The goal of any school is to provide an optimal learning environment so as to maximize the learning experience for all of its students. Officially sponsored religion tends to be divisive and interfere with such an environment. Guidelines and policies for how to deal with religion in the public schools vary widely among school districts.
Some school districts have extensive guidelines, while others have minimal guidelines.
Much is left to the discretion and interpretation of individual teachers and administrators. Neutrality is essential due to the unique sensitivities of school children and the nature of the public school setting. The young age and inherent impressionability of students, as well as heightened susceptibility to coercion, conformity and peer and public pressure, create significant dangers when religion is introduced into public schools. Given the increasingly diverse nature of American students, consideration must be given to the fact that many school children are associated with minority religions or have been raised in a non-religious environment. The inclusion of some religions and not others in school will necessarily exclude some students.