Pearland ISD board declines to adopt a new policy on daily prayer under SB 11

Superintendent staff briefed the Pearland ISD Board of Trustees on Senate Bill 11 during the Dec. 9 meeting and recommended the board take a recorded vote to take no local-policy action. SB 11 allows, but does not require, boards to adopt a local policy establishing a daily period of student-initiated prayer or religious reading; the statute requires boards to take a recorded vote either to adopt such a policy or to formally decline to do so.

District staff advised that student-initiated religious expression is already permitted under existing state and federal law and that a local policy is not necessary to allow those student activities. Trustees expressed support for taking no action to avoid additional government oversight of religious practice in schools. One trustee noted practical questions about how broadly "religious texts" might be defined and favored continuing to allow student-initiated practices.

Trustees voted to adopt the resolution to take no policy action and to record that decision in the minutes; the motion carried 6-0 with Trustee Stuckey absent.