Wheeler v. Barrera

Summary

The Court affirmed relief requiring Missouri officials to provide comparable Title I services to eligible private-school children, while holding that Title I does not require identical services or on-premises instruction in private schools. State-law restrictions must be accommodated rather than preempted, and the Court declined to decide the Establishment Clause question because no specific program was before it. Justice Douglas, dissenting, would have held the program unconstitutional insofar as it supported sectarian schools; Justice Powell and Justice White concurred in the judgment on narrower grounds.