Saturday, January 09, 2016
Bill seeks enforcement of secular education requirements for religious schools
A new bill in Albany would enable parents and others to demand the state enforce the legal requirement that religious schools like those that 11,000 Kiryas Joel children attend provide adequate instruction in subjects such as English and math.
Current law leaves it to public-school superintendents to verify that students attending private schools in their districts receive a "substantially equivalent" education in secular subjects. Under the proposal introduced by three Rockland County lawmakers, people who feel that standard is not being met could file a complaint with the state education commissioner, who would investigate and could compel one of several prescribed remedies.
Assembly Democrats Ken Zebrowski and Ellen Jaffee, each of whom represents part of the Town of Ramapo, introduced the bill in December, shortly after a federal lawsuit was filed against four Hasidic yeshivas in Ramapo that charged that the schools were shortchanging students by focusing almost exclusively on religious studies. State Sen. David Carlucci, a Democrat who represents most of Rockland County, brought the legislation to the Senate this month.
"Right now, there's just this law on the books and no enforcement mechanism," Zebrowski said in a phone interview. "I don't think that parents and students should have to sue to get a proper education."
His proposal stipulates that a private school "is not required to use the curriculum of the school district in which they are located but must provide students with instruction that is similar in rigor, allotted time, and subject." Complaints could be filed with the state by current or former students; their parents; current or former teachers, administrators or employees of the private school; or residents of the public-school district.
One wrinkle in both the bill and existing state law is that religious schools are expected to provide as much secular study as that of the public school district in which they are located. But Kiryas Joel's main yeshiva system -- the United Talmudical Academy -- operates entirely in the village and therefore falls within the Kiryas Joel School District, a public school that serves special-education students only and is highly atypical. Two other yeshivas, Sheri Torah and Bnei Yoel, serve about 43 percent of Kiryas Joel students and are outside the village, in Monroe-Woodbury School District.
Monroe-Woodbury Superintendent Elsie Rodriguez said this week that Monroe-Woodbury administrators visit Sheri Torah and Bnei Yoel schools two or three times a year, but that the sole purpose is to verify that public funding given to those schools for remedial education and other purposes is being spent appropriately. She said that reviewing the curriculum of those private schools is outside her duties, and that she would refer any complaints that their level secular instruction is inadequate to the state Education Department to handle.
She said she has never gotten any.
http://www.recordonline.com/article/20160109/NEWS/160109450
Current law leaves it to public-school superintendents to verify that students attending private schools in their districts receive a "substantially equivalent" education in secular subjects. Under the proposal introduced by three Rockland County lawmakers, people who feel that standard is not being met could file a complaint with the state education commissioner, who would investigate and could compel one of several prescribed remedies.
Assembly Democrats Ken Zebrowski and Ellen Jaffee, each of whom represents part of the Town of Ramapo, introduced the bill in December, shortly after a federal lawsuit was filed against four Hasidic yeshivas in Ramapo that charged that the schools were shortchanging students by focusing almost exclusively on religious studies. State Sen. David Carlucci, a Democrat who represents most of Rockland County, brought the legislation to the Senate this month.
"Right now, there's just this law on the books and no enforcement mechanism," Zebrowski said in a phone interview. "I don't think that parents and students should have to sue to get a proper education."
His proposal stipulates that a private school "is not required to use the curriculum of the school district in which they are located but must provide students with instruction that is similar in rigor, allotted time, and subject." Complaints could be filed with the state by current or former students; their parents; current or former teachers, administrators or employees of the private school; or residents of the public-school district.
One wrinkle in both the bill and existing state law is that religious schools are expected to provide as much secular study as that of the public school district in which they are located. But Kiryas Joel's main yeshiva system -- the United Talmudical Academy -- operates entirely in the village and therefore falls within the Kiryas Joel School District, a public school that serves special-education students only and is highly atypical. Two other yeshivas, Sheri Torah and Bnei Yoel, serve about 43 percent of Kiryas Joel students and are outside the village, in Monroe-Woodbury School District.
Monroe-Woodbury Superintendent Elsie Rodriguez said this week that Monroe-Woodbury administrators visit Sheri Torah and Bnei Yoel schools two or three times a year, but that the sole purpose is to verify that public funding given to those schools for remedial education and other purposes is being spent appropriately. She said that reviewing the curriculum of those private schools is outside her duties, and that she would refer any complaints that their level secular instruction is inadequate to the state Education Department to handle.
She said she has never gotten any.
http://www.recordonline.com/article/20160109/NEWS/160109450
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