New Jersey School District Illegally Blocks School Choice Aid From Family Attending Christian School

The ACLJ is fighting to support parental rights and school choice. We have taken on a new case before the New Jersey Commissioner of Education on behalf of a Christian family who has been denied the transportation aid that all students are entitled to under state law. Our client’s daughter attends a Christian school, and New Jersey law requires districts to provide transportation aid for students attending schools within 20 miles of their residence, including Christian schools.

In a troubling case of government overreach, the Parsippany-Troy Hills School District is unlawfully denying transportation assistance to a Christian student, despite clear evidence that she qualifies under state law and lives within the 20-mile limit. This is exactly the kind of bureaucratic obstruction that threatens religious liberty and parental rights in education, and we’ve seen it before. We have many legal battles against the Deep State in the federal bureaucracy, but there can be similar kinds of entrenched bureaucracies all over the country, at all levels of government, that fail to properly respect people’s rights.

As mentioned, state law requires the school district to provide our client transportation aid within 20 miles of their residence. Only a few weeks before the school year began, the school board denied that assistance in a letter to our client, claiming that his child was more than 20 miles from the school. Despite our client providing multiple pieces of evidence – including Google Maps data and an official survey from a licensed New Jersey surveying company showing the distance is 19.7 miles, clearly within the 20-mile limit imposed by law – the district stubbornly refuses to provide the legally mandated assistance. Our client has provided ample proof of the distance, and the school board has ignored and stonewalled him.

This case is not just about distances. It represents a disturbing pattern of government officials creating artificial barriers for families exercising their right to choose religious education. This case about distance is really about whether school districts will comply with their legal obligations to the families they are supposed to serve.

The case is now before the Commissioner of Education of New Jersey, Kevin Dehmer, to whom we have filed an administrative complaint demanding immediate provision of transportation assistance. The law is clear and we are urging the Commissioner to comply with it. We won’t stand by while government bureaucrats unlawfully obstruct religious education – the right to choose Christian education must be protected!

This case demonstrates why we must remain vigilant in defending religious liberty and parental rights in education. The ACLJ continues to fight for families facing similar religious liberty violations across America. This is a crucial test of New Jersey's commitment to fair and equal treatment of religious education. If school districts are allowed to arbitrarily interpret distance requirements and dismiss professional evidence, it creates a dangerous precedent that could be used to systematically deny services to families choosing religious education.