A panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals this week revived a lawsuit filed by Orthodox Jewish families suing California education officials over the state’s policy of refusing to fund education programs specializing in religious schools.
Two religious schools and three Orthodox Jewish parents whose children have autism filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Education and the Los Angeles Unified School District last year. The parents sought to send their children to Orthodox Jewish schools and claimed that state policy barring funding for religious institutions was discriminatory.
Other states allow certain religious private schools to receive special education funding. For decades in California, these dollars could only be allocated to nonsectarian schools.
Judge Kim Wardlaw, writing for the panel, ruled that California’s requirements hinder families’ free exercise of religion. The committee’s decision sends the case back for reconsideration to a federal court that had previously dismissed it.
Attorney Eric Rassbach, who represents the families in the lawsuit, called the court’s decision “a massive victory for California’s Jewish families.”
“It has always been wrong to deny Jewish children the right to disability benefits just because they want to follow their faith. The court did the right thing by ruling against California’s blatant discrimination,” he said in a statement.
The California Department of Education argued in legal documents that by not certifying religious schools to educate children with disabilities, which would be necessary for them to receive federal funds, it was upholding the “principle that the government must be neutral towards and between religions.”
The California Department of Education declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
Special education funding can be directed to a private school if a local school board determines, on an individual basis, that it would be the best way for a particular student with a disability to receive an education, the department wrote in court documents .
Lawyers for the California Department of Education wrote in court papers that the nonsectarian requirement was necessary because without it, local district officials would wield significant power to steer students toward their preferred religious institutions.
“This is the opposite of the government’s neutrality toward religion that the Constitution requires…” the department’s lawyers wrote.
However, Wardlaw wrote in his ruling that the state failed to demonstrate that its nonsectarian requirement is “narrowly tailored to serve” the interest of religious neutrality.
Wardlaw added that this puts parents in the position of being forced to choose between an education for their disabled children and religion.
“The plaintiff parents are required to choose between the special education benefits offered by enrollment in a public school (and subsequent referral to a private, nonsectarian NPS) and education in an Orthodox Jewish setting,” a- she writes.
Last year, a U.S. district judge dismissed the case and denied a request for a preliminary injunction to stop the state from enforcing the rule.
Wardlaw upheld the lower court’s decision to dismiss claims by Shalhevet High School and Samuel A. Fryer Yavneh Hebrew Academy because neither school could meet the requirements necessary to be certified to educate students with special needs , according to the decision.
Teach Coalition, a group that helps secure government funding for Jewish day schools, hailed the decision as a major victory for religious freedom.
“This is a game-changing moment for our community and for faith-based families of children with disabilities – not only requiring change in the state of California, but with implications nationwide,” said said Maury Litwack, executive director and founder of Teach Coalition, in a statement.
