April 20 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court will review a lawsuit brought by the Archdiocese of Denver and area Catholic parishes that claim their ineligibility for Colorado universal pre-kindergarten funding because they do not accept the children of LGBTQ couples is unconstitutional.
The suit alleged that Catholic preschools should be exempt from non-discrimination rules that bar schools participating in the program from rejecting children because of sexual orientation or gender identity of either the student or their parents, NBC News and The Washington Post reported.
Colorado has since 2022 offered universal preschool to children living in the state through community-based, school-based and licensed home providers at least 15 hours per week of tuition-free preschool for their year before kindergarten, according to the Colorado Department of Early Childhood's website.
Nationwide, 46 states and Washington, D.C., offer some level of taxpayer-funded pre-school to residents, the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University found in its 2024 "State of Preschool" report.
"Why the exclusion?" the Catholic groups' lawyers wrote in their request for the Supreme Court to consider the case.
