INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Indiana lawmakers are considering legislation to protect religious students from discrimination by preventing public and charter schools from creating policies that ban them from worshiping on campus.

The “prayer in schools” bill – HB 1024 – would prohibit schools from discriminating against students or their parents “on the basis of a religious viewpoint or religious expression” and require schools to create a policy allowing students to pray at school events, WVIK reports.

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HB 1024, sponsored by Rep. John Bartlett, an Indianapolis Democrat, “provides that students may express their beliefs about religion in homework, artwork, and other written and oral assignments free from discrimination based on the religious content of their submissions,” according to the Indiana General Assembly website.

The bill also requires that schools allow students to engage in religious activities before, during, and after school to the same extent as students who participate in nonreligious activities. Further, the bill prohibits schools from censoring student clothing jewelry or other messages based on religious references.

The move comes after numerous conflicts between atheists and local Indiana schools, including the decision by Springs Valley Elementary School in French Lick to ban a student-led prayer from its kindergarten graduation ceremony last spring, The Christian Post reports.

Springs Valley Community Schools Superintendent Tony Whitaker alleged the school committed a “constitutional violation” by allowing student prayer during the ceremony after receiving a threatening letter from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based atheist group that badgers schools over religious freedoms.

“Springs Valley School Corporation will eliminate from any future kindergarten graduation ceremonies the section on prayer and will not allow any prayer at the graduation,” Whitaker wrote in a September letter complying with FFRF’s demands.

The ordeal in Springs Valley is among numerous similar situations in other schools in Indiana and other states instigated by the FFRF, some of which have resulted in litigation.

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HB 1024 aims to preserve students’ religious freedoms outlined in the U.S. Constitution by requiring school policies on religion to include a statement that points out that student worship isn’t sponsored by the school, and “provides that the policy must include measures to make reasonable accommodations for individuals who wish to be excused from a student’s speech that includes religious content because of the individual’s own religious belief or lack of religious belief,” according to the bill’s description online.

The proposed legislation also tasks the state Department of Education with creating a model policy “in collaboration with organizations with expertise in religious civil liberties” and requires high schools to incorporate an elective course “surveying religions of the world” into the curriculum.

HB 1024 was introduced Wednesday and referred to the state House Committee on Education.