Idaho teachers are rolling their eyes over moment of silence mandate

By: Sean Dolan

Originally posted on IdahoEdNews.org on March 25, 2026

Union leaders in Idaho say a new requirement to start the school day with a moment of silence is just another way that the Legislature is micromanaging public school classrooms and taking away local control.

Teachers are rolling their eyes at the new mandate, said Brian Coffey, president of the Nampa Education Association.

“No serious person in education thinks a moment of silence is going to achieve anything,” Coffey told EdNews.

The short, one-page law prohibits teachers from providing any instruction on the purpose of the minute of silence beyond what is stated in the law.

“So we just have to tell them, ‘Because we said so, you’re going to be quiet for a minute,'” said Shelly Johnson, president of the West Ada Education Association.

Gov. Brad Little last week signed into law House Bill 623. It passed 51-17 in the House and 18-15 in the Senate. Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, and Sen. Tammy Nichols, R-Middleton, sponsored the bill.

Beginning next school year, each classroom at every grade in all public schools will be required “at or near the beginning” of each school day to provide 60 seconds of silence. Five-year-old kindergarteners and 18-year-old seniors alike will have to remain silent for the minute.

During those 60 seconds, students may reflect, meditate, pray or engage in another silent activity. No other activities shall take place, according to the law.

“This isn’t a sneaky way to get prayer into school,” Skaug said earlier this month.

Teachers shall require all students to remain silent during the minute and “make no distracting display” that would interfere, distract or impede other students, the bill states.

Coffey said the Legislature can require all sorts of things. The question is, what happens when people don’t comply?

“Who’s going to monitor?” he said. “And are we going to suspend kids who continually interrupt the moment of silence? Like, what are you going to do about it?”

Similarly, Johnson said teachers that try to implement the minute of silence with fidelity will start out by fighting with their students to be quiet, or punishing their students.

“Are they going to have to call home?” Johnson said. “Are they going to have to write them up for discipline because they refuse to follow the directions of the teacher?”

The Legislature has recognized the lack of enforcement mechanisms in some Idaho laws.

The House on Friday passed a bill that would allow the attorney general to go to court to force public officials, public employees and state or local government entities to follow state laws. House Bill 896 now heads to the Senate.

Johnson mentioned that bill in an interview. If it passes, she said she wonders if not complying with the moment of silence will have a financial stipulation.

“If someone says, ‘Hey, you’re not doing it,’ now we’re going to fork over how much money?” she said.

There is a general sense of disappointment with the new law, said Jess Waltrous, president of the Idaho Falls Education Association. She said it’s one more thing to add to an already overfull plate.

“Instead of focusing on meaningful and impactful changes that would benefit every student in our state, such as better funding and support for students, our legislature chose to prioritize what many see as a nonissue,” Waltrous wrote in a text message to EdNews.

There are also concerns about implementation.

Johnson said she used to teach music. Students would come into her first period class and get ready, but now teachers will have to figure out how to incorporate the moment of silence.

“Teachers are expected to teach bell to bell,” she said. “So does that mean that we need to add one minute to every first period and change bell schedules so that we’re not taking a minute away from all the other classes in the day?”

Coffey mentioned another mandate that the Legislature placed on public schools last year: Requiring teachers to show students in grades 5-12 a high-definition, ultrasound video during instruction on human growth and development.

As EdNews reported last year, schools can choose one of seven videos to show classrooms to meet the requirements of Senate Bill 1046. One of those videos is referred to as the “Baby Olivia” video.

Coffey said, in his opinion, anyone who worries about freedom should be worried about these new laws from the Idaho Legislature.

“They can be clever and try to be neutral, like with this fetal development video,” Coffey said. “You know, everybody understands what’s happening.”