The U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision ruled that publicly funded
benefits under the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) may be pro-
vided to children in religiously-affiliated schools.

James Zobrest was a deaf student whose parents resided in the Catalina
Foothills public school district near Tucson, Arizona. James attended a state
school for deaf children through the elementary grades, then transferred
to a Catalina Foothills district public middle school. Following James'
eighth grade year, his parents enrolled him in a Roman Catholic high school
and requested that the public school district continue to provide a sign
language interpreter.

The Catalina Foothills district referred the matter to their county attor-
ney who concluded that although IDEA requires such services in public
and nonreligious private schools, to provide an interpreter at a religious
school would violate the doctrine of separation of church and state. The
Arizona attorney general concurred in this opinion and the Catalina dis-
trict refused services. The Zobrests and representatives of the district agreed
that to engage in the usual administrative processes (beginning with the
scheduling of hearings) would be futile. The Zobrests brought action in
federal district court.

The Zobrests asserted that IDEA and the Free Exercise Clause of the

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