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Public school teachers and other employees can take part in visible prayer with students during the school day, such as saying grace together before lunch, according to new guidance issued Thursday by the U.S. Department of Education on prayer and religious expression in public K-12 schools.
The new guidance overturns a 2023 memo issued by the Biden administration’s Education Department that insisted that public school teachers and staff not encourage or discourage prayer in schools. The latest guidance also veers from what was issued under the first Trump administration and then-U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
The Trump administration’s new guidance declares that “visible, personal prayer, even if there is voluntary student participation in such prayer, does not itself constitute coercion.”
“For example, a teacher may bow her head to say grace before lunch, and students may join her in grace, but she may not instruct her class to pray with her, pressure them to pray with her, or create an atmosphere in which students are favored if they pray with her,” according to the new guidance.
The guidance clarifies that teachers and other school officials should not deliver prayers “on behalf of the school or in contexts that students cannot opt out of.”
By contrast, the 2023 guidance issued under then-U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said teachers, school administrators and other school employees “may not encourage or discourage private prayer or other religious activity” and are allowed to engage in private prayer during the workday when they are not acting in their official capacities, such as during breaks.
“Employees engaging in such expression or observance may not, however, compel, coerce, persuade, or encourage students to join in the employee’s prayer or other religious activity, and a school may take reasonable measures to ensure that students are not pressured or encouraged to join in the private prayer of their teachers or coaches,” the 2023 guidance stated.
The 2020 guidance issued by the first Trump administration went a step further, stating that the First Amendment prohibits school employees “from actively participating in such activity with students.“
Both the 2023 guidance and Thursday’s new guidance came after and cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District upholding a school football coach’s right to pray on the field after games.
The court ruled 6-3 in favor of the coach, saying the Washington state school district violated his First Amendment rights to religious expression when it fired him for praying on the 50-yard line after football games, sometimes with students.
The case was expected to have nationwide implications for prayer in schools, especially when it came to employees’ religious expression.
During oral arguments, justices expressed concern over whether the coach’s prayer created an environment of coercion where players felt pressured to join in. The arguments also touched on whether the coach was on duty during the time of his prayers.
While Cardona’s 2023 guidance in light of the Bremerton decision didn’t go so far as to say that teachers could pray with students, the new guidance issued under U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon does.
“The Trump Administration is proud to stand with students, parents, and faculty who wish to exercise their First Amendment rights in schools across our great nation,” said McMahon in a statement on Thursday. “Our Constitution safeguards the free exercise of religion as one of the guiding principles of our republic, and we will vigorously protect that right in America’s public schools.”
