Colorado court fully protects Christian academy’s ability to receive funding for preschool

DENVER – A Colorado federal district court ruled Monday to fully protect Darren Patterson Christian Academy’s ability to participate in Colorado’s universal preschool program while maintaining its religious beliefs. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys represent the school in its legal challenge against Colorado officials who threatened access to otherwise available public funding simply because the school aligns its policies with its religious beliefs and only hires employees who share its faith.

ADF attorneys filed the lawsuit in June 2023 against state officials for demanding the school surrender its religious beliefs and exercise to participate in the state’s program, which guarantees every four-year-old in the state at least 15 hours per week of state-funded preschool services for the school year.

“The government can’t force religious schools to abandon their beliefs—and how they exercise those beliefs—to participate in a public benefit program that everyone else can access,” said ADF Senior Counsel Jeremiah Galus. “The U.S. Supreme Court has reaffirmed this constitutional principle multiple times, and the district court has now fully followed up on its previous decision to safeguard this right for religious schools in Colorado. Darren Patterson Christian Academy has been serving Chaffee County families for over 40 years. Yet Colorado officials tried to force it to abandon its religious beliefs—the very reason parents choose to send their kids to the school—to receive critical state funding. The court’s ruling is a resounding win for First Amendment rights.”

“The Department has provided exemptions to others—or expressed a willingness to do so—while denying an exemption for [Darren Patterson Christian Academy],” the court wrote in its opinion in Darren Patterson Christian Academy v. Roy. Because Colorado “offered no convincing explanation” for the unequal treatment, the court ruled that the state could not exclude or otherwise penalize the school for adhering to its religious beliefs and practices.

The school, located in Buena Vista, welcomes all families and children—accepting any child who meets its enrollment criteria regardless of the religious beliefs or background of the child or the child’s family. It applied for and obtained approval to participate in Colorado’s new universal preschool program. However, the Colorado Department of Early Childhood then mandated that, for the school to participate in the program and receive critical state funding, it must hire employees who do not share its faith and alter internal rules and policies that are based on the school’s religious beliefs about sexuality and gender—including those that relate to restroom usage, pronouns, dress codes, and student housing during expeditions and field trips.

• Pronunciation guide: Galus (GAL’-us)

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.

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