As February draws to a close, school districts across Texas are facing a deadline to decide whether to set aside a daily period for students to pray.
Senate Bill 11 requires every school district in the state to hold a vote before March 1 on a resolution to adopt a policy allowing daily time for prayer or reading religious texts. Notably, the law doesn’t require districts to adopt such a policy, only that they vote on it.
Most North Texas districts have opted not to set aside time for prayer and scripture reading. Officials in many of those districts have cited a range of logistical issues, including finding designated spaces and carving time out of the school day.
Under the bill, students would only be allowed to participate in prayer or scripture study if their parents have signed a consent form. Districts that adopt a prayer policy must make sure prayer and scripture reading don’t take place in the physical presence or within earshot of a student whose parents haven’t signed a consent form.
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Dallas ISD trustees voted unanimously Thursday not to adopt a policy creating a designated period for school prayer. In doing so, the district joined a lengthy list of North Texas school districts that have opted not to adopt such a policy. School boards in Fort Worth and Grapevine-Colleyville ISDs all approved resolutions stating that those districts won’t designate time for prayer, and several other districts, including Arlington, Plano, Irving and Grand Prairie ISDs, also passed similar measures over the past month.
During Thursday’s Dallas ISD meeting, Trustee Lance Currie, the son of a Baptist minister, asked fellow board members not to adopt a designated prayer time “not in spite of my faith, but because of it.”
Dallas ISD already has a policy in place allowing students to practice their faith in schools, so long as they don’t disrupt class or take learning opportunities away from other students. Currie said he supports that policy and hopes to see it remain in place. But he worried that having a single designated period for prayer would lead to difficult questions among students about who participates, who doesn’t and why.
“What it ends up becoming is coercion,” he said. “It ends up becoming putting your thumb on the scale, and it’s unnecessary.”
In Frisco ISD, board members voted unanimously on Feb. 9 not to set aside a period for prayer. Before the vote, Esther Kolni, the district’s legal counsel, told board members that the law would create logistical headaches for school leaders trying to implement it and wouldn’t give students any rights they don’t already have.
Kolni said the bill’s requirements effectively mean that the district would have to provide segregated spaces where students whose parents had signed consent forms would be separated from their classmates for part of the school day. That dynamic creates an “us versus them attitude” at school, creating division between students, she said.
Kolni also noted that the Texas Education Code already guarantees students the right to pray or meditate “individually, voluntarily and silently” during the school day.
Student-led religious clubs exist at every high school in the district, she said, and students across the district participate in the nationwide See You At the Pole prayer event each September. She also noted that the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District guarantees the right of teachers and other school employees to engage in private prayer, as long as it isn’t part of their official duties.
“I think most experienced educators will tell you that as long as there are big games or difficult tests or pop quizzes, students will be praying while at school,” Kolni said. “I think most experienced educators would also agree that as long as students will try teachers’ patience, school staff will also be praying in school.”
Keller ISD board narrowly passes resolution
Keller ISD’s board voted 4-3 in September to direct the district’s administration to draft a policy setting aside time for prayer or scripture reading. Under the district’s policy, prayer periods take place before the beginning of the school day.
Before the vote, Keller ISD Trustee Chelsea Kelly pushed back on the idea of a policy, saying it would create more responsibilities for teachers and building administrators. Kelly said she didn’t take issue with the idea of students and teachers having the opportunity to pray at school, but she noted that those opportunities already exist.
Trustee Jennifer Erickson agreed, saying she was concerned about the amount of work it would add for already-overburdened teachers and principals. Erickson also questioned whether such a policy would help prepare students to learn or do better on the state assessment. Interim Superintendent Cory Wilson said the policy wasn’t aimed at helping students meet state standards, and acknowledged that it wasn’t likely to lead to academic gains.
Board President John Birt suggested that, if students decide to participate in a prayer gathering before school, it “will definitely affect, in a positive way, their student outcome.”
House sponsor says bill broadens student rights
The bill’s House sponsor, Rep. David Spiller, R-Jacksboro, said he was pleased to see the bill signed into law, although he acknowledged the March 1 deadline creates awkward timing for school districts, which typically roll out policy changes at the beginning of a school year.
Spiller said the bill is intended to broaden students’ religious expression rights while they’re at school. Up to now, Texas’ state education code only guaranteed students and staff the right to pray or meditate silently. The bill offers districts the opportunity to allow students to pray and read scripture openly, he said.
Spiller took issue with districts’ assertions that finding space for prayer would be a challenge. But he also said he thinks many districts that have decided against designating prayer time might reconsider those decisions later, when they’ve had more of a chance to consider the issue. The bill intentionally leaves it up to school districts to decide how to implement such a policy — and, indeed, whether to do so at all, he said.
“This is not a mandate bill. This is an opportunity bill,” he said. “The only thing that’s mandated is that they consider it.”
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