NEW RULES FOR RELIGION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS; STUDENTS ARE GIVEN GREATER FREEDOM TO EXPRESS THEIR BELIEF IN GOD.

Byline: Lawrence L. Knutson Associated Press 

President Clinton issued new guidelines Saturday clarifying how public schools can work with religious groups without violating the constitutional separation of church and state.

``Common sense says that faith and faith-based organizations from all religious backgrounds can play an important role in helping children to reach their fullest potential,'' he said in his weekly radio address.

``Our new guidelines will help them work together on common ground to meet constitutional muster, to avoid making students uncomfortable because they come from different religious traditions, while helping students make the most of their God-given talents,'' the president said.

The administration's third set of guidelines since 1995 continues the effort to quell the divisive and emotional debate over religious expression in the classroom by clarifying what the Constitution allows.

The new guidelines repeat earlier ones in stating the boundaries of religious expression in the public schools. They also reflect the latest Supreme Court rulings, and offer a guide for the use of religious organizations in tutoring, mentoring, after-school enrichment programs and other nonreligious educational activities.

The Supreme Court generally has held that state-sponsored or state-organized prayer or mandatory religious activities inside public schools violates the Constitution. Last month, the court agreed to decide whether public school districts can give students the unfettered right to take part in student-led group prayers at football games.

The revised Education guidelines state that students have the right to express their religious beliefs in such things as homework and artwork, ``free of discrimination based on the religious content of their submissions.''

But school officials ``may not endorse or favor religious activity or doctrine, coerce participation in religious activity or seek to impose their religious beliefs on impressionable children,'' Education Secretary Dick Riley wrote.

The guidance given to more than 100,000 schools about forming partnerships with religious groups includes:

Ensuring all activities and programs provided by the groups are ``purely secular.''

Selecting student participants without regard to their religion.

Telling volunteers not to pray with students or preach about faith.

Recommending that schools put a partnership agreement in writing and make sure any space used for teaching is free of religious symbols.

Clinton said the guidelines make clear ``that students do have the right to pray privately and individually in school, the right to say grace at lunch, the right to meet in religious groups on school grounds and to use school facilities just like any other groups do.''

Clinton said it is clear that finding the proper place for religious belief in the schools is ``a complex and emotional matter for many Americans.

``But I have never believed the Constitution required our schools to be religion-free zones, or that our children must check their faith at the schoolhouse door,'' the president said.

Charles Haynes, a senior scholar at the Freedom Forum who worked with administration on the guidelines, said they are a major effort to quell the long battle over the role of religion in public schools.

``This is the closest thing to a legal safe harbor that we can give to educators and parents,'' Haynes said. ``It protects the religious expression of students, encourages appropriate teaching about religion'' and helps religious groups play a role in education.

Gene Carter, executive director of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, said: ``Religious communities represent an important resource for a student-centered culture that values greater openness and civic participation.''

But the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, said it is ``virtually impossible to enforce'' the prohibition against forbidden activity by religious groups invited to participate in school activities.

``Some religious groups are known for their aggressive proselytism and will undoubtedly try to exploit the program to try to convert public school students,'' Lynn said.