53E-4-205.4. Religious liberty instruction -- Optional topics.
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Effective 7/4/2026
53E-4-205.4. Religious liberty instruction -- Optional topics.
(1)In accordance with Section 53E-4-205.2 , the state board standards for the course on American constitutional government and citizenship may instruct an educator that the educator may examine the fundamental role of religion on the following topics:
(a)foundational documents and speeches in United States history, including the primary source documents described in Subsection 53E-4-205.2(3) ;
(b)exploration and colonization of the Americas;
(c)early settlement of the North American colonies by religious refugees, including Puritans, Catholics, Quakers, and Jews;
(d)education and literacy, including early colleges;
(e)concepts of the consent of the governed, including covenantal concepts in the Mayflower Compact and early New England church and civil government;
(f)the American Revolution, including the influence of the First Great Awakening and of religious sermons and pamphlets on liberty and tyranny;
(g)concepts of moral equality and natural rights, including in the Declaration of Independence and other American declarations of rights;
(h)the debates in the Constitutional Convention and state ratifying conventions on the United States Constitution, especially the First Amendment;
(i)the abolition of slavery in the United States;
(j)social welfare and reform movements, including:
(i)the temperance;
(ii)women's suffrage;
(iii)freedmen's aid;
(iv)child labor;
(v)immigrant aid; and
(vi)anti-lynching movements;
(k)United States opposition to totalitarianism, fascism, and communism;
(l)United States reconstruction of former World War II enemies;
(m)the 1950s and 1960s nonviolent Civil Rights Movement; and
(n)religious pluralism in contemporary America.
(2)An LEA shall ensure that the topics enumerated in Subsection
(1)are optional.
Enacted by Chapter 435 , 2026 General Session