Parents who want their children’s education to include religious instruction can choose from a range of possibilities. Some enroll their children in supplementary programs that meet on a daily or weekly basis, such as Sunday Schools, Hebrew School, or Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (known as CCD or Catechism), and others send their children to full-time religious schools. Many different religions and denominations are represented in the educational world, including Christianity, Catholicism, Judaism, Islam, Mormonism, and the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).

While some religious schools teach orthodox beliefs, others take a more relaxed approach toward religious education.

While religious schools hold many characteristics in common, they often differ in their teaching methods, the subjects that they teach, and the amount of emphasis they place on religious teaching, and a great amount of variation exists even among schools that share a religious affiliation. Some schools include religious classes and incorporate religious beliefs into every lesson, applying their religion to other areas of study and demonstrating its connection to daily life. They may accept only students who are members of that religion, but some schools stress a connection to their community as a whole and accept students from different religious backgrounds, forming a more diverse school atmosphere. Many of these schools require all students to complete religious classes or participate in religious services and activities. In some cases, a school might base their curriculum and teaching methods in a particular religion, creating classes on its values and history, without openly endorsing its beliefs.

Religious schools tend to be privately funded, and they generally avoid government funding as way to maintain freedom over their curriculum and teaching styles. They may be day schools or boarding schools, and generally group different grade levels in the same way as traditional schools, sending children to kindergarten, then elementary, followed by middle school and then high school. Some, however, incorporate multiple grade levels, for instance by having one building for children in kindergarten through middle school. Religious schools are often smaller than public schools, and each grade could have only one class with one teacher. These schools are often owned by or affiliated with a specific religious institution or religious district— a church, a temple, a mosque, a parish, a diocese— and the teachers may be priests, nuns, rabbis, other members of the clergy, although this is not always the case. Along with religious instruction and traditional academic subjects, religious schools often stress the importance of serving the community, and students might be required to volunteer or participate in other forms of community service.



Parents may be attracted to the values-based education offered by religious schools, and they often choose these schools so that their children will learn in an environment that promotes specific beliefs. Because of the diverse range of religious schools, they can usually find a school that fits their beliefs while also meeting their standards of education. With this type of education, children become grounded in the values of their religion early on, and they may also be encouraged to develop certain characteristics, such as a respect for others, a desire to contribute to the world, and a spiritual awareness. In these schools, the students learn about the history and everyday application of a specific religion, and this often allows them to feel connected to their peers and their religious community.