Supreme Court’s Religious-School Preschool Funding Case, Explained

The Supreme Court will hear a challenge from Catholic preschools that were excluded from Colorado’s publicly funded Universal Preschool program, placing a dispute over religious admissions policies and public benefits before the justices.

The case, St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy, is docketed as No. 25-581. The Court granted review on April 20, 2026, but limited the case to two questions. It did not agree to consider whether to overrule Employment Division v. Smith, the 1990 decision that generally allows neutral, broadly applicable laws to burden religious practices without automatically requiring exemptions.

What changed

A supplemental joint appendix filed in June 2026 placed more of the underlying record before the Supreme Court. The materials include trial testimony, Catholic school policies, provider agreements, Colorado program documents and evidence concerning the challenged admission practices.

The next major deadline is August 17, 2026, when Colorado’s merits brief is due. That filing is part of the briefing process for the Court’s October Term 2026. It is not a decision date.

How Colorado’s preschool program works

Colorado’s Universal Preschool program uses public funding to help families choose participating preschools, including public and private providers. Under the program’s participation rules, providers must give families an equal opportunity to enroll without regard to characteristics such as race, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, income level or disability.

The program also contains listed exemptions and administrative processes. The Catholic schools argue that those provisions allow some secular enrollment preferences while Colorado rejected their faith-based admissions policies. Colorado disputes that characterization and says religious schools may participate if they comply with the same nondiscrimination conditions required of other providers.

What the Catholic schools argue

St. Mary Catholic Parish and the Archdiocese of Denver say their admissions policies reflect religious beliefs about sex, gender and marriage. They argue that Colorado’s treatment of secular exceptions and discretionary requests means the enrollment rule is not generally applicable under Smith.

The schools also rely on Carson v. Makin, the Supreme Court’s public-benefits precedent involving religious schools. Their position is that the Constitution may prohibit Colorado from conditioning access to a generally available benefit in a way that burdens religious institutions, even when the program does not expressly exclude schools because they are religious.

What Colorado argues

Colorado says the program is open to religious providers but requires every participating provider to meet common enrollment standards. The state maintains that the rule is not a religion-based exclusion because schools can choose whether to accept public funding and can participate if they follow the program’s requirements.

That distinction is central to the case. The Court is not reviewing an express ban on religious preschools. It is reviewing whether a generally available funding program may attach nondiscrimination conditions that conflict with a provider’s religiously based admissions policy.

What the justices will decide

The first accepted question asks what a party must show to prove that a law is not generally applicable under Smith. In practical terms, the justices will consider whether broad administrative discretion or exemptions for certain secular conduct can make a rule constitutionally suspect.

The second asks whether Carson changes the Smith analysis only when the government explicitly excludes religious people or institutions, or whether it can also apply when a neutral condition has the effect of burdening religious participation.

The Court did not accept the petitioners’ separate question asking whether Smith should be overruled. Any ruling will therefore turn on the two accepted questions and the specific structure of Colorado’s preschool program.

Why the case matters

The ruling could affect families who want to use public preschool assistance at religious schools with faith-based admissions policies. It could also influence how states design future education and other public-benefit programs.

A decision favoring the schools could make broad participation conditions harder to defend when they conflict with religious policies. A decision favoring Colorado could reinforce states’ ability to require common enrollment rules while allowing religious schools to decline public funds. The result would not automatically require every state to fund religious preschools; the effect would depend on the Court’s reasoning and the design of each program.

What happens next

The Supreme Court has not ruled on the merits. After Colorado’s August 17 merits-brief deadline, the case will proceed through additional filings and oral argument during October Term 2026. The Court’s eventual decision will determine how the First Amendment’s religious-liberty principles apply when a state offers public preschool money subject to common participation rules.

Sources

• U.S. Supreme Court: Questions accepted for review
• SCOTUSblog: St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy case file
• Associated Press: Supreme Court will hear challenge from Catholic preschools

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