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CV NEWS FEED // A Colorado federal district court ruled Feb. 24 that a Christian academy can both participate in the state-funded universal preschool program and choose not to hire people who are LGBT or who don’t share its Christian faith.
Darren Patterson Christian Academy sued the state in June 2023 after officials from the Colorado Department of Early Childhood refused to grant it a religious exemption for its hiring policies, according to the Colorado Public Radio.
The academy also wanted to keep its policies on gender-related issues, including those involving pronoun usage or bathroom access.
According to the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF,) the universal school program guarantees that 4-year-olds have access to at least 15 hours per week of preschool education that is funded by the state.
The court found that the state offered “no convincing explanation” for denying the academy funding for the program, ADF reported. Other schools have been allowed exemptions on various policies.
ADF added that the school welcomes all children regardless of religious background or family life, as long as the child meets its enrollment criterion.
ADF Senior Counsel Jeremiah Galus called the ruling “a resounding win for First Amendment rights.”
“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,” he said. “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.”
