Three Jewish couples and two Orthodox Jewish schools have filed a federal lawsuit alleging that California discriminates against religious children with disabilities and their schools.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, names as defendants the California Department of Education and its superintendent of public instruction, Tony Thurmond; and the Los Angeles Unified School District and its chief of special education, equity and access, Anthony Aguilar.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs claim that state and local education officials denied them access to federal funds under the 1990 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act by providing those funds only for “nonsectarian” schools.

“Since parents often cannot afford to pay for disability services themselves, California forces them to choose between accessing those services and giving their children a Jewish education,” states the complaint, which was filed by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

The Washington Times has contacted the California Department of Education for comment. A Los Angeles Unified School District spokesperson said via email that the district “does not typically comment on pending or ongoing litigation.”

Becket is representing parents Chaya Loffman and Jonathan Loffman, Fedora Nick and Morris Taxon, and Sarah Perets and Ariel Perets, who want to send their children to Orthodox Jewish schools with IDEA funding. The public interest law firm also is representing the Jean & Jerry Friedman Shalhevet High School and Samuel A. Fryer Yavneh Hebrew Academy, two private Orthodox Jewish schools that seek access to IDEA funds to support education for students with disabilities.

According to Becket, California law ignores the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Carson v. Makin, which determined that the state of Maine must make school funds available to religious schools.

“It takes a special kind of chutzpah to deny Jewish kids with disabilities equal access to special education benefits,” Becket Vice President and senior counsel Eric Rassbach said in a statement. “California politicians can end this unlawful discrimination the easy way or the hard way. Either they change the law that is hurting children with disabilities, or they can shamefully fight in court for the right to discriminate.”

• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.