{"id":28100,"date":"2025-07-01T14:43:28","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T18:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=28100"},"modified":"2025-07-01T14:43:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T18:43:28","slug":"new-poll-reveals-us-adults-support-chaplains-in-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/07\/new-poll-reveals-us-adults-support-chaplains-in-school","title":{"rendered":"New Poll Reveals US Adults Support Chaplains in School"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_28103\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-28103\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/07\/Ten-Commandments_credit-Shutterstock.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-28103\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/07\/Ten-Commandments_credit-Shutterstock.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-28103\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Bills supporting placing religious chaplains in public schools are on the rise, with supporters citing increasing mental health shortages amongst K-12 students and budget shortages while critics are concerned over the separation of church and state. A recent survey from <a href=\"https:\/\/apnorc.org\/projects\/the-public-holds-nuanced-views-on-the-role-of-religion-in-public-schools\/\">The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research<\/a>, however, is showing that the majority of US adults support such measures. Researchers interviewed 1,158 US adults nationwide about their feelings regarding faith-based activities in schools. According to the study, 58% overall support religious chaplains providing support services, with 41% being opposed. White evangelical Christians showed the greatest support for such measures (82%) while those with no religious affiliation showed the least support (41%). While the majority supported chaplains in schools, less supported more direct faith sharing, with only 44% stating that teachers should be allowed to lead prayers in class.<\/p>\n<p>While those who oppose such measures are concerned over the separation of church and state, the study found that it was not considered as important to American identity as freedom of speech (85% called it extremely important) and freedom of religion (81%). 64% of respondents stated that separation of church and state was extremely\/ very important. When asked about the influence that religion plays in society, 41% overall stated they believed religion had too much influence on President Trump, with those with no religious affiliation having the highest percent (59%). 32% stated they believed religion had too much influence over what children are taught in public schools. Meanwhile, 57% stated they believed the federal government had too much influence over the public school system while 55% stated that parents had too little influence. The Supreme Court recently ruled that parents have the right to opt out of LGBTQ+ materials in schools or other lessons that violated their religious beliefs, a major win for parental rights in the eyes of many conservatives.<\/p>\n<p>The survey reflects a number of current issues as the nation grapples with the role of faith in public life. There is a current lawsuit against Arkansas for a law requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in public schools. Texas governor Greg Abbott recently signed a similar bill. Texas was also the first stated to allow religious chaplains in public schools. Now there are over a dozen states considering a similar law. The ACLU shared a strongly worded testimony <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/religious-liberty\/why-allowing-chaplains-in-public-schools-harms-students\">in opposition of chaplains<\/a> in schools, writing, \u201cAllowing chaplains in public schools violates students\u2019 and families\u2019 right to religious freedom. And, because chaplains are typically not trained or certified to provide educational or counseling services to youth, students are likely to receive inadequate mental health support that, in some cases, may be harmful.\u201d The religious group <a href=\"https:\/\/firstliberty.org\/news\/volunteer-chaplains-in-public-schools-are-constitutional\/\">First Liberty<\/a>, however, stated it believes chaplains are beneficial. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of talk about public school chaplaincy being \u2018coercive\u2019 or somehow \u2018forcing\u2019 religion on students. That\u2019s just not the case,\u201d the group wrote in a statement. It later added, \u201cResearch widely supports the idea that religious guidance and support can have a positive impact for school-age children. It can be a huge boost to their overall well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bills supporting placing religious chaplains in public schools are on the rise, with supporters citing increasing mental health shortages amongst K-12 students and budget shortages while critics are concerned over the separation of church and state. A recent survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, however, is showing that the majority of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":28103,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New Poll Reveals US Adults Support Chaplains in School<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A majority of Americans support religious chaplains in public schools amid mental health crises, despite debates over church-state separation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/07\/new-poll-reveals-us-adults-support-chaplains-in-school\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Poll Reveals US Adults Support Chaplains in School\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A majority of Americans support religious chaplains in public schools amid mental health crises, despite debates over church-state separation.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/07\/new-poll-reveals-us-adults-support-chaplains-in-school\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-01T18:43:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/07\/Ten-Commandments_credit-Shutterstock.jpg\" 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majority of Americans support religious chaplains in public schools amid mental health crises, despite debates over church-state separation.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/07\/new-poll-reveals-us-adults-support-chaplains-in-school","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2025-07-01T18:43:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2025\/07\/Ten-Commandments_credit-Shutterstock.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/07\/new-poll-reveals-us-adults-support-chaplains-in-school","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/07\/new-poll-reveals-us-adults-support-chaplains-in-school","name":"New Poll Reveals US Adults Support Chaplains in 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