally protected prayer in public elementary and secondary schools” as a condition of receiving federal funds.
Schools cannot coerce students to pray, the U.S. Department of Education said in guidance on the matter last updated in May 2023. “Nothing in the First Amendment, however, converts the public schools into religion-free zones, or requires students, teachers, or other school officials to leave their private religious expression behind at the schoolhouse door,” that guidance said.
Students of all faiths have the right to organize prayers on campus, the federal guidance says, as long as those activities don’t disrupt school activities. Any limitations schools set must be applied consistently to religious and nonreligious speech, and they must not favor a particular religion.
What has the U.S. Supreme Court said about prayer in schools?
In the 1962 case Engel v. Vitale, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a New York school could not require daily recitations of a prayer composed by the state’s Board of Regents.
In the 1963 case Abington School District v. Schempp, the court struck down a Pennsylvania state law that required school-led recitations of Bible verses and the Lord’s Prayer. That case involved a Unitarian family who who did not believe in the Holy Trinity or in an anthropomorphic God as conveyed in the King James Bible, Education Week wrote in a 2011 story. Their son protested mandated school prayers by leaving an open Quran on his desk. The court overturned the state law even after Pennsylvania lawmakers amended it to allow students to opt out.
“While the Free Exercise Clause [of the First Amendment] clearly prohibits the use of state action to deny the rights of free exercise to anyone, it has never meant that a majority could use the machinery of the State to practice its beliefs,” the court’s opinion said.
Schools may also run afoul of the Constitution if they sanction prayers at student events. In a 1992 decision in Lee v. Weisman, the court held that Rabbi-led prayers at a public school graduation ceremony amounted to unconstitutional state-sponsored religion. In a 2000 decision in Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, the court ruled that a school’s practice of having a student lead prayers over a public address system before high school football games could be considered public speech and, therefore, a violation of the First Amendment.
The composition of the Supreme Court has changed notably since then, and some critics of those decisions have suggested conservative justices now may rule differently on such issues.
Can teachers pray at school?
Yes, in some cases.
Like students, teachers can pray independently and voluntarily during non-instructional hours, but they may not require students to pray as part of class or school-sponsored extracurricular activities.
But determining the line between private religious expression and sanctioned religious activities can be tricky.
The 2022 Supreme Court case Kennedy v. Bremerton School District centered on Joseph Kennedy, a high school football coach who sued the Bremerton, Wash., school district after administrators told him to discontinue his practice of praying on the 50-yard line immediately following each game after students, players, and even coaches began to join him.
Concerned about the safety of crowds, that the highly visible practice would appear to be school-sponsored, and that students would feel a sense of implicit coercion, the school board asked Kennedy to move his prayers to an alternate location. When the coach continued his prayers on the field, the school board placed him on administrative leave and declined to renew his contract.
In a landmark decision, the high court sided with the coach, ruling that his prayers were private speech protected by the First Amendment and that the Constitution neither requires nor permits schools to suppress such religious expression by employees to avoid the appearance of sanctioned religious practices.
The decision by the court’s conservative majority effectively overruled the long-held view that public policies and practices violated the establishment clause if they aren’t primarily secular in purpose, if they promote or inhibit religion, and if they represent an “excessive entanglement” between church and state.
Critics of the Kennedy decision have argued that it created a confusing legal landscape for school districts. The opinion also alarmed some representatives of religions that are a minority in the United States, like Islam.
Can schools require students with religious objections to say the Pledge of Allegiance?
No. In the 1943 case West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a school would violate the free speech rights of a student who was a Jehovah’s Witness if it forced him to say the Pledge of Allegiance.
“To believe that patriotism will not flourish if patriotic ceremonies are voluntary and spontaneous instead of a compulsory routine is to make an unflattering estimate of the appeal of our institutions to free minds,” the opinion said.
Students who do not wish to say the pledge, for religious or ideological reasons, stand silently and abstain.
Are students allowed to form religious clubs and organizations at school?
Yes. Students may form religious groups under the same school rules that govern non-religious student organizations, the 2023 federal guidance says.
Schools must give student religious clubs and organizations the same access to facilities and rights to publicize their activities that they give nonreligious groups.
Can schools require students to read the Bible and other religious texts?
Yes, but only for academic purposes. Courts have held that, while academic lessons on the Bible and other religious texts, like the Quran, are permissible, devotional readings in public schools violate the establishment clause in the First Amendment.
In June 2024, Oklahoma state Superintendent Ryan Walters directed schools to put a Bible in every classroom and to require teachers incorporate the Bible into classes for 5th through 12th grades.
Walters has predicted success with former President Donald Trump’s conservative nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court if the state faces a legal challenge over the directive.
Supporters of calls to incorporate scripture into classwork argue students need a basic level of biblical literacy to understand common references in literature, stories depicted in significant works of art, and the perspectives and beliefs of historical figures. But critics say directives like Walters’ are an effort to insert Christianity into public life as the country becomes more religiously diverse. Walters’ new rule requires only the Bible, not the primary text for any other religion.
Efforts to teach about the Bible can be fraught with challenges, Mark A. Chancey, a professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University, told Education Week. Teachers must navigate differing views, even among Christian students, about how the text should be interpreted and applied, he said. Christian sects vary on which translation of scripture is most reliable and which books should be included, and teachers may not recognize the personal biases they carry about reading scripture.
What protections should schools provide Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh students?
Federal civil rights officials expect schools to protect students of all religious backgrounds from discrimination or harassment based on their faith.
Under the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, schools must protect students who are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, or of any other faith associated with a specific nationality or ethnic identity from bullying and harassment. Title VI protects people from discrimination based on race, color, or national origin. According to 2023 federal guidance, Title VI violations include harassment or bullying that is:
- is based on racial or ethnic stereotypes
- relates to skin color, physical features, or dress that “reflects both ethnic and religious traditions,” or
- targets a foreign accent or name, including names “commonly associated with particular shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics”
Can churches and religious groups run charter schools?
No. But supporters of a proposed Catholic-run charter school in Oklahoma continue to press the issue in court.
The state’s Supreme Court ruled in June that plans for St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, which would receive public funds and be operated by two Roman Catholic dioceses, violated the Oklahoma and U.S. constitutions. The court held that the charter school would be considered “a state actor” and not a private entity contracting with the state.
School law experts expect the school’s supporters to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.
Can students use vouchers and tax-credit scholarships to attend religious schools?
In the 2020 case Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, the Supreme Court held that Montana committed discrimination when it refused to allow families to use state tax-credit scholarships to pay tuition to private Christian schools.
“A state need not subsidize private education,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote. “But once a state decides to do so, it cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious.”
The court built on that decision in 2022, when it said Maine couldn’t exclude religious schools from a state program that pays for students to attend private school if their town does not have a public high school.
Since these rulings, many Republican-led states have passed new or expanded private school choice programs that provide public funds for students to attend private schools, a majority of which are religious.
Can schools display the Ten Commandments?
Courts have said schools cannot display the Ten Commandments, but officials in Louisiana plan to challenge the issue.
A Louisiana law, signed in June 2024, requires schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom. Supporters of the displays are emboldened by the Bremerton decision, in which the Supreme Court sided with a coach who prayed after football games. They see that decision as cracking open the door to more religious displays and texts in schools.
Teachers could display the text alongside classroom rules, historical quotes, cartoon jokes, and pop culture references to add context without promoting a specific religion, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill argued at an August press conference.
Parents suing to stop Louisiana’s law, who include nonreligious families and include clergy from a variety of faith backgrounds, have argued the law violates the Supreme Court precedent established in the 1980 case Stone v. Graham. In that decision, the court held that a similar Kentucky law that required a display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment because the display “had no secular legislative purpose” and was “plainly religious in nature.”
State officials in Louisiana believe today’s court may rule differently following the Bremerton decision. Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, has said he welcomes the legal challenge.
“I think this is one of the cases where the (Supreme) Court has it wrong,” Landry told NewsNation July 18. “And so here is the question: If the Supreme Court has something wrong, why would you not want that to be corrected? What is the price you would pay to correct that?”
