Oftentimes, court cases can go unnoticed by the general public. But a recent court case, Religious Rights Foundation of Pennsylvania v. State College Area School District, completely changed the game for student athletes from religious schools.

In Jan. 2026, an order from the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) stated that students attending religious schools can now participate in both sports and activities that their school does not provide by participating at the public school in their district.

In the past, cyber, charter, and homeschooled students could join sports teams or clubs at the public school in their home district, including at Haven.

This long-standing rule was challenged when a group of parents with children attending Catholic schools near State College, Pa. brought up the issue of students from religious schools not being allowed to do the same. Thomas E. Breth, a partner at the law firm Dillon, McCandless, King, Coulter, and Graham LLP who handled the case, filed a lawsuit against the State College Area School District. 

The lawsuit claimed that the school district violated both the First Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. In the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause, the constitution protects the rights of all US citizens to pursue their religious beliefs. The Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause requires that the government treats every citizen equally.

The State College school district district stated that they were excluding all private schools, and that faith-based schools are private schools. But as the district was making secular exceptions for cyber, charter, and homeschooled students, they were violating the Constitution, according to Breth.

“It’s not who you’re prohibiting, it’s who you’re permitting. So once you permit students that aren’t enrolled in the State College School District…you have to open up to all students that aren’t participating,” Breth said.

The PIAA approval now clarifies that cyber, charter, homeschooled, and faith-based school students can participate in any sport or club with the public school in the district they live in all across Pennsylvania.

According to the ruling, religious school students cannot be denied the privileges given to secular private school students.

“So let’s say you are a track runner,” Haven athletic director Ms. Lynelle Mosley said. “If [your school doesn’t] have track, you are able to go to whatever district that you live in, [and] you are able to participate in that sport in that district.”

The number of students from faith-based schools joining the public school teams is small, as they would be participating in sports and clubs that do not exist at their faith-based school. At the same time, the change may be enough to affect some aspects of competition, especially at a local level.

“If this were to happen, there could be a student who is here who gets bumped out of a roster spot for a student that’s in a faith-based school,” Mosley said. “That could be a problem. Obviously, a lot of people [would] be like, well, ‘they don’t go to the school, so how are they allowed to participate?’” 

On the contrary, freshman Eva Cielo thinks that this will heighten the competition in a beneficial way. 

“I think there will definitely be a lot more competition and it’s going to be very exciting to see. I think the people who are going to go to different schools to play sports are probably going to be really good because they’re willing to go that extra step to play,” Cielo said.

Breth agrees, believing that the new PIAA approval offers dedicated students the chance to pursue their interests in school sports that they wouldn’t have been able to do at their faith-based school. 

”I think that it’s going to increase the number of students that are eligible to participate, which is a positive thing, it’s more opportunities for students to participate in activities that they’re interested in and that they enjoy,” Breth said. 

As the new ruling takes effect with the spring athletics season and continues to make an impact in future seasons to come, one thing will remain constant: Faith-based students can now attend the school of their choice for their religion, while having the same athletic and extracurricular activity options as any student at a public school.

“I think everyone should be given the chance to play their sport or do whatever athletic activity that they want, and I think it’s really great that they’re still able to do that regardless of their school,” Cielo said.