State College Area School District (SCASD) recently underwent a change in its policy regarding parochial school students’ participation in extracurricular activities.
In May 2023, two students who reside within school district limits but attend parochial schools requested to participate in SCASD extracurriculars. The student’s request was denied, and the families decided to take action. In June 2025, the two parties reached an agreement. This agreement will change the opportunities of both SCASD and parochial school students.
This all began with SCASD’s policy that allows both charter and homeschooled students to participate in extracurriculars. When the two students from parochial schools had requested to join the sports teams, SCASD Superintendent Curtis Johnson responded with an email.
The email stated, “Thank you for reaching out. We have put a lot of thought into this issue through discussions with other administrators, the school board, and our school solicitor. After carefully considering it, we cannot grant your request to change our longstanding practice of not having private school students participate on our PIAA sports teams. The reason is the district has ample, and sometimes excess, participation for our teams, so there is no need to expand. Additionally, if we allow private school students to take part, we could be taking away opportunities from SCASD students.”
SCASD has over 6,500 students, including 2,254 students at State College Area High School. State High has 73 clubs and activities and 31 sports teams.
The denial prompted the parochial school students and their families to partner with the Religious Rights Foundation of Pennsylvania, an organization whose mission is to promote and defend the faith of the foundation’s members and the broader faith community of Pennsylvania. In July 2023, the party began the lawsuit against SCASD. The party argued that SCASD was discriminating against religious students and therefore violating the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution.
In December 2023, SCASD requested that the lawsuit be dismissed. Chief United States District Judge Mathew W. Brann denied this request.
In his 25-page ruling, he stated, “The Free Exercise Clause is clear: regardless of what reasons some parents may have for sending their children to a non-public school, a religious reason has the same value as a secular reason. If some exemptions are made, a school’s refusal to make a religious one enforces a value to judgement preferring secular conduct over religious conduct.”
Brann goes on to write, “For if SCASD had a policy narrowly tailored to prevent overcrowding of its extracurricular programming, it would not have had the homeschool and charter school exemptions in the first place.”
Now, two years later, the lawsuit has been settled. According to the Joint Motion for Consent Order and Settlement of Case, on April 28, 2025, the parties participated in a mediation session. An agreement was formed that allows parochial students to participate in SCASD’s extracurriculars, as long as their own school does not offer the same extracurriculars.
The district agrees in the consent order, “to make available to parochial students the same extracurricular and co-curricular activities (including athletics) and educational programs offered to homeschooled students and charter school students.”
The parochial students will be selected for teams using SCASD’s general student selection criteria. SCASD’s insurance must also pay $150,000 to the Religious Rights Foundation for legal fees. SCASD’s school board unanimously voted at their public meeting in favor of this agreement.
With the new agreement in effect, students have a wide range of opinions. Caitlin Scofield, a State High sophomore and cheerleader, shared her thoughts.
“No, because they are not students at State High so I don’t think they should get the opportunity to do State High sports,” Scofield said. “There could be more competition, and I don’t think a lot of students would like losing a spot to a kid that doesn’t go to State High.”
She went on to discuss the new dynamic this may create: “I think there might be an in-group that they [the parochial students] might not be a part of.”
Andreas Schmitz, a senior at State High, is part of the State High tennis team. He said, “Every year we have tryouts, and we can be ranked differently each year. I think they [the parochial students] will make it more competitive, and I think it’s just more people that makes it a more competitive process. But I don’t think it will affect the team that much.”
Maya Edmondson, a 10th grade student at Saint Joseph’s Catholic Academy, said, “I feel that it [the lawsuit] was valid mainly because SCASD was already allowing homeschool and charter schools to participate. I can understand how that could have frustrated some … I believe that when choosing a high school, things like extracurriculars should come into play. If you wish to play a sport that a Catholic school doesn’t have available, that should be something that persuades you on where to go. And if you still choose to go to the Catholic school, it shouldn’t be an expectation that you still get to participate in the other school’s extracurriculars.”
Edmondson continued, “The main reason that students leave our school is so that they can participate in SCASD extracurriculars. If they are allowed to remain at our school and participate in SCASD [extracurriculars], then I think enrollment will go up.”
Although opinions still differ, SCASD will now allow parochial school students who reside in the district to participate in extracurricular activities.
