Emily Bass

Abstract

Since the early 1990s, many people across the country have embraced charter schools as "incubators of innovation." Charter schools are publicly funded, tuition-free, K–12 schools that have more flexibility than traditional public schools in curriculum, staffing, and more. With this flexibility, charter schools constantly test new approaches, aiming to inspire educational reform.

In recent years, some have begun calling for a new kind of charter school: the religious charter school. In May 2025, the Supreme Court deadlocked in Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board v. Drummund, a case involving St. Isidore, the nation's first explicitly religious charter school. For the time being, St. Isidore is not permitted to operate. But because the current Court has consistently held favorably for religious litigants in education cases, advocates for religious charter schools have not lost hope. Instead, they expect a more favorable result from the Court in the coming years that would permit religious charter schools nationwide.

With religious charter schools come a host of constitutional issues and concerns about students' rights. One relevant concern is Title IX’s Religious Exemption. The Religious Exemption shields religious schools from students' Title IX claims—and the breadth of protections under the Religious Exemption has expanded in recent years. Accordingly, this Note proposes changes in how Congress, OCR, and courts construct and apply the Religious Exemption to protect students in religious charter schools. After all, if advocates for religious charter schools want to provide students meaningful opportunities to learn alongside people who share their faith, they must also protect those students from sex-based harassment and unreasonable discrimination.

Download

Included in

Law Commons

Share

COinS