Join Chalkbeat Colorado’s free each day e-newsletter to get the most recent reporting from us, plus curated information from different Colorado shops, delivered to your inbox.
Two Denver-area Catholic parishes requested the U.S. Supreme Court docket on Thursday to rethink a decrease court docket determination that mentioned parish preschools taking part in Colorado’s state-funded preschool program couldn’t deny admission to LGBTQ youngsters or youngsters from LGBTQ households.
The enchantment to the Supreme Court docket comes about six weeks after the tenth Circuit Court docket of Appeals dominated towards the Catholic parishes, which had argued that enrolling youngsters from LGBTQ households would battle with their spiritual beliefs.
Gov. Jared Polis lauded the circuit court docket’s Sept. 30 ruling, which was a serious win for the state.
If the Supreme Court docket agrees to listen to the case, the justices may reply a query on the coronary heart of the case: Can non-public spiritual colleges that settle for public schooling {dollars} refuse to enroll sure children based mostly on spiritual ideas? The state and two decrease courts have mentioned no. The Supreme Court docket, which has a conservative majority, may give a distinct reply.
A spokesperson for Colorado Division of Early Childhood, which runs the state-funded preschool program, mentioned officers gained’t touch upon pending or energetic litigation.
The Catholic preschools sued the state in 2023 as Colorado launched its new common preschool program, which offers tuition-free preschool to 4-year-olds statewide. The $349 million program serves greater than 40,000 youngsters and permits households to select from public, non-public, or spiritual preschools.
St. Mary Catholic Advantage College in Littleton and Wellspring Catholic Academy in Lakewood needed to affix this system when it began, however didn’t wish to admit LGBTQ youngsters or youngsters from LGBTQ households.
They requested for an exemption from state guidelines banning discrimination based mostly on sexual orientation and gender id, however the Colorado Division of Early Childhood refused. The 2 preschools by no means joined this system, and in August 2023, the parishes that ran the preschools sued the state.
Of greater than 2,000 preschools taking part in Colorado’s common preschool program this yr, about 40 are spiritual.
Attorneys from The Becket Fund for Spiritual Liberty, which is representing the Catholic preschools within the case, have argued that Colorado is discriminating towards the preschools based mostly on faith.
“Colorado is selecting winners and losers based mostly on the content material of their spiritual beliefs,” Nick Reaves, senior counsel at Becket, mentioned in a press launch Friday.
The discharge means that Colorado’s guidelines barring discrimination have harm Catholic preschool enrollment.
Since common preschool started, “enrollment at Catholic preschools has swiftly declined, whereas two Catholic preschools have shuttered their doorways, together with one which predominantly served low-income and minority households,” the press launch mentioned.
Wellspring, one among two parish preschools concerned within the case, did shut final yr when the Okay-8 college it was a part of closed due to low enrollment and monetary issues. A Catholic preschool in Denver additionally shuttered when the Okay-8 college it was a part of — Guardian Angels Catholic College — closed on the finish of the 2024-25 college yr. On the time the Archdiocese of Denver introduced the closure of Wellspring and Guardian Angels, it additionally introduced the consolidation of two Catholic excessive colleges into one campus.
Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat protecting early childhood points and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.
