Student Religious Clubs
The Equal Access Act, passed by Congress in 1984, ensures that students in public secondary schools may form religious clubs, including Bible clubs, if the school allows other extracurricular groups. 4 The Act is intended to protect student-initiated and student-led meetings. Outsiders may not "direct, conduct, control, or regularly attend" student religious clubs, and faculty acting as monitors may be present at religious meetings in a nonparticipatory capacity only. 5
The guidelines on "Religious Expression in Public Schools," issued by the U.S. Department of Education, give the following guidance for interpreting 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:
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.
A meeting, as defined and protected by the Equal Access Act, may include a prayer service, Bible reading, or other worship exercise.
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 manner. Schools, however, may inform students that certain groups are not school sponsored.
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.
