NYS Board Of Regents Set Monday Vote On Private School Regulation

A critical vote will be taken in New York State this Monday, drastically determining how much oversight the government will have over Yeshivos.

The New York State Board of Regents will vote on whether the government can reject a private school’s secular studies program.

If accepted, the requirements would force Yeshivos to either have an approved Regents program or be subject to a local education authority evaluation.

“We are at a milestone in terms of what has been a lengthy process, working with stakeholders and working with local school authorities to come up with a framework that will enable non-public schools to demonstrate that they are providing substantially equivalent instruction as is required by New York State law,” said Senior Deputy Education Commissioner Jim Baldwin to Orthodox media outlets during a Friday Zoom call.

After an early draft of the proposed regulations was posted in March, over 350,000 comments were sent to the government during a 60-day public comment period. According to officials, most of the comments were philosophically opposed to state oversight of private schools.

Nonetheless, the State wants to hold the election on Monday.