Also known as: private schools · independent school · non-public school
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A school maintained by private individuals, religious organizations, or corporations, funded at least in part by tuition or fees, and open only to pupils selected and admitted based on religious affiliations or other particular qualifications.
State officials denied a tuition subsidy to Faith Academy, a religious private school, while approving the same subsidy for nonreligious private schools in the same program. Parents of enrolled students sued, claiming the exclusion violated free exercise protections. The court held that the state could not disqualify the religious school solely on the basis of its religious character when the funding was generally available.
Phoebe Park sought to enroll her daughter at Beacon Academy, a private school offering specialized instruction, after the local public school declined to accommodate the child's learning needs. State officials attempted to block the enrollment under a compulsory attendance statute. The court recognized that the parental decision to select the private school fell within protected liberty interests.
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Perry Pratt enrolled his son at Horizon Private School, which offered German-language history courses meeting state standards. State regulators banned all non-English instruction at both public and private schools. The court invalidated the ban as applied to the private school because it interfered with parental authority over the child's education.
Paige Porter lived with her grandchildren in a single-family home and enrolled them at Crestwood Private School. City zoning officials cited the household for violating an ordinance limiting occupancy to nuclear families. The court struck down the ordinance, noting that the right to direct children's education at a private school is part of protected family liberty.
Penelope Price taught at Summit Private School under a one-year contract that the school declined to renew. She sued claiming a property interest in continued employment. The court held that the private school's decision did not implicate constitutional due process protections because no state-created entitlement existed.
Phuong Pham received a state tuition voucher and used it at Grace Academy, a religious private school. Opponents argued the program violated the establishment clause because most participating families chose religious schools. The court upheld the program because it was neutral and the aid reached the school through independent parental choice.
No. When a state offers funding for private education, the Free Exercise Clause requires religious private schools to receive the same treatment as nonreligious private schools. Equal inclusion of religious schools in a neutral program does not violate the Establishment Clause.
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Yes. The liberty protected by the Due Process Clause includes the right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children, which encompasses the choice to enroll a child in a private school rather than a public school.
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No. A blanket prohibition on instruction in languages other than English at private schools violates the parental liberty interest in directing a child's education that is protected by the Due Process Clause.
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No. Absent a state statute or rule creating an entitlement to continued employment, a teacher at a private school has no constitutionally protected property interest in reemployment.
…birth and raising of a child are of a far greater degree of significance and personal intimacy than the right to send a child to private school protected in Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U. S. 510 (1925), or the right to teach a foreign language protected in Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U. S. 390 (1923)." Abele v. Markle , 351 F.…