The full text may be found at:
http://www.ed.gov/Speeches/08-1995/religion.html
A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
THE SECRETARY
Dear American Educator,
Almost three years ago, President Clinton directed me, as U.S.
Secretary of Education, in consultation with the Attorney
General, to provide every public school district in America with
a statement of principles addressing the extent to which
religious expression and activity are permitted in our public
schools. In accordance with the President's directive, I sent
every school superintendent in the country guidelines on
Religious Expression in Public Schools in August of 1995.
< CLIP >
Sincerely,
Richard W. Riley
U.S. Secretary of Education
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RELIGIOUS EXPRESSION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Student prayer and religious discussion: The Establishment Clause
of the First Amendment does not prohibit purely private religious
speech by students. Students therefore have the same right to
engage in individual or group prayer and religious discussion
during the school day as they do to engage in other comparable
activity. For example, students may read their Bibles or other
scriptures, say grace before meals, and pray before tests to the
same extent they may engage in comparable nondisruptive
activities. Local school authorities possess substantial
discretion to impose rules of order and other pedagogical
restrictions on student activities, but they may not structure or
administer such rules to discriminate against religious activity
or speech.
Generally, students may pray in a nondisruptive manner when not
engaged in school activities or instruction, and subject to the
rules that normally pertain in the applicable setting.
Specifically, students in informal settings, such as cafeterias
and hallways, may pray and discuss their religious views with
each other, subject to the same rules of order as apply to other
student activities and speech. Students may also speak to, and
attempt to persuade, their peers about religious topics just as
they do with regard to political topics. School officials,
however, should intercede to stop student speech that constitutes
harassment aimed at a student or a group of students.
Students may also participate in before or after school events
with religious content, such as "see you at the flag pole"
gatherings, on the same terms as they may participate in other
noncurriculum activities on school premises. School officials may
neither discourage nor encourage participation in such an event.
The right to engage in voluntary prayer or religious discussion
free from discrimination does not include the right to have a
captive audience listen, or to compel other students to
participate. Teachers and school administrators should ensure
that no student is in any way coerced to participate in religious
activity.
Graduation prayer and baccalaureates: Under current Supreme Court
decisions, school officials may not mandate or organize prayer at
graduation, nor organize religious baccalaureate ceremonies. If a
school generally opens its facilities to private groups, it must
make its facilities available on the same terms to organizers of
privately sponsored religious baccalaureate services. A school
may not extend preferential treatment to baccalaureate ceremonies
and may in some instances be obliged to disclaim official
endorsement of such ceremonies.
Official neutrality regarding religious activity: Teachers and
school administrators, when acting in those capacities, are
representatives of the state and are prohibited by the
establishment clause from soliciting or encouraging religious
activity, and from participating in such activity with students.
Teachers and administrators also are prohibited from discouraging
activity because of its religious content, and from soliciting or
encouraging antireligious activity.
Teaching about religion: Public schools may not provide religious
instruction, but they may teach about religion, including the
Bible or other scripture: the history of religion, comparative
religion, the Bible (or other scripture)-as-literature, and the
role of religion in the history of the United States and other
countries all are permissible public school subjects. Similarly,
it is permissible to consider religious influences on art, music,
literature, and social studies. Although public schools may teach
about religious holidays, including their religious aspects, and
may celebrate the secular aspects of holidays, schools may not
observe holidays as religious events or promote such observance
by students.
Student assignments: Students may express their beliefs about
religion in the form of homework, artwork, and other written and
oral assignments free of discrimination based on the religious
content of their submissions. Such home and classroom work should
be judged by ordinary academic standards of substance and
relevance, and against other legitimate pedagogical concerns
identified by the school.
Religious literature: Students have a right to distribute
religious literature to their schoolmates on the same terms as
they are permitted to distribute other literature that is
unrelated to school curriculum or activities. Schools may impose
the same reasonable time, place, and manner or other
constitutional restrictions on distribution of religious
literature as they do on nonschool literature generally, but they
may not single out religious literature for special regulation.
Religious excusals: Subject to applicable State laws, schools
enjoy substantial discretion to excuse individual students from
lessons that are objectionable to the student or the students'
parents on religious or other conscientious grounds. However,
students generally do not have a Federal right to be excused from
lessons that may be inconsistent with their religious beliefs or
practices. School officials may neither encourage nor discourage
students from availing themselves of an excusal option.
Released time: Subject to applicable State laws, schools have the
discretion to dismiss students to off-premises religious
instruction, provided that schools do not encourage or discourage
participation or penalize those who do not attend. Schools may
not allow religious instruction by outsiders on school premises
during the school day.
Teaching values: Though schools must be neutral with respect to
religion, they may play an active role with respect to teaching
civic values and virtue, and the moral code that holds us
together as a community. The fact that some of these values are
held also by religions does not make it unlawful to teach them in
school.
Student garb: Schools enjoy substantial discretion in adopting
policies relating to student dress and school uniforms. Students
generally have no Federal right to be exempted from
religiously-neutral and generally applicable school dress rules
based on their religious beliefs or practices; however, schools
may not single out religious attire in general, or attire of a
particular religion, for prohibition or regulation. Students may
display religious messages on items of clothing to the same
extent that they are permitted to display other comparable
messages. Religious messages may not be singled out for
suppression, but rather are subject to the same rules as
generally apply to comparable messages.
THE EQUAL ACCESS ACT
The Equal Access Act is designed to ensure that, consistent with
the First Amendment, student religious activities are accorded
the same access to public school facilities as are student
secular activities. Based on decisions of the Federal courts, as
well as its interpretations of the Act, the Department of Justice
has advised that the Act should be interpreted as providing,
among other things, that:
General provisions: Student religious groups at public secondary
schools have the same right of access to school facilities as is
enjoyed by other comparable student groups. Under the Equal
Access Act, a school receiving Federal funds that allows one or
more student noncurriculum-related clubs to meet on its premises
during noninstructional time may not refuse access to student
religious groups.
Prayer services and worship exercises covered: A meeting, as
defined and protected by the Equal Access Act, may include a
prayer service, Bible reading, or other worship exercise.
Equal access to means of publicizing meetings: A school receiving
Federal funds must allow student groups meeting under the Act to
use the school media -- including the public address system, the
school newspaper, and the school bulletin board -- to announce
their meetings on the same terms as other noncurriculum-related
student groups are allowed to use the school media. Any policy
concerning the use of school media must be applied to all
noncurriculum-related student groups in a nondiscriminatory
matter. Schools, however, may inform students that certain groups
are not school sponsored.
Lunch-time and recess covered: A school creates a limited open
forum under the Equal Access Act, triggering equal access rights
for religious groups, when it allows students to meet during
their lunch periods or other noninstructional time during the
school day, as well as when it allows students to meet before and
after the school day.
Revised May 1998
http://www.ed.gov/Speeches/08-1995/religion.html
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