I like to sit by myself during lunch and pray or read the Bible. You keep talking about how public schools and religion have to stay separate. Does that mean I can’t read the Bible to myself at lunch? No. When we talk about the “separation of church and state” in public schools, we mean that schools can’t promote religion officially. But the First Amendment protects your right—as an individual—to worship or not, as you choose. That means that during free time at school you can pray privately, read the Bible or other holy book, wear clothing that expresses your religious beliefs or talk about religion with your friends. Keep in mind that you can’t disrupt school activities or invade other students' rights. Also, religious students can be excused from classes for part of the day to take a religious class off-campus or stay away from school for religious holidays. Your parents have to send in a written request to the school district so that you can be excused. I’m Muslim, and I need to pray during the school day. Are students allowed to pray on their own in public schools? Sure they can. The First Amendment protects your right to worship or not, as you choose. So individual students have the right to pray at school, as long as they don’t disrupt school activities or try to force other students to pray with them. For example, students may say private grace over their food or any other prayers required by their religion, so long as they aren’t disruptive. As has been said many times, as long as there are math tests there will be prayer in schools. What’s not allowed is group prayer that the school sponsors, facilitates or participates in. Some students at my school decided on their own to meet every morning at the flagpole in our schoolyard and pray. Can they do that? It’s probably okay—if the meetings aren’t sponsored, organized, participated in or approved by school officials. Of course, if your school allows student prayer groups to gather on school grounds, then it also has to allow other student groups to gather. We sometimes have a quiet reading time during homeroom period. One of my friends told me that I couldn’t read my copy of the Qur’an because prayer in schools isn’t allowed. Is that true? No, that’s not true. You can bring in a religious book to read or even for show and tell. Religious books or objects are allowed in school, as long as it doesn’t feel like the school or a teacher is endorsing one religion, which can make other students feel excluded. I am Jewish and need to take some school days off for religious holidays. In the past I have just called out sick, but this year my school is offering a perfect attendance award and I don’t want my religious absences to count against that. Do I have to call out sick for religious holidays? You do not have to call out sick or offer any other excuse for taking occasional religious holidays. The School Code requires schools to excuse students for religious holidays when requested by a parent and prohibits the school from penalizing students for those absences. So they shouldn’t count against your perfect attendance record. The only exception to this rule is that the holidays cannot be so frequent that they mean you aren’t attending full time. So, for instance, Muslim students cannot take off every Friday, even though that is their holy day.
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