WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Education reinforced the right to prayer in public schools in guidance issued Thursday.
Under the guidance to state and local education agencies, students, teachers and school officials have “a right to pray in school as an expression of individual faith, as long as they’re not doing so on behalf of the school,” the department said.
President Donald Trump’s administration has sought to protect religious liberty in public schools and beyond, and a growing number of GOP state legislators have tried to infuse Christianity in public education.
Trump announced the guidance during remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, calling the move a “big deal.”
The president predicted that Democrats would sue over the guidance, but said he was confident his administration would win any legal challenge.
The guidance also makes clear that “public schools may not sponsor prayer nor coerce or pressure students to pray.”
In 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that school-sponsored prayer in public schools violates the Constitution.
The new guidance calls on school officials to “allow the individuals who make up a public school community to act and speak in accordance with their faith, provided they do not invade the rights of others, the school does not itself participate in religious action or speech as an institution, and the school does not favor secular over religious views or one religious view over another.”
The guidance leans on a handful of recent Supreme Court rulings surrounding religious expression and religious freedom in public schools, such as Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, which found that the actions of a Washington state high school football coach who prayed at the 50-yard line after games were constitutionally protected.
The Education Department is required by law to periodically reissue guidance on prayer in schools, according to the department.
Trump had previewed Thursday’s guidance while speaking in September 2025 at a Religious Liberty Commission hearing.
The president established that commission in May 2025 in an effort to “safeguard and promote America’s founding principle of religious freedom.”
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the administration is “proud to stand with students, parents, and faculty who wish to exercise their First Amendment rights in schools across our great nation,” in a statement alongside the announcement.
“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,” she said.
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