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Loffman v. California Dept. of Education (9th Cir.)

Children at school

Notre Dame Religious Liberty Clinic Files Amicus Brief Supporting Jewish Schools’ Right to Participate in Program to Serve Children With Disabilities

 

The Notre Dame Religious Liberty Clinic filed an amicus brief on behalf of the California Catholic Conference (CCC) in support of three Jewish families whose children with disabilities seek to receive special education services at Jewish schools with the aid of generally available public funds. The funding has been denied by the California Department of Education solely because the schools are religious.

The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) allows for states to provide funding to nonpublic schools to help provide special education services for children with disabilities if the student’s public school cannot meet her needs. IDEA does not require that schools providing these services be secular; yet California has declared they must be “nonsectarian” to participate. The First Amendment prohibits this blatant discrimination against religious schools. Indeed, the Supreme Court has made clear that States may not fund certain private institutions but not others because they are religious.

Our brief explains that excluding religious schools from California’s IDEA program violates the basic tenets of First Amendment law. The brief also details the lengthy and pernicious history of discrimination against religious minorities such as Catholics and Jews that laws like this reflect. It presents the shameful legacy of hatred and bigotry against religious minorities that the exclusion of “sectarian” schools reflects and urges that it is “long past time” for states to stop denying people of faith the freedom to participate fully in our political community.

The official voice of the Catholic community in California’s public policy arena, the CCC also opposes all efforts to discriminate against, demean, and exclude people of any faith from full participation in public life.

Our Clinic is proud to present their voice in this critical case.

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