Religious Rights Foundation of PA, et al. v. State College Area School District, et al., Case No. 4:23-cv-01144 (M.D. Pa, June 10, 2025) (A federal court’s conclusion that the exclusion of parochial school students from participation in school districts’ interscholastic athletics violates the Free Exercise Clause of the 1st Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment results in consent order to permit such participation).
Religious Rights Foundation of PA, et al. v. Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, Case No. 4:25-cv-01406 (M.D. Pa., July 29, 2025).
SUMMARY
Several parents of parochial school students who resided within the State College Area School District (School District) requested that their children be permitted to engage in extracurricular and co-cocurricular activities in the School District. The School District denied the requests, stating that to do so would go contravene a “longstanding practice of not having private school students participate,” and that “if we allow private school students to take part, we could be taking away opportunities from [State College] students.” In July 2023, the parents and the Religious Rights Foundation of Pennsylvania filed a federal suit against the School District in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. The premise of the suit was that, because the School District permitted home-schooled students and charter school students to participate in extracurricular activities (as required by the Public School Code and the Charter School Law), the plaintiffs alleged that parochial students were excluded from similar participation on the basis of their religious exercise.
In December 2023, the federal court denied the School District’s motion to dismiss the complaint. The court held that the School District’s practice of excluding parochial students presented cognizable claims of violations of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Regarding the claim that State College and its Board violated the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the court concluded that the complaint sufficiently alleged that the plaintiffs would have to choose between their religious beliefs and extracurricular participation. The court said: “denying access to the public benefit of participation in extracurricular activities because of a child’s religiously motivated enrollment in parochial school offends the Free Exercise Clause if that denial is discriminatory.” Noting that the School District permitted homeschooled and charter-schooled students’ participation in activities, the court reasoned that the practice impermissibly burdened the plaintiff-parents’ religious exercise. For the same reason, the court concluded that the allegations presented a violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause also survived the motion to dismiss for the same reasons.
In January 2025, the School District agreed to the court’s entry of a Consent Order by which the School District agreed to permit parochial students, residing within the School District, to participate in extracurricular and co-curricular activities to the same extent offered to homeschooled and charter school students. The order provides that if the parochial school students have interscholastic athletic sports at their parochial schools, they will not be eligible to participate in those same sports in the school district.
On July 29, 2025, a similar suit was filed in the same federal court by the Religious Rights Foundation of Pennsylvania and several parents of parochial school students against the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA), presenting the same claims as were the subject of the State College Area School District suit. The complaint asserts that the PIAA does not permit students enrolled in parochial schools to participate in interscholastic athletic activities sponsored by their resident school districts, which the plaintiffs contend violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Practical Advice
The federal court’s pretrial decision in the State College Area School District suit concluded that the exclusion of parochial school students from participation in the school district’s interscholastic sports, while permitting such participation by homeschooled and charter school students, violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. While that decision is not binding in other courts, the decision has persuasive value that could be adopted by other courts in similar challenges. Further, the reasoning of the court’s decision likely will yield a similar result in the recent suit filed against the PIAA to challenge the same general rule and have a state-wide impact.
