April 21, 2025 (Nationwide) — One year ago, the Sikh Coalition launched our landmark study, Where Are You Really From?: A National Sikh School Climate Report (WAYRF). This effort was built on our 2023 Sikh Student Survey, which captured the experiences of nearly 2,000 Sikh youth across the country with school bullying, curricula, policy inclusivity, and more. 

In light of the many conclusions indicating that Sikh students continue to face bullying behavior at alarmingly high rates, Sikh Coalition staff sprung into action to rally support from the sangat in the leveraging of this report. Sikh Coalition staff shared the report across the country in multiple ways, including a National Day of Action where staff and board members tabled at gurdwaras across 11 states. We also held two virtual briefings for Sikh educators and a webinar for parents and sangat members to learn about how to testify at their local school board meetings. 

Legal Team Helps With Increase in Bullying Cases 

Over the past year, the Sikh Coalition fielded an increased number of bullying cases—likely in part due to community outreach around WAYRF. In one case, a young Singh in California faced increased bullying when he started 9th grade: physical assaults often left him with a bloody nose and cut mouth, plus the psychological impact of offensive comments about his Sikhi and ethnicity. While the boy’s school was not responsive to his parents’ outreach, they did agree to a meeting with the Sikh Coalition’s attorneys—and since then have agreed to a safety plan for the student and a series of training sessions for their staff last November.

This is just one example of the bullying casework that the Sikh Coalition fields on a regular basis. While we do not share the details of much of this work in order to protect the minors involved, we have since dealt with additional cases in New Jersey, Texas, and New York. Additionally, we continue to engage with schools and districts across the nation—from Massachusetts to New Jersey to California—regarding Sikh students’ rights to maintain their kirpans.

Legislation and Policy Support 

Our team also worked hard in sharing WAYRF at all levels of government. We briefed the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Education (DOE) on the report’s findings, as well as city and state-level officials in New York, California, and Colorado. Additionally, we provided avenues for sangat members to take action.

At the federal level, the Sikh Coalition moved to support the passage of the Safe Schools Improvement Act, a key recommendation in WAYRF. Last November, Sikh Coalition staff met with multiple congressional offices of both parties about the bill, and sangat members used our free advocacy tool to send messages to their members of Congress requesting that they co-sponsor it. The bill has since been reintroduced in the 119th Congress, where we were proud to once again endorse it. Take action here.

In terms of state-level advocacy, 48 of our nation’s 50 states do not have an active statewide anti-bullying task force. These task forces can be a ‘shortcut’ to achieving many of WAYRF’s policy recommendations for state governments (including departments and boards of education, legislatures, and more local bodies). We created 50 unique advocacy tools so that sangat members in every state could contact their state legislators and encourage the creation or re-activation of a task force. 

Our Ongoing Education Work

As the policy and political landscape changed in 2025, the Sikh Coalition has continued to adapt our education work to the needs of the moment: In late 2024, Alabama became the 20th state to include Sikhi in social studies standards. We continue to work on curricula and state standards-related bills in New York, Michigan, Washington, and Oklahoma. Learn more about this work here.
Our commitment to fighting against harmful narratives has led us to oppose “American Birthright,” a model state standards document that calls for students to learn about “Sikh terror.” You can take action against American Birthright today, and read our open letter signed by more than 50 Sikh organizations SSAs, gurdwarae, and Sikh academics.
We produced a new resource for Sikh teachers, parents, and others who want to defend inclusive education in our nation’s schools: A “Dear Colleague” letter and simple summary document to explain civil rights law and the legality of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) programs and projects within our education system. Learn more about this resource here.

As always, the Sikh Coalition urges you to practice your faith fearlessly. 

March 27, 2025 (Nationwide) – With Vaisakhi just a few weeks away, the Sikh Coalition is excited to highlight Sikh Coalition Senior Fellow Simran Jeet Singh’s new children’s book, A Vaisakhi to Remember, that was released on March 11, 2025. The picture book is beautifully illustrated by Japneet Kaur and is accompanied by a lesson plan that was created by the Sikh Coalition’s education team. 

The book tells the story of a young girl who moves with her Sikh family from their village in India to a city on the other side of the world. She deeply misses her life before the move but learns to find connection in preparation and celebration of the joyous Sikh spring harvest holiday of Vaisakhi. 

In partnership with Singh and Penguin Random House, the Sikh Coalition created a lesson plan where students will have the opportunity to learn about Punjabi terms, the role of community, and how traditions are formed and sustained, even when immigrating to a new home. We also encourage all parents of Sikh children to reach out to their teachers and suggest books like A Vaisakhi to Remember to read aloud in class along with using the lesson plan for students to engage with the material. 

“Stories with strong messages about community and connection are vital,” said Upneet Kaur. “It is also heartening for children to see themselves reflected in the stories they hear. The visibility from books like A Vaisakhi to Remember benefits not just Sikh students, but their classmates as well.”

On April 9, the Sikh Coalition will host Simran Jeet Singh and Japneet Kaur for an Instagram Live conversation about the importance of storytelling that is representative and celebratory of the community. As a final note, the Sikh Coalition is aware that sangat members following the Trump Administration’s “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI) policies, particularly in educational environments, may have concerns about what is and is not permitted in public schools. To be clear, reading a book about Vaisakhi or using our lesson plan should not be prohibited by any anti-DEI policies at your child’s school. Earlier this week, the Sikh Coalition put out a “Dear Colleague” letter to better explain these issues, which we encourage Sikh parents and teachers to review. You can also learn more about how DEI efforts benefit the Sikh community here, and find more books with Sikh characters and stories via our Sikh Coalition Community Library. 

As always, the Sikh Coalition urges you to practice your faith fearlessly.

December 17, 2024 (Montgomery, AL) — After a full year of advocacy efforts, the Alabama State Board of Education has adopted new social studies standards that will include Sikhi as a part of their K-12 curriculum. We are especially proud to share this news because Alabama is now the 20th state to add Sikhi into their standards—a major milestone for our 15-year campaign! 

This significant victory resulted from work by the Sikh Coalition undertaken alongside the Alabama sangat, which includes: 

November 2023: Initiated dialogue with the Alabama Department of Education (ADE).
December 2023: Sent a recorded Sikh Awareness Presentation for the Social Studies Standards Review Committee.
August 2024: Sikhi was included in the proposed draft of 2024 Social Studies Standards in Grade 8 World History & Geography.
November 2024: Sikhi was added to Grades 9-12 Human Geography as a result of additional communication and advocacy.
November 2024: Submitted an additional letter to the ADE advocating for further inclusion of Sikhi.
November 2024: Facilitated a gurdwara letter of support signed by all three gurdwaras in Alabama.
“After a year of engagement with the Alabama Department of Education and the Alabama sangat, we are thrilled for Alabama to become the 20th one to include Sikhi in their social studies curriculum,” said Savleen Singh, Sikh Coalition Senior Education Manager. “While we still have plenty of work to do around the country, ensuring that Sikhi can be taught in American public schools is one of the many ways that we aim to create safer and more inclusive classrooms for Sikh youth and a generational shift in Sikh awareness among all students.”

Local adoption and implementation of these standards will begin in the 2026-2027 school year. The Sikh Coalition will continue to work closely with ADE during this process. 

Because of the Sikh Coalition’s efforts to ensure Sikh inclusion in state social studies standards across the country, more than 26 million students from coast to coast have the possibility of a more inclusive and holistic education. We look forward to adding even more states to this list in the months and years ahead through continued advocacy alongside sangats.

The victories in our state standards, past, present, and future take significant resources, and they would not be possible without the dasvandh of sangat members like you. Donate today to continue to add Sikhi into social studies standards across the country in 2025 and beyond.

As always, the Sikh Coalition urges you to practice your faith fearlessly.

Dear Supporter Ji,

This is Rucha Kaur, Managing Director of Education and Community Development at the Sikh Coalition. I hope this message finds you, your family, and your sangat well. 

As we move further into our end-of-year fundraising season, I’ve been reflecting on our work from the past 12 months. After collecting all the Sikh Student Surveys last year, I was honored to serve as the co-author of our landmark study published this April: Where Are You Really From: A National Sikh School Climate Report (WAYRF). This essential resource reflects on the experiences of nearly 2,000 Sikh youth across the country with school bullying.

The results were dire, showing that Sikh students continue to be bullied at alarmingly high rates. At the same time, WAYRF also provided us with a path forward—real actions to take to benefit our young Singhs and Kaurs. Since the launch of the report, the Sikh Coalition has: 

Created resources for parents to use if their child is being bullied, 
Shared the report, including its key takeaways and 50+ policy recommendations, with government officials and the sangat throughout many days of action across the country,
Conducted trainings and webinars on the report’s findings for educators and parents, and 
Provided tools for sangat and allies to support critical legislation at the state and federal level.
This is just the beginning of our work with this report as we continue to mobilize the

 sangat to make sure our youth feel safe and seen in their schools. All of these efforts, however, take significant resources—and to that end, we hope that we can count on your investment to ensure that the findings and recommendations in this report reach every school with a Sikh student across the country. 

Together, we will continue to make sure our youth are able to freely celebrate their faith in their classrooms. 

Chardi Kala, 

Rucha Kaur

Managing Director of Education and Community Development

The Sikh Coalition

October 9, 2024 (Nationwide)— As we recognize October as National Bullying Prevention Month, the Sikh Coalition wants to remind the sangat about the tools and resources available that have come out of our latest landmark product: Where Are You Really From?: A Sikh School Climate Report (WAYRF). 

By way of reminder, the Sikh Coalition launched Where Are You Really From? in April 2024, with findings based on the results of a survey completed by more than 2,000 U.S.-based Sikh students ages 9 to 18. The report found that nearly eight in ten (78 percent) Sikh students reported experiencing at least one incident that qualifies as bullying at school. More troubling, almost half (46 percent) of those students said that they have “never” or “almost never” reported a bullying incident, and 63 percent said that bullying in the presence of school staff went unaddressed. 

The findings of our report can’t be clearer: It is essential that we do more to make sure our youth feel safe and seen in their schools. See below for resources for you to take action and combat bullying. 

Step-by-Step Guide to Addressing Bullying

If you are concerned that your child is being bullied, know that there are many options between hoping the problem goes away on its own and filing a major lawsuit. Our step-by-step guide to navigating a bullying situation, published alongside WAYRF, helps identify what parents can do on their own and how the Sikh Coalition can help along the way.

Webinar Recording About Local Advocacy for Parents and Sangat 

On September 14, Sikh Coalition hosted a webinar to teach the sangat how to testify at school board meetings to combat bullying of Sikh youth. If you did not have a chance to attend the webinar, you can learn about the findings and recommendations from WAYRF as well as the steps to take to attend a school board meeting here. 

Campaigns to Combat Bullying on the Federal and State Level 

Students, parents, and other sangat members can help advocate against bullying on the federal level by Supporting the Safe Schools Improvement Act and at the state level by contacting your elected state officials about an anti-bullying taskforce. Learn more and take action here under the ‘Get Involved’ tab.

Updated Sikh Awareness Presentation and other Resources

Sikh Awareness Presentations are a critical way to share essential information about Sikhs and Sikhi with not just classrooms, but also private employers, interfaith groups, government agencies, and more. The Sikh Coalition has recently updated and expanded our Sikh Awareness Presentation deck, with new designs and additional scripting. View the deck here, and find all of our other educational resources (including lesson plans and more) here.

As always, the Sikh Coalition urges you to practice your faith fearlessly.

September 5, 2024 (Nationwide) — As students go back to school, the Sikh Coalition continues to take action on the recommendations laid out in Where Are You Really From?: A National Sikh School Climate Report.  Now, we urge sangat members to join us in speaking up at the local, state, and/or federal levels for safer and more inclusive schools. 

By way of reminder, the Sikh Coalition launched Where Are You Really From? in April 2024, with findings based on the results of a survey completed by more than 2,000 U.S.-based Sikh students ages 9 to 18. The report found eight in ten (78 percent) Sikh students reported experiencing at least one incident that qualifies as bullying at school. More troubling, almost half (46 percent) of those students said that they have “never” or “almost never” reported a bullying incident and that 63 percent said that bullying in the presence of school staff went unaddressed. 

The findings of our report can’t be clearer: It is essential that we do more to make sure our youth feel safe and seen in their schools. Accordingly, to mark the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, we have created a wide range of ways that students, parents, and sangat members can help advocate towards this goal! 

Get Involved at the Federal Level: Support the Safe Schools Improvement Act

The Sikh Coalition is supporting the passage of the Safe Schools Improvement Act (S.3105/H.R.6031). This bipartisan legislation requires school districts in states that receive Elementary and Secondary Education Act funds to adopt codes of conduct to specifically prohibit bullying and harassment, including on the basis of religion and other protected classes; it also requires that states report data on bullying and harassment to the Department of Education to better address bullying. The Safe Schools Improvement Act is a key recommendation included in WAYRF. 

To take action on this piece of federal legislation, simply click here and fill in your information to send a pre-written letter to your elected officials in the House of Representatives and Senate either thanking them for supporting this bill or urging them to do so. 

Get Involved at the State Level: Contact Your State Elected Officials about an Anti-Bullying Task Force 

Per the Sikh Coalition’s research, 48 of our nation’s 50 states do not have a current statewide task force to combat bullying. The Sikh Coalition believes task forces that are appropriately inclusive of students, parents, educators, administrators, scholars, and others from different backgrounds and communities can perform essential services like ensuring that state’s anti-bullying laws are modern and comprehensive, auditing how those laws are being implemented at the city and school-district levels, and identifying or even creating resources that can help prevent bullying. In summary, they are ‘shortcut’ to ensuring that many of the state-level recommendations included in WAYRF can be more easily implemented.

Learn if your state has an anti-bullying task force here via our clickable map tool. Your state page will provide you with an advocacy tool that allows you to send a pre-written and tailored letter to your state legislators about this issue; it will also show you other information about the Sikh Coalition’s education work in your state.

Get Involved at the Local Level: Speak at Your School Board Meeting

The Sikh Coalition encourages sangat members who wish to get involved at the local level to share insights and recommendations from WAYRF directly with their local school boards and elected officials. So much about our children’s education and school policies is determined at the local level, and there is no better way to make your voice heard than speaking up in public forums and making sure our community is seen by those who have the power to effect policy change.

As always, the Sikh Coalition urges you to practice your faith fearlessly.

August 28, 2024 (New York, NY) — The Sikh Coalition continues to help teachers, parents and students prepare to go back to school with free educational resources, including guidance from our latest landmark product: Where Are You Really From?: A Sikh School Climate Report (WAYRF).

By way of reminder, the Sikh Coalition launched Where Are You Really From? in April 2024, with findings based on the results of a survey completed by more than 2,000 U.S.-based Sikh students ages 9 to 18. The report found eight in ten (78 percent) Sikh students reported experiencing at least one incident that qualifies as bullying at school. More troubling, almost half (46 percent) of those students said that they have “never” or “almost never” reported a bullying incident and that 63 percent said that bullying in the presence of school staff went unaddressed. 

The findings of our report can’t be clearer: It is essential that we do more to make sure our youth feel safe and seen in their schools. Accordingly, the Sikh Coalition has put together multiple webinars and resources to help us achieve that goal together: 

Webinar for Sikh Educators: Final Session Tomorrow! 

The Sikh Coalition has invited Sikh educators to explore key findings in WAYRF, share our resources, and discuss actionable steps that educators can take to create safer and more supportive learning environments for Sikh youth in classrooms across America. If you are a Sikh educator and want to join our final webinar tomorrow, RSVP here.

Webinar About Local Advocacy for Parents and Sangat

All sangat members are invited to join a webinar to discuss how parents and families of children in public K-12 schools can advocate for your children or children in your local sangat by attending your local school board meetings to share insights and recommendations from the WAYRF report. The webinar will take place on September 14 at 4 PM ET / 1 PM PT. RSVP here.

Step-by-Step Guide to Addressing Bullying

If you are concerned that your child is being bullied, know that there are many options between doing nothing and filing a serious lawsuit. Our step-by-step guide to navigating a bullying situation, published alongside WAYRF, helps identify what parents can do on their own and how the Sikh Coalition can help along the way.

Updated Sikh Awareness Presentation

Sikh Awareness Presentations are a critical way to share essential information about Sikhs and Sikhi with not just classrooms, but also private employers, interfaith groups, government agencies, and more. The Sikh Coalition has recently updated and expanded our Sikh Awareness Presentation deck, with new designs and additional scripting. View the deck here.

Additional Back to School Resources

Our updated Back to School Toolkit includes the above mentioned Sikh awareness presentation for parents, as well as anti-bullying brochures, lesson plans, Know Your Rights materials, accommodation letters for articles of faith, and more resources that will help increase knowledge among students, teachers, and administrators, as well as protect Sikh children if problems arise at school. 

As always, the Sikh Coalition urges you to practice your faith fearlessly.

May 13, 2024 (Nationwide) — Since the launch of “Where Are You Really From?” A National Sikh School Climate Report last month, the Sikh Coalition has been hard at work to share the findings of our landmark bullying study with sangats and others across the country.

Over the past several weekends, the Sikh Coalition has tabled at gurdwaras in Fremont, San Jose, and West Sacramento, California; Denver, Colorado; Indianapolis, Indiana; Palatine, Illinois; Silver Spring, Maryland; Rochester Hills, Michigan; Durham, North Carolina; Lawrenceville, New Jersey; Richmond Hill, New York; Richfield, Ohio; Austin and Houston, Texas; and Kent, Washington. At these engagements, we have enjoyed the opportunity to share Where Are You Really From? (WAYRF) with parents and children, as well as explain our policy recommendations, speak about our broader education work, and field questions about bullying.

If you are interested in inviting a Sikh Coalition staffer to your gurdwara to speak about our bullying research, advocacy, and legal work—or if you yourself would like to table and hand out resources—please email [email protected] for more information. In the weeks ahead, we also look forward to sharing more about how parents and sangat members can get involved in sharing WAYRF and its conclusions with educators and policymakers. From talking to your child’s teacher to speaking before your local school board, sign up here to learn how you can engage in these important efforts!

In addition to our efforts to connect with sangat, we continue to use WAYRF as an opportunity to meaningfully engage policymakers and allies. The Sikh Coalition’s advocacy team has already shared the report’s recommendations with more than 60 U.S. congressional offices. Our education team has also ensured that the findings are available to a wide variety of audiences across the nation, from being included on New York City’s “Respect for All’ anti-bullying resource website to a presentation by Senior Education Manager Upneet Kaur to the Honesty for Ohio Education Coalition, which includes Buckeye state organizations, state board members, and educators.  

Finally, last week, Sikh Coalition Legal Director Giselle Klapper, Senior Staff Attorney Sahel Kaur, and Federal Policy Manager Mannirmal Kaur traveled to Washington, DC, to brief attorneys and other civil servants from the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division on WAYRF’s policy recommendations and our experiences from more than 20 years of taking severe bullying cases. We look forward to continued engagement with federal agencies about how they can do more to prevent and address bias-based bullying.

As always, the Sikh Coalition urges you to practice your faith fearlessly.

April 18, 2024 (New York, NY) — Today, the Sikh Coalition is proud to launch our newest report: “Where Are You Really From?” A National Sikh School Climate Report. This report serves as a comprehensive study of bullying and other issues faced by Sikh students, building upon our 2014 report Go Home, Terrorist. 

From February through March of 2023, more than 2,000 U.S.-based Sikh students ages 9 to 18 completed the Sikh Student Survey. The survey asked questions about bullying, their interactions with both peers and staff, their knowledge of bullying reporting procedures, the microaggressions they face, and whether classroom policies and conversations allow them to not just practice their faith freely, but share and celebrate it. After analyzing this survey data, the Sikh Coalition—along with our California-based academic colleagues, research partner Dr. Kavita Kaur Atwal and research consultant Dr. Erin Knight—have emerged with a comprehensive and current sense of school climate for Sikh youth across the country. 

An in-depth analysis of the data is available in the digital copy of Where Are You Really From? (WAYRF) and online at thesikh.co/WAYRF. Key findings include: 

Sikh students continue to be bullied at alarmingly high rates, yet don’t always describe what they experience as bullying. 78% of students reported experiencing behavior that qualifies as bullying, but only 49% said they were bullied.
Sikh male students with religious head coverings are highly likely to be bullied. 77% of Sikh male students with dastaars or patkas reported being bullied at least once, and the data further showed that male Sikh students are generally facing higher rates of discrimination and more violent forms of bullying in schools.
Sikh students are bullied by school staff. A shocking 11% of Sikh students reported being bullied by or facing discrimination from the very adults charged with educating and protecting them.
Sikh students somewhat understand how to report bullying, but often face inaction when they do. 74% of Sikh students said they know how to report bullying at their school, but 46% report “never” or “almost never” doing so—perhaps because 63% said that teachers or staff “almost never” or “never” intervened when bullying happened in front of them. 
Sikh students are less safe in less inclusive schools. When asked about inclusion of Sikhi in educational materials and school policies, more than 50% of Sikh students reported that their school is “not at all” inclusive of their religion. Data also indicate that less inclusivity significantly predicts more bullying incidents.
Sikh students who are bullied face poorer mental health outcomes. Data shows that bullying incidents (actual and perceived) are significantly related to higher scores on tests that measure a depressed mood. 
Sikh students face high rates of microaggressions, but may not recognize them as bullying. 82% of Sikh students reported experiencing at least one microaggression, but the majority who did so did not self-report being bullied; conversely, 73% of students who said they were never bullied reported at least one microaggression. Even if Sikh students don’t consider microaggressions to be bullying, however, those who faced higher levels of microaggressions also reported worse mental health outcomes.
“Our findings in Where Are You Really From? validate years of our work alongside Sikh students, parents, and community members across the nation,” said Dr. Rucha Kaur, Sikh Coalition’s Community Development Director and principal author of WAYRF. “We know that our youth experience bullying; now, we have the data to show the depth of the problem—and to back up a wide range of solutions to make our schools safer and more inclusive for all students. With this report as our latest tool, we will continue to fight for Sikh students to feel safe and seen in their educational environments.”

Based on our study, the Sikh Coalition has developed new recommendations for federal and state officials, state and local education officials, and school administrators and educators that are outlined in WAYRF. Additionally, the report includes an updated step-by-step guide for parents who are concerned that their child is facing bullying, as well as a glossary of terms related to Sikhi for non-community member audiences.

To read the report in its entirety and view our other education resources, visit thesikh.co/WAYRF. Additionally, you can learn more about the report by joining our Sikh Coalition Live via Instagram with Dr. Kaur and Dr. Atwal on Thursday, April 25, at 3:30 PM ET. In the weeks ahead, we look forward to sharing more about how parents and sangat members can get involved in sharing WAYRF and its conclusions with educators and policymakers.

As always, the Sikh Coalition urges you to practice your faith fearlessly.