SCASD settles lawsuit with parochial students who were barred from extracurriculars
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (WTAJ) —The United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania has confirmed that the State College Area School District has settled a lawsuit claiming that it discriminated against children from parochial schools.
Court documents show that the district and the board of directors were being sued over accusations that extracurricular activities and education programs provided by the school to students, homeschool students and charter school students were not open to students from parochial schools.
However, on June 10, the district agreed to settle with the students and guardians who were suing. Along with the announcement, court documents showed that several things were agreed upon and will be in place moving forward.
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The district agreed to make extracurricular activities and programs available to all eligible students in the district while also imposing student selection criteria. However, parochial students whose schools sponsor interscholastic sports will not be eligible to participate in the same sports at the State College Area School District.
Similarly, the same rules will apply to any after-school program or club. If the parochial school offers the program itself or one of a similar nature, then the student will only be eligible for the one offered by the parochial school.
WTAJ reached out to the State College Area School District for comment on the settlement, and the school solicitor gave the following in response.
'In the context of the issue of whether students who reside in the school district and attend parochial schools can participate in school district sponsored sports activities and teams, the school district had always believed that the school district could not permit such participation because, among other reasons, PIAA disfavored it. Through the litigation, the school district determined that this is not always the case. Because PIAA's position on this subject is not clear, the Consent Order provides essentially that PIAA must first approve of parochial school student participation on school district sports teams before there is any obligation on the part of the school district to permit the participation,' Scott Etter said.
They also noted that when it comes to sports, if the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) declares a parochial student ineligible, then the school may also declare them ineligible without violating the agreement.
The court also ordered the school district in the next 30 days to pay the 'agreed upon sum' and that the case is now closed.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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