HOUSE AMENDMENT Bill No. HB 243
1	CHAMBER ACTION
2	Senate House
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12	Representative Sobel offered the following:
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14	Amendment (with directory and title amendments)
15	Remove line(s) 10-34, and insert:
16	Section 1. (1) This section is intended to provide
17	guidance to local school districts in complying with section
18	9524 of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of
19	1965, as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
20	Section 9524 requires local public schools to certify to the
21	State Board of Education that they have no policies that
22	prevent, or otherwise deny participation in, constitutionally
23	protected prayer.
24	(2) In addition to those provisions contained in the
25	Florida School Code, public school students and employees have
26	the right to pray individually or in groups or to discuss their
27	religious views with their peers so long as they are not
28	disruptive. In the classroom, students have the right to pray
29	quietly except when required to be actively engaged in school
30	activities. In informal settings, such as in the cafeteria or in
31	the halls, students and employees may pray audibly or silently,
32	subject to the same rules of order as apply to other speech in
33	these locations.
34	(3) Public school assembly rooms that are available for
35	noncurricular group meetings must be available to groups that
36	meet for religious purposes on the same basis as they are to
37	other groups.
38	(4) The right to engage in voluntary prayer does not
39	include the right to have a captive audience listen to, or to
40	compel other public school students to participate in, such
41	prayer.
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43	================= T I T L E A M E N D M E N T =================
44	Remove line(s) 2-6, and insert:
45	An act relating to education; providing guidance to school
46	districts on complying with federal law governing prayer in
47	schools; providing an effective date.