In American public schools is scheduling a break for prayer the same as giving the day off for Yom Kippur?

The kids still have as much Christmas in schools as they’ve ever had.

Anyone that wants to, can pray in school. Anyone who wants to read a Bible in school can read a Bible.They just can’t disrupt the class while they do it. And if they miss out on lessons, and do poorly in class because of their religious requirements, oh well.

If a child is of a religious persuasion that requires intermittent prayer during the day, they need to work with the teacher to work out an acceptable compromise.

We have some schools in my state that give the “first day of hunting season” off.
Why? Because this state is pretty redneck. And to the hunters, that day is just as much a religious holiday as any.

All the schools in town are closed the 3rd Friday in September because everyone is at Bluegrass and no kids make it school that day anyway, so they just said “To hell with it!” and made it an official holiday.

Scheduling a break for prayer is not the same as teachers leading the class in prayer. I wouldn’t have a problem with this, personally. Public schools sometimes adapt to specific needs of the area they’re in. As long as no religion is being pushed onto the students by the teachers, it shouldn’t be a problem.

They could schedule just a “break,” time for the kids to do whatever they want.

No. Days off for Jewish High Holy Days are not excused. They are unexcused absences…..the same as taking a day off to go fishing. Prayer breaks eat into the state’s required hours-of-instruction as well as interfering with the flow of the schedule….it could cause extension of the official school day’s hours. A few minutes at the beginning of the day is acceptable and eats only into roll-calling home room.

I vaguely remember the rule being if over 30% of the student population doesn’t show up for school then the day doesn’t count. I don’t know if that was made up or actually true.

School districts with a lot of Jews don’t have school on Yom Kippur. It seems logical to me that the first day of hunting season or Bluegrass would also be a scheduled day of no school if a large number of the student population is participating. I don’t feel like it literally has to be for a religious purpose or national holiday. If the town participates in a specific celebration or tradition it’s enough for me.

I do realize children can pray whenever they want, but it seems like if a large percentage of the kids are doing a daily prayer at the same time, that could be very disruptive to the class. I’m not sure what I think. I guess maybe you could give all the children a break at that time. Should a religion dictate something like that in a school? If the majority is praying together, then the kids who don’t pray might feel left out or feel ostracized, or it might create an influence that other parents don’t like. I’m always conflicted about this sort of thing. Like should girls be able to wear head scarfs? Part of me wants to say no. That’s another topic though.

@JLeslie I raised my children in the top district in the state and we had 41% Jewish population in our little city. School never closed on the Holy Days, but of course the Jewish children were absent. Unexcused absence. That is where my experience as a board member and parent lies. The rules about Holy Days came from the state though and that is where the rules about how many days school must be ‘in session’ each semester came from as well. These rules could vary among the states but in any state where school is simply not in session for a day, that day is added back into required days in session to remain in compliance with the state..

@Sagacious Of course the school has to meet the 180 day requirement in the end, or whatever the requirement is now.

I’m shocked you had 40% Jews and didn’t have Yom Kippur scheduled as a day off. What school district/state was this if you don’t mind telling? Yom Kippur would usually be the only day scheduled off, none of the other Jewish holidays.