republic-os/legal/us/code/title-20/chapter-52/section-4071.md

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LegalText	20 U.S.C. § 4071	Denial of equal access prohibited	us	united_states_code	code_section	20	EDUCATION	52	EDUCATION FOR ECONOMIC SECURITY	4071	20 U.S.C. § 4071	current	119-100	2026-06-26	official	https://uscode.house.gov/download/releasepoints/us/pl/119/100/xml_usc20@119-100.zip	/us/usc/t20/s4071	data/legal/raw/us/code/title-20/usc20.xml	512e35fd72cbf6c6b56b4200c2dbe6f06a3fe89b3ad5120c8b2e62f1a2263aa9	6022872c5d6a3398d1728f82f8cefcb58db9f5ff548e2a636450be1e4a8bb052	69db274e4514f800a4cda16ebe9219f230db96b80c4d548aad7ed78071ed6137	2026-07-04	official	legal us-code

20 U.S.C. § 4071 - Denial of equal access prohibited

Text

(a) Restriction of limited open forum on basis of religious, political, philosophical, or other speech content prohibited It shall be unlawful for any public secondary school which receives Federal financial assistance and which has a limited open forum to deny equal access or a fair opportunity to, or discriminate against, any students who wish to conduct a meeting within that limited open forum on the basis of the religious, political, philosophical, or other content of the speech at such meetings.

(b) “Limited open forum” defined A public secondary school has a limited open forum whenever such school grants an offering to or opportunity for one or more noncurriculum related student groups to meet on school premises during noninstructional time.

(c) Fair opportunity criteria Schools shall be deemed to offer a fair opportunity to students who wish to conduct a meeting within its limited open forum if such school uniformly provides that—

(1) the meeting is voluntary and student-initiated;

(2) there is no sponsorship of the meeting by the school, the government, or its agents or employees;

(3) employees or agents of the school or government are present at religious meetings only in a nonparticipatory capacity;

(4) the meeting does not materially and substantially interfere with the orderly conduct of educational activities within the school; and

(5) nonschool persons may not direct, conduct, control, or regularly attend activities of student groups.

(d) Construction of subchapter with respect to certain rights Nothing in this subchapter shall be construed to authorize the United States or any State or political subdivision thereof—

(1) to influence the form or content of any prayer or other religious activity;

(2) to require any person to participate in prayer or other religious activity;

(3) to expend public funds beyond the incidental cost of providing the space for student-initiated meetings;

(4) to compel any school agent or employee to attend a school meeting if the content of the speech at the meeting is contrary to the beliefs of the agent or employee;

(5) to sanction meetings that are otherwise unlawful;

(6) to limit the rights of groups of students which are not of a specified numerical size; or

(7) to abridge the constitutional rights of any person.

(e) Federal financial assistance to schools unaffected Notwithstanding the availability of any other remedy under the Constitution or the laws of the United States, nothing in this subchapter shall be construed to authorize the United States to deny or withhold Federal financial assistance to any school.

(f) Authority of schools with respect to order, discipline, well-being, and attendance concerns Nothing in this subchapter shall be construed to limit the authority of the school, its agents or employees, to maintain order and discipline on school premises, to protect the well-being of students and faculty, and to assure that attendance of students at meetings is voluntary.

(Pub. L. 98–377, title VIII, § 802, Aug. 11, 1984, 98 Stat. 1302.)

Notes

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Short TitlePub. L. 98–377, title VIII, § 801, Aug. 11, 1984, 98 Stat. 1302, provided that: “This title [enacting this subchapter] may be cited as ‘The Equal Access Act’.”