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A panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals this week ruled on a lawsuit filed by Orthodox Jewish families against California education officials over the state’s policy of denying funding to special education programs in religious schools. has been restarted.
Two religious schools and three Orthodox Jewish parents of children with autism filed a lawsuit last year against the California Department of Education and the Los Angeles Unified School District. Parents sought to send their children to Orthodox Jewish schools and argued that state policies prohibiting funding for religious institutions were discriminatory.
In other states, certain religious private schools are allowed to receive special education funds. For decades in California, that money was only allowed to go to nonsectarian schools.
Judge Kim Wardlow, writing for the panel, ruled that California’s requirements prevent families from freely practicing their religion. The panel’s decision will send the case back to the federal court where it was previously dismissed for a new trial.
Eric Rasbach, an attorney representing the families in the lawsuit, called the court’s decision “a huge victory for California’s Jewish families.”
“It was always wrong to cut Jewish children off from receiving disability benefits just because they wanted to protect their faith. The court ruled against California’s bald-face discrimination and did the right thing. ” he said in a statement.
In a legal filing, the California Department of Education said that by not accrediting religious schools that educate children with disabilities, which is required to receive federal funding, “the government is He argued that this would be in keeping with the “principle of neutrality between religions.”
The California Department of Education declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
Special education funds will be directed to private schools if local school boards determine on a case-by-case basis that that is the best way for a student with a particular disability to receive an education, the department said in court documents. .
Lawyers for the California Department of Education argue in court papers that the requirement is necessary because without the nonsectarian requirement, local district officials would exercise greater power to direct students to the religious institutions of their choice. He said it was.
“This runs counter to the government’s neutrality toward religion as required by the Constitution…” the department’s lawyers wrote.
But Wardlaw said in his ruling that the state failed to show that the nonsectarian requirement was “strictly tailored to serve” the interests of religious neutrality.
Wardlow added that the policy puts parents in the position of having to choose between their disabled child’s education and religion.
“Parent plaintiffs must choose between special education benefits available through public school enrollment (and subsequent referral to nonsectarian, nonpublic schools) and education in an Orthodox Jewish setting. “There is,” she wrote.
A U.S. district judge last year dismissed the case and denied a request for a preliminary injunction to prevent the state from enforcing the rule.
According to the ruling, Mr. Wardlaw claimed against Shalhevet High School and Samuel A. Fryer Yavneh Hebrew Academy that neither school could meet the requirements for certification to educate students with special needs. The court upheld the lower court’s decision to dismiss the case because it could not be done.
The Teach Coalition, a group that helps secure government funding for Jewish daycare centers, hailed the ruling as a major victory for religious freedom.
“This is a game-changing moment for our community and for religious families of children with disabilities. It not only calls for change in California, but has national implications.” Teach Coalition Maury Litwak, CEO and founder of , said in a statement.
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