Lawsuit filed to block the re-location of West Side High School and the co-location of Brownsville Academy -

This lawsuit filed today is based on many of the same arguments as a previous lawsuit filed in March to block the co-locations of two charter schools in Brooklyn and Queens.  These proposals do not take into account the need to lower class size to the levels required by the new class size law; moreover the Educational Impact Statements do not  actually analyze the likely impact on the education of these students, many of them over-aged and under-credited if this re-location and co-location occur, especially those students with special needs.  The votes of the PEP to approve these changes also violated Open Meetings Law in several ways.  The press release and links to all the legal filings are below.

 

For immediate release: Thursday, June 22, 2023

 More information: Laura Barbieri, lbarbieri@advocatesny.com, 914-819-3387

Sarah Frank, sarfrank@gmail.com, 617-838-2032

 

Lawsuit filed to block the re-location of West Side High School

and the co-location of Brownsville Academy -

both transfer schools with vulnerable overage and undercredited students

 

Today, Thursday, June 22, 2023, a lawsuit was filed in the New York State Supreme Court on behalf of parents, students, and teachers to prevent the NYC Department of Education from forcing the Edward A. Reynolds West Side High School from moving across town to a smaller building and to block Brownsville Academy from having to share its building with another school,  Aspirations Diploma Plus High School.  

Both of these schools are transfer schools, designed to ensure that vulnerable, over-aged and under-credited students have the support they need to remain in school through graduation. Many of these students have already dropped out of school once or are at increased risk of dropping out in the future, so any negative change in their learning environment jeopardizes their life chances.

The lawsuit, filed by the pro bono law firm Advocates for Justice, focuses on the inadequacy of the Educational Impact Statements [EIS’s] that the NYC Department of Education is required to prepare in advance of the votes by the Panel for Education Policy to approve these changes in school utilization that occurred on April 19, 2023, and May 1, 2023.

Instead, both EIS’s for these proposed changes in school utilization explicitly assumed that current class sizes at both schools would continue indefinitely, even though half of the classes at Brownsville Academy and more than half of the classes at Edwards A. Reynolds West Side High School are larger than the cap of 25 students per class required by the new state class size law, to be phased in over five years.

In addition, students with disabilities in both schools will likely lose their dedicated rooms for mandated services in these new, far more limited spaces. Both schools have very high percentages of such students: 43% at Edward A. Reynolds West Side High school and 26% of the students at Brownsville Academy have disabilities.

The failure of the EIS’s to analyze the profound educational impacts of these changes is a clear violation of state education law, and in an innovative legal strategy, the lawsuit also argues that the deprivation of critical space from students  with disabilities would cause  a disparate impact on these vulnerable students, in violation of the New York City Human Rights Law. 

Most egregiously, perhaps, is how the students at Edward A. Reynolds West Side High School will be deprived of their on-site GED program, their full-size gym, the Ryan health care center, and the LYFE day-care center, designed to take care of the young children of these overaged students while they are attending school.  Yet the DOE fails to assess the likely negative educational impacts of these profound losses, or even acknowledge them in the EIS.

Also highly questionable is the way in which the DOE and certain members of the Panel for Educational Policy  ignored their obligations under the Open Meetings Law (OML). Specifically, the law requires that all voting by members of public bodies must be publicly performed. However, many of the Mayor-appointed PEP members failed to turn on their cameras during the meetings that approved these changes in school utilization, which should nullify their votes. In addition, the DOE failed to record the first several hours of the PEP meeting on May 1, which is  also an OML violation.   Together, these violations call into question whether these PEP proceedings or their votes were legally valid.

State Assemblywoman Latrice Walker said: ““I have long been concerned about the plan to re-site Aspirations Diploma Plus and co-locate it with Brownsville Academy High School. Though well-intentioned, the proposal would harm two communities. Aspirations is the only transfer school in Crown Heights, and I fear they will lose scholars who are not willing to travel to Brownsville. I also share the concerns of the staff at Brownsville Academy, who are worried about the potentially drastic reduction in the number of rooms. The co-location process would deprive the Brownsville Academy of the space currently being used for counseling, an internship program, and their very successful mentoring services. Brownsville Academy has served the community and its students well, consistently ranking in the top 10 in graduation rates, attendance, and career readiness for transfer schools in the city. The potential impact on the student-to-teacher ratio and the reduction of services would have an adverse impact on some of Brooklyn’s most vulnerable students.”

“I strongly support West Side High School staying where it is and appreciate the effort by Advocates for Justice to halt the move,” said Council Member Gale A. Brewer. “It is inequitable to take away from the student population the LYFE Center, the wellness and health center, the large gym and field, and the kitchen. If the TYWLS building is not adequate to meet the needs of its current student population, then it cannot be adequate for the students now at West Side High School.”

“The relocation of West Side High School and the co-location of Brownsville Academy presents a number of challenges to the families, students, and teachers in both schools.” Said New York City Council Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala. “Students within these schools have either dropped out once before or require special accommodations to ensure they receive a quality education. The Department’s relocation plan does not take those factors into consideration and their decision further jeopardizes the educational prospects of the students within these schools. I urge the Department to reconsider this decision and to work with both schools to find a compromise that focuses on the students rather than the ideal location.”

Added Ashley Norman, a plaintiff, a parent of a current student at West Side High School and herself a graduate of the school: “West Side has paved the way for so many students in its time. Myself and everyone I know felt as if dropping out would be the best option, until we went to this school. They do their best to meet you where you are and push you for greatness. This school is so important for young parents. You can receive your education, have your child cared for, and receive not only mental health care but your physical healthcare as well in the Ryan Center -things that being a young parent are hard to juggle. I decided to participate in this lawsuit because I also worry about the potential for gang violence on the East side that our kids might be exposed to. I believe this school NEEDS to stay here for the benefit and more importantly the safety of our community.”

Lucie Gaba, a plaintiff and parent at Brownsville Academy commented: “Before attending Brownsville, my son attended another high school where he struggled with attendance issues and with being on time. Since switching schools, his attendance has improved and the wonderful staff have inspired him to become an active member of the school community.  Brownsville Academy has helped my son improve his academics greatly. I am worried that the co-location will make it harder for him and his friends to get the dedicated help they have come to count on. English is his second language and he receives extra services for this reason. I am very concerned that if the co-location happens, the increased crowding will cause him to lose these services.”

Grisslet Rodriguez, plaintiff and parent of a current West Side High School student, said: “I’m participating in this lawsuit because it is the right thing to do for all of the students in West Side High School. I want to be a voice for my son and all the West Side students since their voices are not being heard. My concern is that if our students are moved to another location, the outcome is going to be devastating. It will have a negative impact on a minority group that already struggles. Students might drop out, have emotional damage, and more mental health challenges. My top concern is the lack of safety in the neighborhood that is on the East side and is dangerous. The new location across town will require many students, including my son, to take a bus and a train, which is a longer commute. Health-wise, there is no gym and no clinic, which is so important for the health, well-being, and growth of the students. The daycare center is crucial to keep the young mothers in school. I hope students can remain in West Side High School, where they feel safe. These students have been through a lot, and we are so proud of them and happy that they found a place where they feel they belong.”

Sarah Frank, teacher at West Side High School and a plaintiff, said: “We have been pushing back on this relocation from the moment it was announced because as a transfer school, we know our vulnerable students need access to smaller classes and additional services and support.  Our current building was specifically designed for West Side High School in the 1990s to have an on-site daycare and health clinic. Our Public School Athletic League teams play in our beautiful gym and the field adjacent to the school. The building we are being relocated to on the East Side has none of these resources, and traveling to other locations for daycare, healthcare, and athletics is a huge barrier for our students. While we have had enrollment struggles, our enrollment has grown tremendously in the last few months. The new space will not allow us to meaningfully lower class size and will not afford the space for small groups and other social-emotional supports we have always offered our students, particularly the nearly 50% of our special needs population with IEPs. Our students do not gain anything from this move, they only lose.”

Marissa Moore, a plaintiff, and parent at Brownsville Academy HS pointed out: “Brownsville Academy has provided my son with a rigorous academic experience along with rich social emotional support which is so needed coming out of the pandemic. Under the co-location proposal, I am concerned that BAHS will become overcrowded and offer fewer services just like the larger schools which failed to serve him previously.”

Concluded Hon. Carmen Quinones, President of the Frederick Douglass Houses Association where many of the students who attend West Side High School live, “This is not what Justice looks like: putting a target on our children's back and making them choose to drop out of school or die trying!”

Here are the Memo of Law ; Verified Petition, and affidavits from Lucie Idiamey-Gaba, Sarah Frank, Anneris Fernandez , Chance Santiago, Marissa-Moore, Grisslet Rodriguez, Ashley Norman, and Leonie Haimson.

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Interview with Sue Edelman, intrepid reporter; and her so-far unsuccessful effort to get DOE to respond to FOILs, despite a 2018 win in court

In the latest Talk out of School podcast, Daniel Alicea interviews investigative reporter Susan Edelman about some of the many scandals she's covered and uncovered for the NY Post over more than twenty years concerning the NYC Board of Education/Department of Education, from the days of Mayor Giuliani till the present day.  It is well worth a listen.  She explains how the Special Commissioner of Investigation for Schools no longer does the sort of sweeping investigations that the former SCI Ed Stancik did prior to mayoral control.  This not altogether surprising since the SCI is also appointed by the Mayor.  They're far more quiet too; in fact, the SCI only put out two press releases in 2021, and none so far in 2022.)

Sue calls herself "semi-retired" and is a freelancer, though she is still making headlines for the NY Post on a regular basis.  The latest include her series of articles about how ADASA- NY, the Association of Dominican -American Supervisors and Administrators,  recruited teachers from the Dominican Republic on temporary visas, and then forced them to rent overpriced rooms in apartments owned by ADASA officials, including Emmanuel Polanco, the principal of the school where many of them were assigned to teach. 

One of the other issues Sue discusses on the podcast is the NY Post 2016 lawsuit against the DOE for failing to comply with their Freedom of Information Law requests in a timely fashion.  I wrote about this lawsuit at the time, along with my own terrible experiences of DOE stonewalling for months and sometimes years despite ordinary FOIL requests.  In 2017,  the Village Voice reported that it took the DOE an average of 103 days to respond to FOIL requests, a longer time than any of other city agency.

In 2018, the NY Post won its lawsuit, as reported by Sue at the time:

DOE not only turned over public records it had withheld for up to 20 months, but agreed to reform what The Post called a “pattern and practice” of endless delays and stonewalling.  After lengthy negotiations with Post lawyers, the DOE agreed to revise its FOIL rules to halt the indefinite postponements — and stick to reasonable deadlines. New guidelines were approved in November.

Here is the official stipulation by the Court, which also subsequently required the DOE to pay the Post's attorney fees. As I was quoted in the article, however,  “I’ll believe it when I see it.  I’m still waiting for documents that I requested two years ago.”

Sure enough, the DOE has continued its stonewalling, and in fact it has gotten worse.  As Sue revealed, ever since she reported on the fact that the Chancellor had promoted Mayor Adams' romantic partner to a higher position with a 23% salary boost to $221,597 a year,  the DOE has refused to answer any of her questions at all, including routine queries.  

The only change to the DOE's FOIL practices  since the court decision is that the boilerplate letter they send to those FOILing information is longer, and cites a number of reasons that the response has been and will be further delayed.  Here is their standard response:

This letter concerns the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request referenced above. Pursuant to Section VI.C of DOE Chancellor’s Regulation D-110 (CR D-110), please be advised that additional time is needed to respond to the remainder of your request.

Factors to be considered ...in determining whether there exist circumstances necessitating more time to respond to a request may include, but are not limited to, “[1] the volume of a request, [2] the ease or difficulty in locating, retrieving or generating records, [3] the complexity of the request, [4] the need to review records to determine the extent to which they must be disclosed, and [5] the number of requests received by the agency.

And then they add which factors are involved, usually a combination of 1, 2, 4 and 5.  The only other change from their previous behavior is that rather sending a letter each  month, now the DOE waits between three to six months to send these letters, and sometimes forgets to send any at all. 

An example:  In October 2020, I FOILed for DOE contracts with tech companies that had access to personal student data.  They responded a year later that if I narrowed my request to the privacy portions of those contracts, I could get the information sooner.  (According to state law, the privacy sections of contracts, called the Parent Bill of Rights,  are supposed to posted on the DOE website, yet only a partial list is included here, under the ambiguous title, "Supplemental Information for Parents About DOE Agreements With Outside Entities.")

In Oct. 2021, I agreed to limit my request to the privacy portions of those contracts, over a year ago, but am still waiting. 

This morning, I posted a twitter poll, asking if  people think the NY Post should reopen its lawsuit vs the DOE.   Please respond to the poll here.

Who thinks @nypost should reopen their lawsuit over @nycschools failure to comply with consent decree to respond in timely fashion to FOILs?

— leonie haimson (@leoniehaimson) December 4, 2022

Testimony of Paul Trust, music teacher and plaintiff, for tomorrow's City Council hearings

Tomorrow, City Council hearings on their resolution, demanding the Mayor restore the budget cuts to schools will be held starting at 10 AM.  You can watch them here.  

Paul Trust at budget cuts rally

Below is the testimony from Paul Trust, a public school teacher and parent and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit to reverse the budget cuts. 

Hello, my name is Paul Trust, I am a music educator, a father of three daughters in public schools and a resident of Richmond Hill Queens.

Many of you may know me as one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit to restore school budget funding.

Because of the mayor cuts, the school I teach at will no longer have a music program. Because of these cuts the school my daughters attend will also no longer have a music program.   It breaks my heart that they will not be able to experience the joy of music that inspired a lifelong passion in me, thanks to the amazing music teachers I had in elementary school. 

Because the mayor appealed Judge Frank’s ruling, I gave up hope on returning my position at my school and have found a new teaching position in Brooklyn. I look forward to the next chapter of my career but I’m also sad to have been forced out because of the cuts.  I am sad for all my students I’ve known for years who thought I would be preparing them for graduation, for winter and spring concerts.

In addition, my wife, who is an art teacher in Jamaica Queens, used to spend her summers teaching at risk students. She was informed that, because of these cuts, they were not going to be able to have her teach classes. [Editor's note: though funding increased overall for summer school, the per-student amount was actually cut.] 

What I don’t understand is if mayor claims to know how important the arts are, as articulated by Commissioner Cumbo before introducing him at the future sight of the Hip Hop Museum, that when you put a trombone in a students hands it could be taking away a gun or  how important it is to have summer programing to keep at risk students engaged over the summer, how can he also say that he’s doing everything within his power to keep our city safe?

Besides these cuts to the arts, at the school where my youngest daughter attends they are losing a guidance counselor, as well as a classroom teacher, which will maximize class sizes.  Although the mayor seems to believe we are through the pandemic, we are not. Especially when it comes to normalizing our students, the mental scars of what they have been through are still playing out. Having a second guidance counselor to attend to the students needs is essential support. Especially when a report just came out that we are not providing the social emotional support to New York City students that they should be getting.

And while these are personal stories, I know that similar ones are playing out in schools throughout the city and every borough. It is crucial that the $469 million that has been taken from city schools be returned so that our students, teachers, school communities can benefit from a well-funded school system.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Paul Trust, DOE Music Educator, Activist and father of 3 public school children

 

Lawsuit and rally to restore the budget cuts to schools; this Thursday August 4 starting at 9:30 AM

The lawsuit to restore the budget cuts to schools and provide the City Council with another vote on the education budget will be heard this Thursday, August 4 at 10 AM in the NY State Supreme Court, 80 Centre St. in Room 308.  Please join us in the courtroom to show your support.

Before the hearing at 9:30 AM, there will be a rally to restore the cuts in Foley Sq., just a block away.  If you join us there, we can walk together to the courthouse at 9:45 AM sharp.

Lawsuit and rally to restore the budget cuts to schools, which the Mayor calls "a rumor"

Update: the lawsuit was covered by the Daily News, AM New York, Chalkbeat, NY Post, Brooklyn Eagle, and CBS radio.

Also much thanks to Laura Barbieri and the crew at Advocates for Justice, for working so hard on this lawsuit pro bono and doing it so quickly! 

This morning we filed a lawsuit on behalf of four parents and teachers to halt the Mayor's budget cuts to schools, and to require that the City Council has another opportunity to vote.  

The lawsuit is based on serious procedural errors committed by the Mayor and Chancellor, by allowing the City Council to adopt the education budget before the Panel for Educational Policy had an opportunity to hold a hearing on the cuts and vote on the education budget, which state law requires must happen first.

Instead, the Chancellor declared an emergency to immediately send the diminished funds to schools,  before either of the Council or the PEP had a chance to vote on them.  In this way, he attempted to short circuit the legally mandated process.  

We found that in twelve out of the last thirteen years, several Chancellors have invoked the same bogus "emergency" with the same boilerplate language -- without detailing what actual emergency existed.  Here is a press release with more detail and quotes from the plaintiffs; and here are the legal documents.

Even earlier in the day, there was a rally to protest the rally in front of Tweed, organized by the Progressive Caucus of the NYC Council, where many parents, advocates and Council Members spoke about the havoc these cuts would cause to schools and students' lives. 

Among the speakers were CM Alexa Aviles, who voted against the budget, as well as five CMs who had voted to approve the budget:  CM Shahana Hanif, Lincoln Restler, Jennifer Guttierez, Shekar Krishnan and Carmen de la Rosa all apologized for their votes, and promised that going forward, they would not approve any more budget cuts to schools.  They also said they were demanding action by the Mayor by August 1 to restore the cuts.  

In the afternoon, a bunch of parents including Reyhan Mehran buttonholed the Mayor outside an event in Brooklyn, where the mayor called the cuts a "rumor."  

They later met with the Mayor at City Hall,  where he was surrounded by a bunch of aides. After they described the awful effect these cuts would have on their schools and the system as a whole, the Mayor apparently said he couldn't say much about the issue because of the lawsuit, but that they had no idea how hard he works to benefit NYC children and how hard these choices are.  

Reyhan responded with, "Just don't make these choices then.  Restore the cuts now." 

A video is below of this morning's rally, with speeches from the Council Members as well as parents and advocates.

Rally to Restore the Budget Cuts - 7.18.2022 from Class Size Matters on Vimeo.

How our loss in court today ironically provided evidence of how shallow de Blasio's education policies have been

Today at the NY Supreme Court, a hearing was held on our lawsuit vs the redactions of 2015 City Hall decision memo which discussed and memorialized the decision of the Mayor and his top aides to reject several recommendations of the Blue Book working group on how to revamp the school capacity formula.  In particular, the Mayor rejected the group's proposal to align the formula with smaller classes -- which would be important if he or any subsequent mayor decided to significantly reduce class size as de Blasio had in fact promised to do when he first ran for Mayor.

On April 10, 2016, I submitted a Freedom of Information request for the decision memo from the Mayor's office about their decision to accept or reject the thirteen recommendations of the Blue Book Working group . This working group, appointed by the Chancellor and co-chaired by Lorraine Grillo, the head of the School Construction Authority and then-CEC 2 President Shino Tanikawa, made several recommendions in December 2014, including that the DOE should align the school capacity formula to the smaller class sizes in their original Contract for Excellence class size reduction plan

The City sat on these recommendations for more than six months, and finally in July 2015, in the middle of summer, announced that they would accept seven of the 13 but reject six others, including what several members said was the most important one: the one related to the goal of reducing class size.  There were several articles about this rejection, including in Chalkbeat and WNYC Schoolbook , DNAinfo, and on my blog here  and here.

It took more than two years after I had FOILed it, but in August 2017 I finally received the decision memo - 8 pages long and almost completely redacted.  See below. Interestingly, it was signed by all the Mayor's top staff except for the DOE Chancellor Farina or the President of the School Construction Authority Lorraine Grillo.

Because it was the middle of summer I missed the statute of limitations for an appeal, but at my request, fellow Kids PAC member Brooke Parker FOILed the memo as well.  When she received the same document with the same eight pages of redactions, she then appealed the redactions to the Corporation Counsel without success.  Finally, she filed an appeal in court, on July 17, 2018, with the help of Laura Barbieri of Advocates for Justice.

Generally speaking, inter-agency materials are exempt from FOIL; but according to the NY Public Officers Law they are FOILable if they  reflect a "final agency policy or determination" as this memo did; or include "statistical or factual tabulations or data."  I imagined that in eight pages of discussion of issues as technical as school capacity, utilization, class size, how many cluster rooms to allot to each school, etc. that at least one or two facts must have been mentioned.

This afternoon in court, after a brief discussion during which Laura explained  what the Blue Book was, and why the decision to reject the proposal to align the school capacity formula with smaller classes was a matter of importance and public interest, Judge Arthur Engeron of the State Supreme Court heard from the City's attorney who argued that this document was not a "final agency determination" but a "predecisional memo"  because the Mayor could have rejected the decisions within it - even though the Mayor did not.  He also claimed that there were no facts or data cited in the eight pages of discussion that were blacked out.

The Judge then asked for a copy of the unredacted memo and went back in his private office with his law clerk and intern to peruse it.  When he came out about a half hour later, he said he would reject our claim, because the memo did not necessarily reflect a "final agency policy or determination" but simply the advice of his top staff.  Moreover, he reported that there were no facts or data included in the memo's eight pages, but only opinions related to politics and discussion of how the public would react to these decisions.

This was quite astonishing and in my mind, an indictment in itself.  Even as the state's highest court ruled that NYC students' constitutional rights depended on a sound basic education which in turn, would depend upon smaller classes, and even as one would assume decisions on a school capacity formula would rely on analysis of data, the Mayor's staff did not even mention any facts or figures in their deliberations, but merely political considerations.

This is further evidence of just how empty of substance many of the education policies of this administration have been and should give potential supporters of de Blasio's Presidential campaign pause.

Yaffed files suit against Governor Cuomo, Commissioner Elia and Board of Regents for violating US constitution when it comes to ultra-Orthodox schools

Below is one of the most substantive, alarming  press releases I have ever read, announcing a lawsuit launched today vs the Governor, Commissioner Elia and the Board of Regents, from the Yaffed website here.  There is also an AP article about the lawsuit.

I found this statistic  in the press release especially alarming.  Because of the Hassidic community's high birth rate, "it is projected that by 2030, between 8% and 13% of school-age children in New York City, and between 23% and 37% of school-age children in Brooklyn, will be Hasidic, meaning without action, even more students are on track to being denied a sound, basic education."

See also the YouTube video featuring disillusioned alumni of the Hassidic Yeshivas, as well as Diane Ravitch, Ruth Messenger, and me, about the Mayor's unconscionable delay in investigating and regulating these substandard schools.

YAFFED Files Federal Lawsuit Against New York Governor, NYS Education Commissioner, Board of Regents Chancellor Alleging Unconstitutional “Felder Amendment” Denies Yeshiva Students Right to Basic Education

 

Hundreds of Millions of Taxpayer Dollars Support Schools that “Graduate” Students with Few Skills; Poverty Rates and Public Assistance Sky High

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(New York, NY) – Today, Young Advocates for Fair Education (YAFFED), a nonprofit committed to improving educational curricula within ultra-Orthodox schools, filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, the New York State Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia, and N.Y. Board of Regents Chancellor Betty Rosa.  YAFFED is represented by lawyers from the law firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP as pro-bono counsel.

The suit alleges that on April 12, 2018, when Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law a budget that included an amendment to New York Education Law, Section 3204, section 2, known as the “Felder Amendment”, New York created a carve-out to the statutory requirement of substantial equivalent instruction in non-public schools that applies to and is intended to benefit only certain ultra-Orthodox non-public schools. In doing so, New York violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The amendment to Section 3204 is the brainchild of State Senator Simcha Felder and ultra-Orthodox community leaders who oppose state oversight of yeshivas.  Senator Felder attracted much attention in late March when he single-handedly held the 2018 state budget negotiations hostage, demanding the Education Law be changed to inoculate ultra-Orthodox Jewish non-public schools from oversight before agreeing to pass the budget.

"All across America, special interest groups and individuals seek to chip away at a child’s access and right to a comprehensive education. Nowhere have they been more successful than right here in New York, where many yeshivas have gotten away with providing no secular education at all, or at best a very limited one, to tens of thousands of children. This sub-standard secular education was codified into law with Senator Felder’s amendment." said Naftuli Moster, YAFFED‘s Founder and Executive Director.

As of June 2018, there were 273 Orthodox yeshivas registered with the state; 211 of these yeshivas are located in Kings County.  In 2013-14, there were over 52,000 students enrolled in 83 Hasidic schools in New York City, concentrated in the neighborhoods of Borough Park, Williamsburg, Crown Heights (all in Brooklyn). An additional 26,446 students were enrolled in Hasidic schools in places such as Monsey, New Square, and Kiryas Joel. Oversight of these schools by education officials in New York was already non-existent, resulting in many schools flouting state laws.  It is projected that by 2030, between 8% and 13% of school-age children in New York City, and between 23% and 37% of school-age children in Brooklyn, will be Hasidic, meaning without action, even more students are on track to being denied a sound, basic education.

“The Felder Amendment tailors State oversight for a small subset of schools based on their religious affiliation, in a clear violation of the U.S. Constitution.  There is no secular legislative purpose for the Felder Amendment, which is seen by the ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious sects as an endorsement of their religious choice regarding education.” said Eric Huang, lead counsel for YAFFED.

Even though the new amendment creates a carve-out that relieves ultra-Orthodox yeshivas from following the rigorous standards set in state education laws for all other non-public schools, these yeshivas continue to benefit from hundreds of millions of tax-payer dollars annually.  Federal money flows to yeshivas through programs such as Title I, II, and III; Head Start and child care contracts; the E-rate telecommunications program; and food programs. For example, non-public schools in the largely Hasidic neighborhood of East Ramapo received approximately $835 per student in federal Title funding in 2016-17. In addition, state and city funding is provided to yeshivas through Academic Intervention Services (AIS), Nonpublic School Safety Equipment (NPSE), Mandated Services Aid (MSA), the Comprehensive Attendance Program (CAP), EarlyLearn, Universal Pre-K, child care vouchers, and New York City Council discretionary funds.

It is a well-established fact, going back decades, that most Hasidic boys’ yeshivas, some Hasidic girls’ schools as well as non-Hasidic, ultra-Orthodox boys’ schools fail to provide a basic education to their students. Leaders in the ultra-Orthodox community often boast about the fact that many yeshivas focus on only providing students with a religious education, particularly for boys who are all expected to become rabbis.  Few yeshivas administer state tests, including Regents exams, and most yeshivas do not award “graduates” a diploma, making post-secondary education nearly impossible.

The “Education Clause” in Article XI, section 1 of the New York State Constitution ensures the availability of a “sound basic education” to all children in the State and creates the right to adequate instruction along with all the resources that such instruction requires. For public schools, the curriculum for grades one through eight must include instruction in the subject areas of arithmetic, reading, spelling, writing, the English language, geography, United States history, civics, hygiene, physical training, the history of New York State, and science. In high school, academic instruction must include instruction in the English language and its use, civics, hygiene, physical training, American history including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.  Many yeshivas fail to provide any instruction comparable to instruction in these subject areas.
At many ultra-Orthodox yeshivas, the language of instruction is almost exclusively Yiddish. From ages 7 to 12 many Hasidic boys receive instruction in basic English reading, writing, and arithmetic for only 90 minutes a day, four days a week.

Male students over the age of 13 often spend 12 hours a day receiving instruction only in Judaic studies with no secular instruction.

In a recent survey conducted by YAFFED, of 116 yeshiva graduates and parents of current students, not a single respondent said that their school provided instruction in every subject required by the state.  In elementary schools, 65% of those who attended Hasidic yeshivas reported having received some education in English reading, 61% in English writing, and 65% in arithmetic.  Less than a quarter (24%) reported learning U.S. History, and only 2% learned New York history.  Only 8% of Hasidic boys in the survey received instruction in science, and 10% were taught geography.  None recalled any education in art or music.  Of the respondents who attended elementary-level Hasidic yeshivas for boys in New York City, 27% said they received no secular education at all in elementary school. At the high school level, 75% of respondents said they received no secular education at all, and for the 25% who did, it was typically optional and often discouraged. Only 14% of respondents said they learned English; 7% in mathematics; 18% in science; and 9% in social studies.  None had art or music classes.

Not surprisingly, Hasidic families are at high-risk for poverty and reliance upon government assistance.  Approximately 45% of Hasidic households in New York are poor and another 18% are near poor.  In the largely Hasidic area of Williamsburg, the median household income is $21,502, compared to the Brooklyn median of $46,958 and the city median of $52,737. Hasidic communities in Brooklyn have a greater percentage of families receiving cash assistance, food stamps, public health care coverage, and Section 8 housing vouchers, as compared to Brooklyn and New York City as a whole.  For example, 33.8% of Borough Park residents utilize Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food stamps; in Williamsburg, the number is an astounding 51.8%. The Brooklyn total is 23.8%, while 20.4% of all New York City residents receive SNAP food stamps.

The percentage of people in a heavily Hasidic district of Brooklyn utilizing public income support such as cash assistance (TANF), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Medicaid has increased dramatically in the last decade as the population grew rapidly without improvements in education.  In Borough Park, 63.1% of the civilian non-institutionalized population receives public health care coverage, compared to 42.7% of all Brooklyn residents and 39.5% in New York City as a whole. In Williamsburg, the proportion of residents receiving public health coverage is 76.6%.

The ultra-Orthodox Satmar Hasidic town of Kiryas Joel was named the poorest town in the country in 2011, with 70 percent of the village’s 21,000 residents living in households whose income fell below the federal poverty threshold. And in 2018, the largely ultra-Orthodox town of New Square was found to be the poorest town in New York State.

“New York’s tens-of-thousands of yeshiva students deserve better – they deserve, like all students, the right to develop the skills that will enable them to lead independent, financially secure lives. With this lawsuit, we’re making it clear: Hasidic children have the right to the education that is constitutionally guaranteed to them by the state of New York.” concluded Moster.

About YAFFED
YAFFED is an advocacy group committed to improving educational curricula within ultra-Orthodox schools. We fervently believe that every child is entitled to a fair and equitable education that is in compliance with the law. Our work involves raising awareness about the importance of general studies education, and encouraging elected officials, Department of Education officials and the leadership of the ultra-Orthodox world to act responsibly in preparing their youth for economic sufficiency and for broad access to the resources of the modern world.

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