Two NYC yeshivas lose funding over failure to meet basic education requirements

The New York State Education Department wrote in English and Yiddish to two Chassidic schools in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, on Feb.11, notifying them that they will no longer receive public funding and directing the schools to tell parents that the institution “is no longer deemed a school, which provides compulsory education fulfilling the requirements of Article 65 of the Education Law.”According to section 3204 of state law, “instruction given to a minor elsewhere than at a public school shall be at least substantially equivalent to the instruction given to minors of like age and attainments at the public schools of the city or district where the minor resides,” the state told Yeshiva Bnei Shimon Yisroel and Talmud Torah of Kasho.“Despite multiple attempts and ample opportunities” to respond to the state, each school “failed to demonstrate that it meets the minimum requirements,” per the state’s letter.It directed parents to enroll their children “in a different, appropriate educational setting that provides substantially equivalent instruction as required by Education Law 3204.”Parents have to do so “by July 1, 2025, in time for the 2025-26 school year and notify the New York City Department of Education of such new enrollment,” the state added, noting that children could enroll in a different religious or independent school that meets legal requirements, home-schooling or a public school.As of June 30, 2025, “services and funding” to the schools in question “and any enrolled student, including but not limited to child nutrition program funds, transportation and textbooks will be discontinued,” the state wrote.

(JNS sought comment from the New York City mayor and the New York governor.)Moshe Krakowski, professor and director of doctoral studies at Yeshiva University’s Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, studies Chassidic education in New York.He told JNS that there is little evi...