Religious Liberty and Public Education

Chicago Public Schools has reached a settlement with Moody Bible Institute that ends the district’s exclusion of Moody students from its student‑teaching program and rewrites key contract language around religious hiring. Moody sued the Chicago Board of Education in November, alleging religious discrimination after CPS demanded the college sign nondiscrimination agreements that would bar it from hiring only employees who affirm its Christian statement of faith and code of conduct on gender and sexuality. Under the settlement, CPS agreed to modify its Student Teacher Internship Agreement to recognize Moody’s right to maintain faith‑based hiring practices while still participating in the district’s student‑teaching pipeline, and Moody now appears on CPS’s list of approved university partners. Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented Moody, is framing the deal as a warning to other public entities not to use access agreements to regulate religious nonprofits’ internal employment policies, while the case highlights growing tension between public‑sector nondiscrimination rules and religious colleges’ autonomy at a time when urban districts face teacher shortages. The dispute also adds to the broader legal and political fight over how far governments can go in conditioning access to public programs on compliance with secular employment standards when faith-based institutions are involved.