New Hampshire High Court to Hear Case of Home-Schooled Girl Ordered to Attend Public School

The New Hampshire Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of a 10-year-old home-schooled girl who critics say was ordered into a public school because of her Christian faith.

The girl, identified in only as "Amanda," had been described in court documents as being "well liked, social and interactive with her peers, academically promising and intellectually at or superior to grade level."

But a local court official determined in July, at the request of her father, that "Amanda" would still be better off in public school rather than continuing to be home-schooled by her mother. The couple, Martin Kurowski and Brenda Voydatch, divorced shortly after the girl's birth in 1999.

In a court order issued in the case, the local court reasoned that the girl’s "vigorous defense of her religious beliefs to [her] counselor suggests strongly that she has not had the opportunity to seriously consider any other point of view."

"It ordered her out of the home schooling she loves so that her religious views will be challenged at a government school. That’s where the court went too far," John Simmons, an Alliance Defense Fund attorney representing Voydatch, said in a news release.

Kurowski's attorney, Elizabeth Donovan, said the ruling was based on the girl's isolated learning environment, not on her mother's religion. She said the girl's home schooling consists of "sitting in the corner of her mother's bedroom," where she receives her lessons on a computer screen.

Kurowski "is concerned because of the isolation that is borne of that and the lack of exposure to the broader culture at large," Donovan said. "People of different heritage, people of different culture, tolerance, group problem-solving, making friends, losing friends — all of the things that come with a public school education."

New Hampshire Supreme Court's Clerk of the Court Eileen Fox told FoxNews.com the case "will be briefed and then it will be reviewed on the merits."

FoxNews.com's Joshua Rhett Miller contributed to thist report.