Bulzan v. Hillsboro School District

Description:  A Christian mother of five who homeschools her two oldest children in Oregon is suing the Hillsboro School District for discriminating against her choice to use religious educational materials for her children.

PORTLAND, Ore. – Representing a Christian mother of five who homeschools her two oldest children in Oregon, Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys are suing the Hillsboro School District for discriminating against the mother’s choice to use religious educational materials for her children. Tessa Bulzan homeschools her children because she believes that God calls her to do so, instilling her faith in her children through her chosen homeschooling materials and curricula.

Hillsboro School District offers a Homeschooling Partnership that reimburses parents for educational materials the parents choose and offers in-person learning opportunities to supplement home instruction. The program’s representative told Bulzan that she could use any curriculum, including a religious one, so she chose a combination of Abeka and Classical Conversations for her homeschooled instruction and enrolled her children in classes through the Firmly Planted Hillsboro co-op. All three provide God-centered academic instruction.

After enrollment, the school district had very little interaction with Bulzan, providing virtually no oversight for her instruction. When the homeschooled mother went to submit her expenses for reimbursement at the end of the first semester, however, district employees denied reimbursing any of the Abeka or Classical Conversation costs and any of the Firmly Planted Hillsboro co-op fees “due to the Christian and biblical worldview that is taught” and the “Christian beliefs and themes [that] are integrated throughout core subject areas.”

“Religious families who choose to homeschool aren’t second-class citizens, yet Oregon treats them as such by denying them a public benefit available to other families,” said ADF Senior Counsel Kate Anderson, director of the ADF Center for Parental Rights. “Mrs. Bulzan, like every other parent, should be free to choose the best education for her children. Hillsboro School District is right to offer homeschooling families a much-needed stipend, but it’s wrong—and unconstitutional—to deny that benefit to those who choose curriculum from a Christian and biblical worldview.”

Bulzan appealed the denial to the district superintendent’s office, but the district doubled down on the denial due to the religious nature of the curricula. The superintendent’s report stated that the district’s policy followed the Oregon Department of Education’s instructions. Knowing that her chosen curricula more than satisfied the state’s academic standards, and that it was wrong for the district to deny reimbursement simply because the curricula included a religious worldview, Bulzan challenged the decision all the way through the district’s complaint process, highlighting recent U.S. Supreme Court cases holding that exclusions from generally available benefits because of religious character “‘penalize[] the free exercise’ or religion” and are “odious to our Constitution.” But the district refused to budge.

The lawsuit explains that by discriminating against Bulzan’s choice to use religious educational materials for her children, the district violated the mother’s constitutional rights under both the First and 14th Amendments.

ADF attorneys filed Bulzan v. Hillsboro School District in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, Portland Division.

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.

# # #