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Interfaith Intersections: Communicating Your Child’s Religious Needs at School
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August 4, 2010, at 06:00 AM
Beth Katz, founder and executive director of Project Interfaith.
Communicating your child's religious and cultural needs to his or her teachers is an important step in ensuring the best learning experience for your child. Beth Katz, executive director of Project Interfaith, offers some tips and resources to make this conversation go as smoothly as possible for all involved.
The next school year is only a few weeks away (or less for some of you). An important consideration to starting the school year off on a good note is to have a plan for how you will communicate your child's religious and/or cultural needs with her teachers and school administrators. Appropriate subjects to communicate with your child's educator include:
• Holidays for which a child might need to miss school or the observance of which might affect his or her performance or school work such as the fasting that Muslim students may do during Ramadan. (Click here to learn what Ramadan is and why Muslims fast during this time.)
• Religious or cultural dietary requirements or restrictions. For example, Jewish students who keep kosher will not eat foods with pork or shellfish in them and may refrain from mixing dairy and meat products. (Click here to learn why)
• Accommodating a child's daily prayers. Click here to learn more about what types of student prayer are permissible in a public school setting.
• Opting out of school activities, programs or celebrations that conflict with a student's religion or culture. Most schools have an opt-out policy in place that allows for children to receive an alternate assignment or class as long as the assignment, activity or course being opted out of is not essential to the educational mission of the school.
From my work at Project Interfaith with educators, I know many educators are committed to accommodating their students' religious and cultural needs. These educators recognize how important it is to learning when a student feels welcome to be authentic to his or her religious and cultural identities at school. The challenge for many educators is knowing what exactly those needs are and trying to juggle accommodating a variety of students' religious and cultural needs on top of the many other responsibilities that they have. Therefore, how and when you communicate with your child's teachers and administrators about your child's religious and cultural needs is key.
Here are a few tips and resources that can help you when speaking with school administrators:
1. Familiarize yourself with your school district and its policies regarding religious and cultural diversity. Also, review the district and individual school policies, such as opt-out, diet and dress policies, that may impact your child based on his or her religious or cultural beliefs and practices but may not be contained in explicit religious and cultural diversity policies such as a non-discrimination policy. Many districts and schools post their policies online but if you cannot find them on their website, you can request a copy from your district's and school's administration.
2. Take time to familiarize yourself with what the law says regarding constitutionally-permissible ways that religion can be taught and dealt with in the schools. In particular, be aware of the protection the First Amendment provides for a student's exercise of religious freedom (which includes safeguarding the rights of atheists, agnostics and non-theists as well) and the twin provision it provides for preventing a public school from promoting one religion or belief system over others. The First Amendment Center's A Parent's Guide to Religion in the Public Schools is a great resource for understanding the fundamentals of the First Amendment and religion in the schools. You can access it for free online by clicking here.
3. Communicate your child's religious or cultural needs early on in the school year even before classes resume if possible. This allows time for you to build a relationship with your child's teachers and gives them time to determine if and how they are able to accommodate these needs.
4. If accommodations are needed, provide specific suggestions about what accommodations would be acceptable and make sure educators understand why this is important to your child.
5. Recognize that the school is trying to balance the needs of many students and may not be able to accommodate every request you have. It is important that you and your child determine which needs and accommodations are essential and which may be optional before you speak to her teachers and administrators. This will give you flexibility and show you are committed to working with them- not against them to ensure the best learning environment for your child.
By following these tips and using these resources, you can ensure you're putting your best foot forward in establishing a healthy line of communication with your child's school. Together you can make your child's school experience meaningful and rich without checking her religious and cultural identity at the door.
Beth Katz is the founder and executive director of Project Interfaith. You can find future columns about faith in our community the first week of every month on www.metroneighborhoodnews.com. You can reach her by leaving a comment for her on this site, friend her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter at @bethkatz. To learn more about Project Interfaith, visit www.projectinterfaithusa.org.
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