Religious Activities in Public Schools

Over the past four decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has regularly addressed disputes governing religious activities in public schools. Although school prayer is the issue that has received the most attention, the Court's decisions in this area have also considered the allowable sources, methods, places, times, and content for the distribution of religious materials, as well as the permissible content of classroom assignments. Other cases have examined the development of school policies on the distribution of materials dealing with evolution and materials with religious content submitted by members of the larger community. This entry reviews the main cases in these areas and considers the responses that schools can make as a result of the Court's judgments.