Chaplains in public schools? Polling shows Americans have strong reactions

Should religion have a seat in the classroom? A new poll by The Associated Press and the University of Chicago shows a clear divide among Americans. While many back the idea of school chaplains, far fewer are comfortable with teachers leading students in prayer. The findings reflect a deeper national debate over how much faith belongs in public schools, and where to draw the line between church and state. 

Should religion have a seat in the classroom?

Supporters say school-based chaplains provide mental health assistance, emotional support or moral guidance. But Felicia Martin, president and executive director of the Texas Freedom Network, argues the push to install chaplains in schools is often driven by a religious political agenda.

“I think it sounds, on the surface, as a good idea,” Martin said. “Schools need additional support and layering for students having access to someone who can help them process their feelings and emotions. But at the deeper level are questions that cannot be answered. These are not certified mental health experts.” 

What Martin sees as mental health and emotional support, National School Chaplain Association CEO Rocky Malloy considers spiritual issues. 

“Even a highly qualified teacher or a counselor wants to do the best they can for a child. They can’t pray for him, and forgiveness is the number one thing to relieve guilt,” said Malloy.

Views on religion in schools cut across faith lines, especially among white evangelical Christians and nonwhite Protestants, even though their politics often differ. Fifty-five% of adults say teachers shouldn’t lead prayer in public school classrooms, matching a 2022 poll from AP-NORC, the same organization that conducted the most recent survey. Six in 10 reject mandatory prayer or religious reading periods. Still, 58% are comfortable with religious chaplains offering support to students.

White evangelicals, nonwhite Protestants and Catholics back chaplains and prayer more than people without religious ties. The political split is sharp: 70% of Republicans support chaplains in schools versus 47% of Democrats. Teacher-led prayers received 60% of support from Republicans but only 29% of Democrats. Nearly half of Republicans want mandatory prayer periods, compared with roughly a quarter of Democrats.

The case for chaplains in schools

Discussion often centers around a chaplain’s training and qualifications. 

“A chaplain with us has to have at least 2,000 hours of ministry experience. That’s equivalent to what a licensed professional counselor has,” Malloy said. “They go through 80 hours of training that’s recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, and they go through safety training provided by the FBI affiliates and The Red Cross.”

Texas acts a blueprint for other states

Martin points to Texas as a model. In 2023, the state passed Senate Bill 763, which allows school districts to employ or accept volunteer chaplains. The law does not require chaplains to be licensed counselors or certified educators, a detail that raises concerns among groups worried about religious indoctrination and the separation of church and state.

More recently, on June 21, Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 11, which requires Texas public schools to include a daily period for prayer and Bible reading, into law.

“Texas is often fertile ground for testing these policies,” Martin said. “This is part of a multi-pronged approach by the religious right to normalize Christian, especially evangelical, values in public spaces, particularly schools.”

Concerns over religious influence

Martin said having religious leaders inside schools links national identity to a specific set of conservative Christian beliefs and pushes a vision of the United States as a Christian nation.

And she sees harm in that, including the marginalization of a large swath of students.

“This is a much deeper attack on American values, if you will,” Martin told Straight Arrow News. She added that adding chaplains fits into a broader strategy that “blurs the line between church and state.”

“This isn’t happening by accident,” Martin said. “It’s a coordinated, multi-level effort to use public education as a vehicle for religious and political influence. That should concern anyone who values true religious freedom.”

Most Americans say freedom of religion and free speech are core parts of the nation’s  identity, but fewer feel as strongly about the separation of church and state. That gap is wider among Republicans, who tend to prioritize religious freedom more so than church-state boundaries.

Balancing faith and public education

Malloy said he founded the National School Chaplain Association with student safety in mind, and that each chaplain entering a school serves as a “security blanket” for students. He pushed back against criticism that school chaplains blur the line between church and state.

“Every state in the United States [has] chaplains on the payroll,” Malloy said. “So it sounds weird that somehow or another, we’re going to discriminate against hardworking teachers by not giving them the same spiritual care resources that practically all the other government employees have.”

There are currently about 7,000 chaplains at the federal level, many in the military, and roughly 3,000 more employed by individual states.

Malloy noted that employees of the federal government routinely have access to chaplain services, and said the same is true in many states. He pointed to Texas, where 35 chaplains are stationed at Dallas–Fort Worth International Airport to support travelers. 

Teachers often experience stress levels similar to first responders, yet they are denied the same kind of spiritual care, he argued. “That just doesn’t make sense,” he said.

Malloy also addressed concerns that chaplains promote specific religions or seek to convert students.

“One of the rules of chaplaincy is ‘perform or provide,’” he said. “Let’s say a Muslim child comes up to a chaplain who happens to be a Baptist person and says, ‘I need some help.’ Because that chaplain might not be an expert in Islam, they would contact an imam or someone who can help that child.”

Malloy explained that many focus only on the restrictions in the First Amendment but fail to consider “free exercise,” which protects chaplains as a “federally defined, protected and privileged class of clergy.” 

“A chaplain, not a pastor or a bishop, apostle or Iman or anyone else, can open up prayer for Congress each morning,” he said. “So how could that be somehow against the rules if it’s happening every day?”

Malloy said chaplains could help keep veteran educators in the classroom amid an ongoing teacher shortage..

“Teachers stay on the job, and all the wealth of wisdom and experience a veteran teacher has now stays in school, because there’s a chaplain providing spiritual services and care,” he said.

He added that teachers with chaplains report greater job satisfaction, which leads to fewer late arrivals and a safer school environment.

Malloy cited data showing chaplains serve in about 36,000 schools nationwide. He explained chaplains operate under all the rules and regulations of their school districts with no exceptions, and they also provide spiritual care. To ensure accountability, the National School Chaplain Association has a Senior Chaplain board made up of experienced chaplains who advise on difficult situations. 

“If the chaplain comes across something they’re not quite sure how to handle, they can contact the Senior Chaplain board,” Malloy said. Likewise, schools can reach out to the board with concerns about a chaplain’s activities.

Looking ahead: democracy and faith

Martin warned that “there are no limits or boundaries” in Texas or at the federal level, and even the judicial system’s authority is being tested. She said democracy itself is under threat as those in power push their own interpretations of the Constitution. 

“Does it violate the constitution? Yes, it does,” she said. The real battle, she noted, is over whose interpretation prevails. This leaves many feeling disoriented: “Sometimes you feel like you don’t know what way is up and what way is down.”

She is critical of introducing chaplains into schools. They are “not a suitable substitute for trained mental health professionals” and lack clear standards or safeguards, she said. 

That comes with risks, like “proselytizing and discrimination” in diverse school communities, according to Martin. And she is concerned that in-school chaplains are part of a larger push to turn public schools into battlegrounds for ideological control,” especially in Texas.