California settles with church preschool after excluding school from government lunch programs over stance on gender identity

Officials with the California government agreed to a settlement of almost $200,000 after an attempt to exclude a church's preschool from the state's preschool lunch program.

The Church of Compassion and Dayspring Christian Learning Center will receive $30,000 for meals paid for in absence of state funding, along with $160,000 for attorney's fees.

As reported by the Daily Caller, the church and the Alliance Defending Freedom filed a lawsuit in June 2023 that alleged the Biden administration's U.S. Department of Agriculture along with California's Department of Social Services revoked funding to the school over its "orthodox religious beliefs" regarding sex and gender.

The lawsuit explained that the 2023 exclusion from the program was also due to the learning center's beliefs on "human sexuality" and a refusal to "use any child or employee’s ‘preferred’ pronouns that do not correspond to biological sex."

The litigation argued that the government officials were discriminating against the church deliberately because of its faith and thus were in violation of the First Amendment.

"The government can’t withhold food from families in need simply because their children attend a Christian preschool. The Constitution protects the right of Church of Compassion and its preschool to operate according to the dictates of their faith," ADF senior counsel Jeremiah Galus said in a statement.

"In the name of combatting discrimination, government officials excluded the church and preschool from serving the El Cajon community based solely on their religious beliefs and exercise. While it shouldn’t have taken a lawsuit to resolve this, at least now Church of Compassion can continue its vital outreach to needy children and families," Galus added.

The children's learning center had already been part of the USDA's program for almost 20 years before the rules were changed in 2021. The updated terms declared that under Title IX, "federally funded education institutions" would henceforth need to adhere to discrimination rules surrounding "sexual orientation" and "gender identity."

The Child and Adult Care Food Program, from which the preschool was excluded, is a federal program that provides "supplemental reimbursements for meals and snacks" to eligible kids and adults who are enrolled in child care centers, day care homes, and adult day care centers.

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