BOSTON (AP) A panel of appeals court justices will decide whether the state of Maine should pay for three families to send their children to religious schools because they live in districts that lack high schools.

The families made their case in U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston on Wednesday.

The Department of Education typically pays tuition for students in districts that don’t have a high school to attend other public or private schools, but the money can’t go to religious schools.

A Maine District Court judge ruled in favor of the department last year.