A bill requiring a moment of silence at the start of each school day is a step closer to becoming law.

Senate Bill 19 passed the full Senate today with bipartisan support.

Currently in Kentucky, any public school teacher may choose to start the school day with a moment of silence or reflection.

This bill makes it a requirement.

Republican State Senator Rick Girdler of Somerset sponsors the bill and he insists it has no connection to religion.

More about this in tonight's legisla live update.

This bill, it doesn't do what some fear does.

It don't have any connections to any religious organizations in ah, whether it's Muslim Christianity is Islam or ah, the Jewish faith.

It basically just says it changes one word a little bit from May to shall.

A Kentucky law already allows that if teachers or schools wish to have these moments of silence, they can.

And the Constitution says that if students wish to engage in prayer or sort of quiet speech, that they can do that.

And so I worry here that what we're doing is just placing another burden on our teachers in our in our school systems.

What do we do about if the kindergartners won't sit quietly for the 2 minutes or the teacher can't because of some logistical issue at the outset of the day?

Senate Bill 19 passed with 31 yes votes and six no votes.

It now heads to the House, where a similar bill was passed during the previous two legislative sessions.