‘Powerful affirmation’: District rebuked for denying transportation benefit to girl attending Christian school

An administrative law judge in New Jersey has delivered a harsh rebuke to a school district that “manipulated facts” in order to try to avoid providing a legally required benefit to a student.

It is the American Center for Law and Justice that brought, and won, the fight.

It’s on behalf of the young daughter of a client, whose name was not publicized.

The father “chose to send his daughter to a Christian school” and reasonably “expected equal treatment under state law,” the ACLJ report.

Instead, the district refused to provide transportation benefits.

The ACLJ said, “This case began when our client’s daughter was denied the transportation benefits clearly mandated by New Jersey law. The district claimed the Christian school was more than 20 miles from the family’s home – the maximum distance for eligibility under state statute. But the evidence told a different story. Our client provided mapping data showing the school fell within the legal distance. When the district dismissed this evidence, he went further – hiring a licensed professional surveying company to conduct an official measurement. The professional survey confirmed what our client knew all along: His daughter qualified for transportation benefits under state law.”

Faced with the facts, the district pushed even harder, insisting on using a “distance methodology” that, in fact, “violated state regulations.”

Now Judge Aurelio Vincitore has granted a judgment for the father and against the school, including a rebuke in his decision against the Parsippany-Troy Hills Board of Education.

He said regulations explicitly require that distance “shall be measured using the shortest route along public roadways or public walkways.”

The district, using Google had relied on a “walking distance” measurement.

The judge said since the school board “did not consider public roadways, the board’s method of measurement is not entitled to deference.”

The ACLJ said, “In other words, the district cannot demand deference for a method that directly contradicts state law. His decision was powerful: ‘The board must consider the shortest route using both public roadways and walkways. That is not a matter left to the discretion of the board.'”

The ACLJ explained the decision is “a powerful affirmation that government bureaucracies cannot manipulate facts and ignore clear legal mandates to discriminate against families who choose religious education for their children.”

The report continued, “This case exemplifies a troubling pattern we see nationwide: Government officials create arbitrary barriers to deny school choice benefits to families exercising their constitutional right to religious education. They manipulate measurement standards, fabricate excuses, and hope families lack the resources to fight back.”

The decision now goes to the New Jersey commissioner of the Department of Education for final consideration.