A Christian family has filed a federal lawsuit against Vermont education officials, alleging that a state law restricting public tuition assistance discriminates against students attending religious schools.
Filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont, the lawsuit challenges eligibility requirements under the state’s Town Tuition Program and Dual Enrollment Program, which the family argues violate constitutional protections for religious freedom.
The plaintiffs are the Bishop family of North Chittenden, who are nondenominational Christians, and their daughter, identified as A.B., a senior at Mount St. Joseph Academy, a Catholic high school in Rutland.
Because the Barstow Unified Union School District has no high school, it funds eligible students attending schools elsewhere. Vermont’s Dual Enrollment Program also provides free college courses for qualifying high school students, but private school students must receive town tuition assistance to participate.
The Bishops contend that the restrictions have denied their daughter access to both programs, calling themselves “the victims of Vermont’s latest recipe of religious discrimination.”
“This Court should order injunctive and declaratory relief ending Defendants’ ongoing religious discrimination so that A.B. can participate in the Town Tuition and Dual Enrollment Programs during her last year of school,” the lawsuit states.
The family is represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), whose legal counsel Jake Reed said, “Parents should be able to send their children to schools that are the best fit for them, and the First Amendment protects parents’ right to choose religious schools.”
Vermont began allowing religious schools to participate in public tuition assistance in 2022 following litigation and the Supreme Court’s ruling in Carson v. Makin, which barred Maine from excluding religious schools from a comparable funding program.
However, Republican Gov. Phil Scott signed Act 73 in July 2025, establishing new eligibility standards for independent schools receiving public tuition funding.
Under the law, schools must satisfy geographic criteria, have received public tuition payments for at least 25% of their students during the 2023-24 academic year, and meet minimum class-size requirements unless exempted. A grandfather provision allows certain previously funded students to retain assistance through graduation.
According to the complaint, A.B. received tuition assistance at Mount St. Joseph during the 2024-25 school year and qualified for continued funding. However, after temporarily transferring to Rutland High School in fall 2025 for vocational training, she lost that assistance upon returning to her Catholic school.
The school board interpreted the provision allowing funding “until they graduate” as terminating eligibility when a student transfers away, according to the lawsuit. The Bishops dispute that interpretation and are now paying their daughter’s tuition themselves.
According to VTDigger, the revised requirements also excluded 12 previously funded religious schools and some secular schools from public tuition assistance.
