New York State Education Department proposes new private school rules

The New York State Education Department is continuing its push to have private schools — especially yeshivas that eschew secular education for more religious instruction — meet the state’s academic standards.

Introducing what are being called “pathways” for nonpublic schools to show that they provide secular education equal to that offered by public schools, the state Board of Regents reviewed the proposed new regulations during a virtual meeting on March 14.

The reworked rules aim to settle a debate over the number of hours that religious schools, and especially Jewish ones, should devote to religious instruction instead of secular subjects such as English, math, science and social studies.

“The good news is that there are multiple pathways for exemption,” said Richard Altabe, the lower school principal for the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach in Woodmere. He noted that accreditation with the Middle States Association or the New York State Association of Independent Schools are two such pathways for private schools to be considered on par with public schools. HALB recently attained NYSAIS accreditation.

“The bad news is that the [state] regulations don’t recognize religious instruction and the value for those schools,” Altabe said. “Studying the Talmud is critical thinking, and I’m disappointed. Much of Jewish education is substantiative.”

Schools under HALB’s umbrella include Davis Renov Stahler Yeshiva High School for Boys, also in Woodmere, and Lev Chana Early Childhood Learning Center and Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls, both in Hewlett Bay Park.

In April 2019, the State Supreme Court struck down private-school regulations that then State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia had established six months earlier.

Elia wanted all private schools to offer a total of 36 hours of instruction per week in English, math, science and social studies. Failure to comply could have resulted in the loss of state funding for textbooks, transportation and other items.

The guidelines were a response to a claim that several Orthodox yeshivas, especially ones in Brooklyn and Manhattan, were offering little or no instruction in secular subjects.

In 2018, state legislation gave oversight of yeshivas to the State Education Department rather than local education officials. Roughly 115,000 children attended Orthodox Jewish yeshivas across the state, officials said.

“It’s always good to have state regulations and standards that are set for students to abide,” said Ari Solomon, executive director of the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway. “We’ve always taken secular and religious curriculum very seriously, and we meet or exceed any regulations put forth.”

Solomon said that roughly 100 students graduate from HAFTR High School annually, and 100 percent go on to college, from community college to prestigious universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He added that HAFTR, which has an early-childhood center, a lower school and a middle school, offers many Advanced Placement classes, focuses on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education and meets the needs of students across the academic spectrum.

Lawrence School District Superintendent Ann Pedersen is very familiar with the yeshivas in the Five Towns, from a couple of educational collaborations.

HAFTR and Lawrence middle school eighth-graders partnered on the “Names, Not Numbers” program in the past, in which students interview Holocaust survivors, and HALB’s Shaar Lev program — conceived by Altabe — provides religious instruction to Jewish children with special needs.

“The private schools in Lawrence are exceptional learning institutions,” Pedersen wrote in an email. “Over the years in Lawrence, I have gotten to know many of the staff and leadership of the private schools and seen countless examples of their successful student population.”

The proposed regulations are posted on the State Education Department website, and will be published in the state register on March 30. Public comment will be accepted until May 31 and reviewed over the summer. If there are no extensive revisions, the final regulations could come before the Board of Regents in the fall.

Send comments to seregcomments@nysed.gov (the link sends an email) or to State Office of Religious and Independent Schools, Se Regulations, 89 Washington Ave, EBA Room 1708,, Albany, N.Y. 12234.