C.B., a student at St. Francis DeSales High School, a private Catholic school in Kentucky, was expelled in February 2025 after the School received a report that he had sold drugs to another student on campus. Following the report, school administrators searched a vehicle C.B. drove to School, which belonged to his mother, and subsequently dismissed him from the School. C.B. denied the allegations but was permanently expelled.
C.B. and his parents filed suit against the School and two administrators, asserting that the expulsion violated his due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment and the Kentucky Constitution. They also brought state law claims for breach of contract and promissory estoppel, alleging that the School acted arbitrarily in expelling him after accepting approximately $48,000 in tuition. The plaintiffs argued that the School should be treated as a state actor, and therefore subject to constitutional due process requirements, because it received over one million dollars in federal funding and an unspecified amount of local government funding.
The federal trial court rejected that argument and dismissed the constitutional claim. The Court explained that private schools are not subject to constitutional due process requirements unless their conduct can be fairly attributed to the state. Applying established “state action” tests, including whether the School performed a function traditionally reserved to the state, acted under state compulsion, or had a sufficiently close relationship with the state, the Court found that the complaint failed to allege facts satisfying any of these standards.
In particular, the Court emphasized that the School’s receipt of public funds, standing alone, was insufficient to transform it into a state actor. Even significant public funding or regulation does not convert a private school’s disciplinary decisions into state action. The Court also rejected the plaintiffs’ reliance on case law involving charter schools, noting that those decisions turned on statutory frameworks expressly designating charter schools as public Schools, circumstances not present here.
Because the plaintiffs failed to establish state action, the Court dismissed the federal due process claim with prejudice. Having eliminated the only federal claim, the federal trial court declined to exercise jurisdiction over the remaining state law claims and remanded those claims to state court for further proceedings.
Brite v. St. Francis DeSales High School (W.D. Ky. Mar. 18, 2026) 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56609.
Note: This case is not binding in California but schools should nevertheless remain mindful that their disciplinary decisions may be challenged under contract or other state law theories. LCW will continue to monitor the state law claims for further developments.