Should religious liberty instruction be happening in Utah’s K-12 schools?

Can religion — in its myriad forms, practices and perspectives — aptly fit in the classrooms of Utah’s public schools?

That’s a query now being debated during the ongoing 2026 Utah Legislature. Multiple religious-based legislative measures are examining the sometimes uneasy confluence of faith and educational instruction.

Senate Bill 268 focuses on how religion and religious liberty are addressed within Utah’s public K-12 and higher education institutions.

“The bill seeks to amend our educational standards to specifically allow instruction on religious liberty as part of the social studies requirement — specifically within the American constitutional government and citizenship courses,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, in a Senate Education Committee presentation.

Teachers, he added, should feel free to examine the role of religion in historical and constitutional contexts — including philosophical questions concerning religion, comparative religion and the history of religion.

Additionally, said Weiler, SB268 reinforces that students should be allowed to express their beliefs “without facing discrimination based on the religious perspective of their work.

“The legislation emphasizes a thorough study of historical documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution — while ensuring that schools maintain neutrality and respect for both religious and nonreligious views,” he said.

The bill, emphasized Weiler, doesn’t mandate. It doesn’t force a teacher to say anything about a specific faith practice. Instead, the bill offers instructional safety.

“My primary purpose in running this legislation is to make sure that the teachers in the state know that it’s safe to talk about, say, what motivated the pilgrims to come across the ocean, or what motivated the Pioneers to cross the plains.

“That’s a message that we need to send — especially if it’s a response to a question being asked by a student as a sincere question.”

In his subsequent bill presentation on the Senate floor this week, Weiler said Supreme Court prohibitions against school-sponsored prayers and worship in public schools created an “unintended and unfortunate chilling effect” on any discussion of religion, including its role in American history.

“Fortunately, in recent years, there’s been growing awareness of this overreaction and clarification — including by the Department of Education in both the Biden and the Trump administrations — that teaching of the role of religion in U.S. history is constitutionally permissible,” said Weiler, echoing the words shared by a constituent.

“Senate Bill 268 advances this correct understanding of the Constitution and of American history.”

Support — and opposition — for Weiler’s religious curriculum bill

Sen. Keven Stratton, R-Orem, spoke in support of Weiler’s measure.

“As we look at the challenges in our society today … a lot of the answers to the challenges are not found in what we do in our legislative and executive and judicial branches,” he said.

“It’s found in opening up hearts and humbling ourselves and recognizing the roots that have brought us where we are.”

But Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, said she was voting against SB268 because it was unnecessary — an argument she made during the earlier Senate committee hearing.

“I’m a ‘No’ because all of these things can be taught already in school — all these things are already taught in school,” she said.

“When we create a list of things that we may teach, we actually emphasize things that might not be organically presenting themselves in school.”

What does ‘One nation under God’ mean?

Weiler’s religious curriculum bill came about after being approached by Michael Erickson, a constituent and local attorney.

Erickson, who participated in the bill presentation to state senators, reached out to the lawmaker in hopes of Utah students learning more about the role of religion in U.S history.

A former adjunct professor at Utah Valley University, Erickson recalled being a young public school student, pledging allegiance to the American flag and repeating the words: “One nation under God.”

“But I never learned in school what it meant for the United States to declare itself as ‘a nation under God,’” he said.

“I learned that Pilgrims on the Mayflower were religious and that the First Amendment protected religious freedom — but I don’t remember learning much else about the influence of religion on U.S. history or government.”

Erickson’s subsequent study of American history revealed the influence that religious faith had on key moments in the nation’s history.

“And perhaps no movement in American history was more influenced by religious faith than the 1960s Civil Rights Movement — which is almost exclusively organized in the Black churches of the South, the only place where African Americans could safely organize themselves.”

The story of the United States, he concluded, can’t be accurately taught “without including the role of religion during the most significant moments in American history.”

Favorably accepted in the Senate, SB268 is now in the hands of the House.

Accommodating students’ religious/conscience beliefs

Weiler’s fellow Republican lawmaker, Rep. Michael Petersen, is sponsoring a pair of religious-related measures.

Dubbed “Higher Education Student Belief Accommodation,” House Bill 204 calls for broader protection of a college student’s “sincerely held religious and conscience beliefs.”

Included in the proposed bill is a requirement that the state’s public higher education institutions accommodate a student’s objection to a class assignment in his or her major due to religious beliefs.

If HB204 is ratified, a faculty member at state school “could no longer corral an army of students to advance positions preferred by that faculty member,” said Robin Fretwell Wilson, a University of Illinois law professor who joined Petersen in introducing the bill to the Senate Education Committee.

As a teacher, Fretwell Wilson knows that students often don’t feel that they can challenge professors. Moreover, students may not learn about an assignment and the collision with their religious beliefs or conscience until after the add/drop period has passed.

HB204, she added, would permit a student to request an alternative assignment in a class mandated for his or her major “when the student cannot do what is assigned for reasons of religious belief or conscience.”

Riebe, who voted against granting a favorable recommendation, asked if professors would be burdened with creating backup curricula for students that decided the initial curriculum was not part of their conscience.

And, she added, would the integrity of the course be compromised if alternative curricula were required?

Petersen said he doesn’t foresee a wide need for alternative curriculum.

“I don’t think this is a ubiquitous problem,” he said. “Most of our professors do a great job. They care about their students.”

HB204 is being introduced, he added, “because there are sometimes some professors who have difficulty recognizing the individual conscience and beliefs of their students.”

The bill is now in the hands of the Senate, who will make a final legislative determination before it could be advanced to the governor.

A call for religious freedom in Utah schools

During the 2026 legislative session, Petersen also presented a “Resolution Regarding Religious Freedom”, which was approved by majority vote by both the House and Senate.

The nonbinding resolution declares that the Legislature and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox “supports and encourages practices that exemplify religious freedom in public spaces — including the right of public school students and teachers to openly express their faith, accommodation of religious observances in government and community settings, the protection of religious symbols in public spaces, and the fostering of respectful dialogue among diverse faith traditions to uphold the foundational principles of religious liberty enshrined in the United States Constitution.”